The Brilliance of Diablo Cody

When I first saw Juno, I thought it was brilliant. After a second viewing, I still stand by that I like the film, but feel it is more flawed than I thought it was the first time. After the first viewing, I said to Miss Hanks, my professional writing teacher and self proclaimed screenwriter, that I thought it was the screenplay of the year. She however, quickly quipped that it was overly quirky to the point of sickness. On second viewing, I started agreeing. The hamburger phone line was groan worthy. Superstar by Sonic Youth is one of the worst songs I've ever heard. And the line "It all ended with a chair" throws me into a frenzy since it doesn't make any goddamn sense. It's a hopeless attempt to make the story seem circular. It didn't end with a chair! All you did was show the still of a chair, then a cut to the baby with Jennifer Garner. It ended with an OCD wannabe mother getting what she wanted, kinda, and two quirky teens falling in love. And jocks don't secretly like the goth girls, that was just your crazy dream to give hope to all of your fellow goth girls.

But, all that aside, Juno had some great lines and moments, which makes it one of my favorite movies of all time. If it was her plan to get guys to like Jason Bateman and girls to like Jennifer Garner, that was well done, if not, whatever, it works. But this movie may be nothing compared to her new movie.

Jennifer's Body is a perfect movie. It may not win any awards. It may get universally panned by critics. But it will do one thing. Make huge amounts of money. Jennifer's Body will most likely get 3 major movie markets all in one movie. Horror addicts (who have to see EVERY horror movie, no matter how many WWE stars it has in it), the quirky movie lover (both the good ones who love Donnie Darko, and the bad ones that love Across the Universe), and anyone who wants to see Megan Fox in anything where she's having sex. That should bring in at least 200 million, adjusting for pirates and people sneaking in, the movie should make about 30 million (okay, a bit of an exaggeration, but social commentary aside, probably 50-80 million, depending on reviews). This move was a brilliant one. Is there anything else right now people would want to see more? A Michael Jackson movie starring Heath Ledger? Christopher Walken doing standup? Neil Patrick Harris in anything? I digress. This movie is perfect, timewise, cast wise (well, Fox-wise), and socially. And I'm not even a huge Megan Fox fan, though the car scene in Transformers I agree was legendary, and the poster may become as big as Farrah Fawcett's in the 70s. Overall, I'm seeing this movie. I just hope it doesn't suck.

Now Diablo Cody might have Quentin Tarantino syndrome (I'll put clever lines in there cause I'm cool and don't give a shit if they make sense or are relevant, I'm just that pretentious. Side note: Kevin Smith is getting there, but he still manages to make them relevant to conversations, and they don't seem planted.), but if she keeps me laughing, I won't care, since this movie obviously shouldn't be taken seriously. If it takes a Shaun of the Dead-esque tone, it'll be fantastic, since I'm not totally convinced by the trailers that they're gonna make it in traditional horror movie style. If they do, it may suffer. If they make it more Scream like, it could still be watchable. Regardless, in this capitalist society, it will succeed in making money, which is the most important figure for most in this business.