Also, Liz–the “Mark Twain of extemporaneous jerk-off fiction” line doesn’t do anything for me, like most of the humor in Juno. It’s an easy joke that’s pretty much a cliché–“I was the (some well-known figure) of (some area of expertise/subject/profession that, when contrasted with the well-known figure, sounds amusing, ironic and/or hyperbolic)!!” It’s not a terrible joke, again, shows some promise, but it’s nothing I haven’t heard before.

The line also reinforces what I (and I think Mr. Goon will agree with me) see as her overreaching attempts to highlight her former career as a sex worker, which, as I pointed out earlier, are overplayed at this point. Girl needs to just stick to writing. She does, perhaps unfairly, have a lot to prove, and I’m not on either side of the fence on whether she can do it. But she needs to just write and not keep throwing this stripper/sex worker thing in our face.

Troy Duffy was way luckier. Mind you, he threw it all away, but his circumstance was luckier if you ask me.

Listen, I don’t care that she was a stripper and in fact I don’t really know much about her background at all. I’ve never really read her blog or any interviews, at least that I can remember. All I know is that Juno was hyped up to be the best thing ever, and I found it to be incredibly phony and unfunny. It goes beyond Cody, too. I felt Ellen Page as well was overrated, unfunny and has a stock overly smart character she plays that I just can’t get into. She has the ‘ironic detachment’ thing going on that I find a lot of Canadian actors suffer from.

As for what Cody wrote here, well going out of her way to namedrop say, the Black Kids backlash, kind of fits in a lot with what I see as a desperate attempt to level with the cool kids table, an “I’m one of you” populism that personally strikes me as just as phony as her beloved screenplay. if Cody has any talent, based on what I’ve read and seen its in convincing others she’s a gal of the people. Kevin Smith pulls a similar schtick with mixed results for me, but with Cody at this point in time I’m not buying it at all.

I couldn’t care less that she’s been lucky. As much as I like seeing people who I don’t like getting taken down a peg or two, yes, she’s no Paul W.S. Anderson or Uwe Boll, there’s a whole lot worse than her out there making a living they don’t really deserve. But I don’t think that excuses her from anything either. If I don’t like whatever new action movie comes out the movie doesn’t get a free pass simply because its not as bad as “The Core”.

I dont hate cody either…I didnt care for juno, didnt hate it or anything, but I thought it was a crime that Juno was in running for best picture when 3:10 to YUMA easily deserved its place.

Diablo Cody’s film fest at the New Beverly cinema had an awsome line up…if anything she has great taste.

A lot of people are though…and the reason is one I find so easy to understand I ALMOST cannot blame them. I think this post may reach a record length for a Film Junkie but bear with me.

How does someone become a successful filmmaker?

I asked John Waters and Morgan Spurlock a similar question when I went to their Q&A events and their answers were mildly different but the idea behind what they said was exactly the same: You have to knock on Hollywood’s door and kick it down; because they are never going to knock on yours. This is the most obvious reason I feel that people hate Diablo Cody so unabashedly: Mr. Hollywood rapped on her door bearing housewarming gifts…and she wasn’t even in his neighborhood.

It’s simple human nature: People hate it when others get lucky; especially when from that luck they springboard gracefully into success. Thus people hate Cody because she may be the luckiest person who ever entered the “behind the scenes” part of the industry.

It kills people’s souls that the discovery of her talent and subsequent media saturation is all centered around the cheapest and easiest way to attract attention to one’s self: SEX. I trust this expands upon every other hater’s irritation that she was discovered through a blogspot (wtf!) called the Pussy Ranch. She hadn’t even written a book yet! She got a book deal through Mason Novick after his lust had subsided. It didn’t stop after the publishing and she was coaxed into writing a screenplay (as the story is told). Other writers weren’t hired to write an adaptation of that memoir nor was she assigned to it: She just got a chance to write a script about whatever the fuck she wanted. HER FIRST ATTEMPT AT A SCREENPLAY (according to an interview of her I saw) EVER! And it got made! Adding insult to injury we can only assume all of this opportunity was incited by an executive’s blood engorged cock. I can only imagine that this is Sparta.

The fact that she wasn’t in Hollywood trying to sell scripts or writing books of her own impetus only adds to the madness. A countless number of people (some small amount with actual proven talent in some area of the film industry) are busting their balls and stretching their vaginas over a ruthless and competitive profession while for all we know Diablo Cody only merely dreamed of trying. This kills me above all other things. This is the thing that almost turned me into a hater.

I have YouTube page. While the stuff there lacks professional production value (shot on MiniDV in 30p with only the shit on-board mic) I don’t think it shows anything about my work more than that my vision I have a vision (and no money to see it through to it’s fullest). I’ve done local commercials and placed on or near the top in a variety of contests. I’ve wanted to make films since I was twelve and have actually made them since before that. The biggest agencies in the business have granted other youtubers representation over mildly competent covers of Justin Timberlake songs with new humorous lyrics that don’t even show that they can even conceive of more original content…but at least it was in the realm of filmmaking. Jay Cheel has work of a professional sheen (and promising talent) in The Goblin Man of Norway (and if he plays his cards right will be a feature filmmaker) and he is just one of many whose work is on a pro level of a pro quality that can’t kick down Mr. Hollywood’s steel door. Meanwhile, Diablo Cody has a blog about vagina with practically no relation to the industry and the Mr. Hollywood not only knocks down her door but he buys her a house in their neighborhood a million light years away. Around the world a million wannabe, amateur, and professional filmmakers moan.

The thing that keeps me from being a Diablo Cody hater is simple…she has TALENT. Some agree some don’t (and I believe some don’t because they can’t get over all of the stuff I said before and project all that frustration onto her work). Sure she was given an unprecedented opportunity but she didn’t shit on it. Her work so far (and I have only seen Juno and not read a word from the memoir) is original and entertaining. More so than a lot of other things. Did she deserve all the awards it brought her? Maybe and maybe not. The point is that she is not Paul W.S. Anderson constantly getting work after only repetitively saturating the industry with forgettable shit and ruining beloved franchises. She only did one movie we’ve seen so far and for all I see the dialogue is the strongest aspect in bringing it to the critical success it has gained. The concept for Jennifer’s Body is sounds like something I would come up with! Even what she just wrote in her blog was a nice little piece with far more of the oh so important brevity and illustrated a point with far more relevance and attention to style than this one (keep in mind I’m best as a director though.) Any filmmaker who makes good work is helping the industry so theoretically we all benefit from her massive success.

So sure people can hate on Diablo Cody all they want…but they need to understand that the real target of their hatred should be the persistently unfair nature of human life. They need to take it up with God or whatever the fuck they believe in.

I’m going to modify and clarify this passage on my blog for the fun of it when I get the chance (and with some ridiculous fantasy that it only expands my chances of unparalleled “luck”). The internet haters (who probably lack the talent part of the Luck Equation of the Industry) can go stew in their “Writer’s Block” (read: void of creativity and skill) while I save my “rants” for those that I feel actually deserve it.

People always hate people with big egos. But, dammit, it’s hard to be humble when you know you’re hot sh*t. It’s also more fun to be outspoken. Most people think it’s better to keep quiet, endure the insults, and hold back feelings of retribution. But it makes for a boring life!

I’m on Diablo’s side, and in her corner.