Hopefully, This Will Be The Last Thing You Will Read About Diablo Cody
I'll bet Tamara Jenkins feels dumb. The Oscar-nominated screenwriter responsible for The Savages must feel like she wasted all that time learning how to write, when she could've been stripping.
That goes for Sarah Polley, and Nancy Oliver as well; the two other women nominated for Best Original Screenplay this year. In fact, all the feminist hoopla over the record number of women nominated in that category at this year's Academy Awards has since amassed into a low, Janis Ian-like roar in praise of the Bettie Page-banged hipster who brought home the trophy. The new face of feminism is apparently, Diablo Cody, who wrote 2007's breakout indie comedy, Juno. And in case you haven't heard, she used to be a stripper.
In truth, I don't really care what Cody did to pay her rent before she became Hollywood's punk rock friend-with-benefits. Vanessa Williams lost her Miss America crown because she posed nude, and her dethroning worked out in her favor. And if I have pornography to thank for Traci Lords's genius comic sneer-turn in Cry-Baby, just let me know where to send the Thank You note. But Cody's Oscar win is not only without merit, in my opinion, but also the result of a marketing campaign that fed on a culture that can't resist a chance to gawk at a topless lady.
Juno is not the worst film of the year, but its script is by no means Oscar-worthy. Its characters are painted with cartoonish broad strokes, the dialogue is packed with Kevin Smith-grade, cringeworthy slang, and the overall sentiment of the film is false and twee. To call it great is to give Cody the backhanded compliment that she's "funny, for a girl."
In the months preceding Juno's theatrical release, the press ate at the studio's marketing trough like starving sows. Even the Gray Lady couldn't resist the pitch: its cheeky screenwriter used to be a stripper. David Carr, in a profile of Cody titled Off The Stripper Pole & Into The Movies competes with Juno's dialogue for squirm-inducing turns of phrase.
"She may have once made a living letting [her hair] fall in the faces of her lap-dance clients," Carr drools. "But Ms. Cody has mastered the fan dancer's art of showing much and revealing little."
Still don't get that Diablo used to take her clothes off for money, but now she writes films?
Carr continues: "Ms. Cody... did not pretend that her life was anything other than a fairy tale, albeit one where the role of the glass slippers is played by a pair of stripper's stilettos."
In case you're still lacking for a sense of what Carr's trying to say, here's another way to put it.
"If you are a fan of the indie version of the human drama, it would be tough to top the one about the plucky Midwestern girl who used a stripper pole to shimmy her way up and out of a drab office cubicle and grab her piece of the Hollywood dream."
Get it? She was a stripper!
Whether or not Cody chose to strip because she found it empowering or kitschy, like the burlesque performers who don pasties at venues like Jumbo's Clown Room, is beside the point. I'm reminded of the Onion headline, Ironic Porn Purchase Leads To Non-Ironic Ejaculation. Which is to say that, whether you have dice tattooed on your calf or you've never heard of Camille Paglia, a stripper is still a stripper in our society. And even if a woman sees her choice to take off her clothes as an empowered, post-feminist decision, the sad reality is that society still defines women not by their actions or the reasons behind them, but by how they are perceived.
The studio jumped on this, making use of the maxim from Gypsy that, to promote yourself, "You Gotta Get a Gimmick." The Times was only one of many papers hot to trot on the angle that Juno's press agents pressed. Then, predictably, sex sold tickets to this otherwise sleeper-scale indie film about a sarcastic teenager who gets pregnant and decides to carry the baby to term.
That the slyly anti-abortion message of Juno isn't the main reason why its success is bad for women speaks volumes to the thickheadedness behind the media's glorification of Cody's sultry past, and Hollywood's subsequent notion that this film is the best thing that's happened to women since suffrage.
I know I'm not the first to point out how suggestible people in show business are, but news of this flick being a hot one spread like Hep-A on the West Coast, and it was all because of its marketing. Put the stripper-turned-screenwriter in the Times, get the soundtrack in Urban Outfitters, and litter the movie with so many eccentric props (Sunny-D! The Hamburger Phone! Orange Tic-Tacs! Juno's Pipe!), it'll make Napoleon Dynamite look like Lawrence of Arabia.
On the other hand, you have relatively unsung screenwriters like Polley, Oliver & Tamara Jenkins, who, in my opinion, wrote the best screenplay of the year for The Savages. Her film, which she also directed, told the story of two estranged siblings coping with the messy, awkward task of caring for a dying father, and Jenkins's script brims with specificity, surprising humor and unsentimental warmth. By no means just a "woman's movie," The Savages tapped the frailties and comic-tragic foibles that dapple the process of growing up.
Sadly, the marketers of Juno exploited a society that continues to hold its female writers and artists to a lower standard. They knew that our collective prurient imagination would be drawn to a sizzling pitch, and that the legend of the harlot-turned-scribe was sensational enough to distract from Cody's ersatz screenplay. That Diablo Cody's success is championed as a victory for women, while Tamara Jenkins, a truly gifted screenwriter who happens to be female, goes unsung, is truly a shame. All Jenkins did was keep her clothes on and write a beautiful film.
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I long for a funny, touching, beautifully written film in which the heroine has an abortion and feels OK about it. Millions of women have done it. Why are we afraid to tackle this, on film?
there are about four threads for JUNO on huffpo alone. there are zero threads for all the ones where old white guys kill each other. beyond the death world of No Audience for Old White Men and the whole pseudo-biblical gulag of sin, blame, responsibility, duty, dues, lessons, morals, and- of course- death; lives an open loving world that celebrates fertility, security, children, renewal, acceptance and love. this is a world that must be opposed at every turn, resisted, and destroyed at all costs. these efforts are overwhelmingly successful. it happens every time an adult fascist turns play into sports- or pleasure into shame. but ms. klausner hardely detracts from the merriment. she affirms that an anti-JUNO snark anthology would be the read of the year.
I am pro-choice and I did get more than a little tired of the stripper angle, however, in regard to this line from your post -
"That the slyly anti-abortion message of Juno isn't the main reason why its success is bad for women speaks volumes to the thickheadedness behind the media's glorification of Cody's sultry past, and Hollywood's subsequent notion that this film is the best thing that's happened to women since suffrage."
There is nothing wrong with having an anti-abortion message in a movie - be it sly or otherwise. I have never met a woman for whom I had any respect who was pro-abortion. If a woman chooses to have a baby, I support her all the way. The idea of liberating women is defeated if you then put them in a prison of your design.
"Sour grapes make for sour whine."
--screenwriter David Gerrold
Look, I'm not thrilled that I can't get any traction on selling my screenplays despite having a bachelor's in creative writing where the guy who coauthored that Red Sox book with Stephen King was my major advisor and taking screenwriting courses at Harvard. Hell, I'm outright infuriated that the studios keep giving that foot-fetishing developmen
My advice to you, Ms. Klausner, would be to live life like Hemingway and Diablo did, rather than whine about her unconventional path to success.
Sarah Polley wasn't up for best original screenplay, it was best adapted screenplay based on a short story by Alice Munro. I agree that Diablo Cody's script (although good) wasn't oscar worthy and that her stripper past really has nothing to do with her writing so it shouldn't be an issue. However, if you are going to write a blog bashing someone's success, at least get your facts right.
I actually suffered through the Savages, but truly loved Lars and the Real Girl in all its quirkiness. Had I been an Academy voter, I would have cast my vote for Lars, but just betting the odds on the buzz, I had to vote for Juno to even get close to getting many of my predictions close to the eventual outcome!
I agree that the marketing should have focused on the script itself, but obviously the angle worked to generate a lot more buzz for Juno than otherwise.
I have the same reaction to Juno as I had to the Sixth Sense when that was all the rage. Never did see the excellence in either story, though both were entertaining, to be sure.
Sounds like this is case of $$$ talks - Juno grossed somewhere around $131M domestically. That blows (hehehe-place pun here and then get over Cody's past) the other fine fine films by the other spectacular ladies out of the pool. More people were entertained by Cody's awesome and timely film. Period.
Let's not loose the fact that there's a cause for celebration that so many women were nominated in this category.
I just don't get what your hang-up is about Cody's stripper past (it's really kinda hot... think about it, a SMART stripper? HOTTT!) Besides, she's not setting any precedents that will require you to strip in order to win an Oscar.
Good for her and good for all the nominees.
Sorry, I posted without this last thought. I don't see this piece as anti-Diablo Cody. I think it's anti-studio marketing departments and the way in which they portrayed a key player in a film's success.
I agree, but she's also implying that the Academy voters were somehow duped by the marketing campaign into voter for Cody. Which is nonsense. It was a crowd-pleasing movie, and they wanted to reward the writer. Especially in a year like this, when a lot of people may have respected -- but didn't particularly enjoy -- the "best" movies, and by extension, their scripts.
Anyone who thinks this is an issue of "earning one's dues" should take a better look at the ages of Oscar winners in the past decade. Hell, in any decade. Youth and Hollywood have always been the best of friends. What is bothersome here is this perception that Cody wasn't highly educated, that she hadn't honed her craft, all because she was a stripper. People around the country work full days in law firms and at Wal-Marts and go home to write the Great American Screenplay.
Diablo Cody was a stripper but she used it as experience to gain a sense of something she didn't know. And then she wrote a book about it. Not unlike Gloria Steinem's time as a Playboy Bunny really. Sounds like investigative journalism to me. By down playing her literacy it gives people a reason to like her based on sympathy and how far she's come on nothing. But there's a lot more than nothing to her. Which is an insult to her intelligence and everyone else's.
I couldn't agree more. Diablo Cody is clearly a very talented scribe. How is she any less talented than J.K. Rowling, who wrote Harry Potter in a coffe shop while on the dole in Scotland. These are great real-life success stories. I saw Juno and loved it-wasn't the least bit surprised that it was nominated for several Oscars. The only complaint I have is that it seemed apparent that the writer has never actually lived through a pregnancy or been a parent. It's not that easy to just give up your child. Aside from that, the real point I want to make is that I had no idea who Diablo Cody was or that she was a stripper, until the pre-Oscar red carpet shows on Sunday night-and I've heard much buzz about Juno. The movie is a hit because it is a clever and sweet tale about a complicated subject that most of us can appreciate and it makes all the emotional connections in a cute and upbeat way.
J.K. Rowling's your example of another talented scribe? She of "all characters can be divided into four parts"? Really?
The success of Juno is another case of "what we want it to be" triumphing over "what it actually was." We wanted it to be touching and charming and real. It was actually contrived and tinny and, sorry, very poorly written. The dialog was unbearable, the payoff to the story didn't come close to being earned, and it just was not a good screenplay.
I'd have a much easier time with Ellen Page winning.
While I'll agree with the criticisms of the script, you're waaaay off base in your "analysis" of the motivations of the Academy voters. The stripper angle made for good copy, and helped get attention to the film and who wrote it. But, the people who voted -- and my sister is one of them -- based their choice mainly on recognizing a film they enjoyed from beginning to end, with lots of laughs and a satisfying ending (something they weren't getting from all the serous, "respectable" films). I didn't think most audiences took the film all that seriously; they saw the pregnancy angle as more of a plot point rather than an Important Issue That Will Be Solved By This Movie.
You can decry all you want the low-brow mentality that pervades in these kinds of awards, and how great work often goes largely unappreciated, but that's a completely different issue versus the contention that people were swayed by some hype about what Diablo Cody did for one year out of her life.
Thank you. I couldn't fathom all the buzz for yet another movie in which an accidental knocking up is supposed to be funny, especially when the trailer featured such godawful dialogue. This could explain it.
Read her book, the hilarious and insightful Candy Girl, and you'll see that Juno wasn't a freak accident or a triumph of marketing.
Bitter much?
Yeah, we get it...you don't like it. How dare somebody who didn't have to "pay her dues" think she might have written something good. Everybody knows if you didn't spend years "learning how to write" (nevermind all that writing she's actually done...onl
Juno was the best movie of the year.
Now, can you possibly respond to that without questioning my sexual proclivities, my views on women, my opinion about abortion, or anything else that has nothing to do with the act of making a movie?
Wow. I think Juno is an overrated film, but your venomous attack on Ms. Cody is really disgusting. Jealous much?
Say what you will, Ms. Cody was the recipient of a good cast, an exceptional lead, a good director, and a great sense of American language as it is spoken. There is no need to disparage her on behalf of the others you mention. They weren't the first nor the last to get juked at the Oscars. And virtue will have to be its own reward, as it is in all things. Juno made people of all ages, genders, etc., laugh, a rare and blessed thing in any time or era.
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