Coming of Age Films—Diary of a Teenage Girl

Pretty much nobody went to see this film. And yet, it was applauded almost universally by critics, it was nominated for numerous awards, and won some. Important awards—like the Grand Prix at the Berlin Film Festival. Critically, it was a huge success.

Could it have been just a bit before its time? I wonder.

Of course, it made almost nothing because no one went to see it. But luckily, because of streaming services it’s being rediscovered a bit.

Diary of a Teenage Girl [2015], by Marielle Heller, focuses on that moment in the life of a teenage girl when she feels she’s become a woman. Why does she feel she’s become a woman when she’s still a teenager? Because she had sex. And she’s actually too young to realize that having sex doesn’t immediately let you into womanhood—and that mindset leads to problems for her.

Take a look at the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9HwxElbKcM

The first thing you probably noticed was that the whole thing is voiceover. And this film is ALL voiceover. You hear the main character’s thoughts and feelings all the time. I have to wonder if, in the end, that’s one of its downfalls. While it might work really well in a novel, that first person narrative sometimes [certainly not always] doesn’t work as well for cinema audiences. And I think that’s true especially in these days of blockbusters and action films—some voiceover is OK, but too much becomes a bit boring for the average moviegoer. Sorry that’s the case, but I think it’s just a reality that we writers have to deal with.

Voiceover is commonly considered a crutch in the industry. Executives think that you had to “resort” to voiceover to tell your story because you couldn’t tell it within a dramatic structure. So they think less of you as a writer.

Now, once you’re a really important writer, you can use all the voiceover you want. But there’s still a bit of a stigma there. You need to be absolutely sure you can’t tell the story without it before you ‘resort’ to it.

One time in my career I used voiceover. And a screenwriter, who was also a client of my then agent, a writer who also taught at UCLA, told my agent it was the best example of voiceover he’d ever seen. I used it because it FIT—both the main character and the noir-ish time period. But when a director became attached—a really good director—he said the first rewrite he’d want was for me to take out the voiceover. Why? And I still remember his exact words: “It’s like you’re telling me where to put my camera.”

So there you go. Another reason against voiceovers: directors don’t want you directing them.

A good exercise: watch The Diary of a Teenage Girl and imagine how you’d write it without voiceover. It would be hard, wouldn’t it? It always is. Voiceover is easy—you just tell the story instead of showing us the story. And as film is a visual medium, showing is almost always better than telling. At least until you’re so famous you can do what you want!

Copyright © Diane Lake

31Oct21

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