Review of The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015) by Amanda C — 24 Nov 2015

Adolescence, particularly female adolescence, has rarely been given such a unflinching portrayal as it is in Diary of a Teenaged Girl. It has all the angst and the pressure that comes with trying to find your way in the world of adulthood, which is all the more when you are changing from a girl to a woman.

Director Merielle Heller gets it, probably because she once was a young woman, but she's helped by pitch perfect casting, mainly the performance of Bel Powley who is completely fearless and dives in head first.

Given the subject matter, this could have been a very difficult and depressing film. Instead, it feels like women are finally getting some validation as human beings on screen and that in itself is incredibly uplifting.