Marielle Heller
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Connections, in both directions
Last year, Amy Adams starred in Nightbitch, another adaptation of a novel that looked at the pain associated with motherhood and postpartum depression.
…last year we saw Amy Adams howling at the moon as NIGHT BITCH…
Late last year, another literary adaptation of a struggling mother came and left theaters without much attention. Nightbitch used a body horror metaphor to depict the mental state of an unhappy woman (Amy Adams) as she confronted her unease over her identity.
…films like Tully and Nightbitch that occupy similar territory…
Die My Love is what you get if you make Nightbitch without worrying about being approachable.
…with an emerging canon presenting a more clear-eyed portrait of women buckling under domestic stress – in last year’s Nightbitch, this fall’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, and now Lynne Ramsay’s hallucinatory picture of postpartum depression, Die My Love.
That fits its origins as a graphic novel, and as girl-centric adaptations go, this is right up there with Ghost World and We Are the Best! (from Sweden’s Lukas and Coco Moodysson).
Like Ghost World and Persepolis before it, The Diary of a Teenage Girl’s grace in transitioning mediums is second only to its wisdom in transcending experiences.
American Splendor (2003)
Directed by Shari Springer Berman
influenced The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)
Visuals
It may sound reductive to describe The Diary of the Teenage Girl as the American Splendor of the high-school set, but the comparison is meant to be complimentary.
With a slight nod to "American Splendor" (noted cartoonist Aline Kominsky is part of a minor storyline), Heller uses animation in Cloeckner's own style to highlight Minnie's emotions and imagination.
Murmur of the Heart (1971)
Directed by Louis Malle
influenced The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)
Characters
He’s an unpremeditated predator, a spiritual cousin of the mother who deflowers her 14-year-old son in “Murmur of the Heart.”
Wish You Were Here (1987)
Directed by David Leland
influenced The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)
Themes
If we get the odd movie about teenage girls and older men, they tend to be civilized, restrained affairs, often from England, such as "An Education" (2009) or, a generation back, "Wish You Were Here" (1987).
Minnie is an aspiring cartoonist, and the film occasionally presents her thoughts as little surreal, animated reveries; even these hark back to similarly offbeat films like What If and Look Both Ways.
An Education (2009)
Directed by Lone Scherfig
influenced The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)
Themes Plot
Nonpornographic films that showcase teenage girls’ sexual desires are few; among them are the recent An Education, as well as Smooth Talk and Thirteen.
To the filmmaker’s great credit, “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” goes where “ Lolita ,” “ Smooth Talk ,” “ Thirteen ” and “ An Education ” have gone before — just to name a few — and claims it as new territory.
If we get the odd movie about teenage girls and older men, they tend to be civilized, restrained affairs, often from England, such as "An Education" (2009) or, a generation back, "Wish You Were Here" (1987).
"Diary" is not the first thoughtful, challenging movie about sex between a young woman and a much older man -- "An Education" and "Smooth Talk" are worth seeking out -- but what sets it apart is artistry, how Minnie's desire to be an artist drives her and how that drives how the movie is made.
We’ve seen this "way-too-young girl with an older man" scenario many times before, in Lone Scherfig’s An Education, Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, and countless other films.
Fish Tank (2009)
Directed by Andrea Arnold
influenced The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)
Themes Plot
Other movies with similar subject matter (like Andrea Arnold’s wonderful Fish Tank ) build to this kind of encounter with slow, dread-inducing inevitability; in Diary, it happens with surprising speed and directness.
We’ve seen this "way-too-young girl with an older man" scenario many times before, in Lone Scherfig’s An Education, Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, and countless other films.
(Besides American Splendor, another companion film would be Andrea Arnold's blistering 2009 drama Fish Tank, which also involves a teenage girl entering into an affair with her mom's much older boyfriend.)
Summer of '42 (1971)
Directed by Robert Mulligan
influenced The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)
Themes
In most respects, Minnie’s coming-of-age tale is conventional…for a male protagonist (stretching back to the gauzier nostalgia of a Summer of ’42); it’s high time to explore the flip side.
The Welsh actor is best known as one of the leads on the acclaimed TV series The Americans , but whatever he might bring to that and his other work (of which I’ve only seen his supporting turn as Daniel Ellsberg in Steven Spielberg’s The Post , also with Hanks), remains missing here.
Rhys (from The Americans) gives his best movie performance to date, following small but memorable parts in The Post (where he played Daniel Ellsberg) and The Report.
And the Welsh actor, known for playing Philip Jennings in The Americans and Daniel Ellsberg in The Post, is up to the task, holding his own with Hanks.
Thirteen (2003)
Directed by Catherine Hardwicke
influenced The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)
Themes
In particular “Thirteen,” written by its star Nikki Reed when she was 13 and brought to the screen with keen fidelity to the teenage experiences of many girls by Catherine Hardwicke, and “Ghost World,” Terry Zwigoff’s scathingly funny account of two female high-school “outsiders.”
Recently, Kelly Fremon Craig’s “The Edge of Seventeen,” Marielle Heller’s “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” and Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird” have pushed movies about teens in enthralling new directions, delving deeper into parenthood, friendship and the pains of coming-of-age with indelible female protagonists who exist well outside of the genre’s prescribed archetypes.
Wilde’s directorial debut joins other recent pictures—like Marielle Heller’s 2015 The Diary of a Teenage Girl and Bo Burnham’s 2018 Eighth Grade —that explore universal teenage experiences even as they acknowledge that not all teenage girls are the same.
As Good as It Gets (1997)
Directed by James L. Brooks
influenced A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)
Themes
Cintas como Forrest Gump de Zemeckis, As Good as it Gets de James L. Brooks, o las terriblemente cuestionables The Pursuit of Happyness de Gabriele Muccino y The Help de Tate Taylor no muestran solamente al mundo como un lugar hermoso.
Last year’s was The Edge of Seventeen; 2015’s was The Diary of a Teenage Girl.
There have been several very strong female-led stories of adolescence in recent years — The Edge of Seventeen and The Diary of a Teenage Girl among them.
Joining the ranks of The Diary of a Teenage Girl and The Edge of Seventeen as a refreshing woman-centered coming-of-age film (and offering more depth than either), Lady Bird captures a recent era with precision and a hint of nostalgia that’s not distracting: Clunky flip phones and “Cry Me a River” blend right in.
I have always admired Skarsgård, especially in underrated films like "The East" and "What Maisie Knew".
Her single, hard partying mother Charlotte (Kristen Wiig) has a loose parenting style and a good looking boyfriend, Monroe (Alexander Skarsgård, "The East").
Observe and Report (2009)
Directed by Jody Hill
influenced The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)
Themes
When 2009's "Observe and Report" came out, a controversy ensued about one scene where Seth Rogen's character has sex with Anna Faris , who is so wasted she is clearly unable to consent.
The Runaways (2010)
Directed by Floria Sigismondi
influenced The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)
Themes
(Floria Sigismondi’s The Runaways attempted this edgy, period-blood-spotted, ’70s girl-power movie but didn’t pull it off.)
I have always admired Skarsgård, especially in underrated films like "The East" and "What Maisie Knew".
The Kids Are All Right (2010)
Directed by Lisa Cholodenko
influenced The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)
Unwilling to let go, she kept running with it and nurtured the film project at Sundance Labs, with help from filmmakers Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right) and Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said).
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
Directed by Gabriele Muccino
influenced A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)
Themes
Cintas como Forrest Gump de Zemeckis, As Good as it Gets de James L. Brooks, o las terriblemente cuestionables The Pursuit of Happyness de Gabriele Muccino y The Help de Tate Taylor no muestran solamente al mundo como un lugar hermoso.