The Diary of a Teenage Girl, which is based on an autobiographical graphic novel of the same name by Phoebe Gloeckner, had its widest release, 69 theaters, this weekend and made a total of $180,000. (Sony Pictures bought the film at this year's Sundance Film Festival for $2 million.) The question on my mind is: Why did an indie film that received generally positive reviews, and has a pretty big star, Kristen Wiig, perform so badly at the box office (and by badly, I mean for a high-caliber indie film)? The answer, I suspect, is to be found in timing.
Teenage Girl is about a 15-year-old girl, Minnie (Bel Powley), who has a sexual relationship with her mother's 35-year-old boyfriend, Monroe (Alexander SkarsgÄrd). Though the story is told from Minnie's perspective, and so interprets the experience as her sexual awakening, it's nearly impossible for most people to find any sympathy for the adult Monroe. He is simply a criminal. He is just like that guy who was in the news last week. The one who used to promote Subway's sandwiches, Jared Fogle. On Friday, CNN reported Fogle "will plead guilty to child pornography charges and to crossing state lines to pay for sex with minors." Fogle has agreed to be registered as a sex offender, undergo treatments to cure him of criminal desires, and pay money to the minors he raped.
Fogle's fall was a big story at the very time Teenage Girl went into its widest release. I think the film's poor performance at the box office (an average of only $2,609 a screen) is not unconnected to the ugly press surrounding this former Subway man. After reading about the horrible things he is reported to have done to girls, how could one watch a film that did not outright condemn the pedophile at the center of its plot?
It's fine for a minor to sexually desire an adult (that is a part of growing up), but it is wrong for an adult to engage with those desires. The adult must say no. Teenage Girl should have ended with Monroe's arrest at sunset. He is handcuffed and shoved into the backseat of a police car. Roll credits.
