...ever catch a typo half a second after hitting post? I know it doesn't really matter but still...

Diablo Cody is a SWILF = a screenwriter I'd like to fuck

I'm feeling like the only person who wasn't swayed by Juno. Is there anyone else out there? Is there a bandwagon I can hop on?

I agree Diablo is attractive. She is taken, of course.

I wonder if there are any cute eligible screenwriters to hit on at the picket lines. I could go wander down to one of the lots and ask them out. Yes, the office is so quiet because of the strike that I am reduced to these musings.

Good to see a few news reports on the strikers.

Viva La Solidarity!

As for Diablo C., va va voom.

"Am I the only one that winces every time I see the name Diablo Cody?"

The name combined with this photograph here, I would've pegged her as one of the fakest people I've ever laid eyes on. Not that she actually is a poser (or worse - a genuine article that's just as annoying). but that combo makes me wanna ring my epiglotis like a doorbell.

She's a good writer but
"the new Tarantino"

whhhhhhhhhha??
Maybe Bob Tarantino.

I have an anti-Juno bandwagon, cj, but people around here get mad whenever I talk about it. I guess I can see why some people like the film, but even if Cody hits everything in that script out of the park (which she doesn't), there's no way you can compare her to Tarantino, who was actually doing exciting, original, highly cinematic things in his early scripts. Juno is a glorified sitcom -- a great sitcom if you like it -- but it's not art... or even great writing.

"The New Tarantino." I think I've heard that one before. A lot.

Diablo Cody, or whatever her name is,(I'm guessing Rebecca Brownstein or Carla Lukavich or something like that)is semi-attractive, for a screenwriter I guess, but nowhere near as hot as Ellen Page.

And if anyone should be picketing, it should be the people who paid to see Man on the Moon, or The People vs. Larry Flynt, or any of the other movies that Larry and his partner wrote, all of them completely pedestrian. Instead of whining about lost profits, those two should think about finding a way to pay back the money they owe to the American movie-going public.

Juno is a sitcom, right out of the Apatow school of cinema-as-television-except-for-the-four-letter-words. This movies plays exactly how you think it's going to play and is drenched in quirk. There's not one believable character in the whole movie and if Jason Reitman had a stitch of originality in him (instead of his retread Solondz/Wes Anderson schtick) he would've cast Chris Makepeace as the father and given a shout out to his pops, to whom he owes his career.

So sitcom writing isn't writing? I could have sworn there were some people from "The Office" and "30 Rock" on those writer's picket lines.

"This movies plays exactly how you think it's going to play and is drenched in quirk."

Quirk is lazy. It's irony gone retarded.

Can someone please tell me what the fuck Perfect Tommy is talking about? No? Okay. Thanks anyway.

"Quirk is lazy. It's irony gone retarded."

That is, by far, my new favorite quote.

Tarantino's name was repeated 3 times in this post -- D.Z. should be appearing any second.

"I wonder if there are any cute eligible screenwriters to hit on at the picket lines. I could go wander down to one of the lots and ask them out. Yes, the office is so quiet because of the strike that I am reduced to these musings."

Maybe Wells could hook you up with Larry Karaszewski.

"Juno is a sitcom, right out of the Apatow school of cinema-as-television-except-for-the-four-letter-words."

That's exactly how I feel: they're R-rated sitcoms that belong on HBO or Showtime.

Milkman, JD before you said Juno is just sitcom writing. I actually misread his post and thought it said sitcom writing isn't "writing" when it said it isn't "great writing". Not to get DZ back in the Seinfeld debate, but I do think there has, though rarely, been great writing on sitcoms.

I do think Jeff meant that she is the flavor of the season, in much a way QT was when he roared onto the Hollywood radar in the 90s. (god bless her if she can have the same longevity)
Pretty hilarious to read this from JD:
*who was actually doing exciting, original, highly cinematic things in his early scripts*
I think it is pretty much common knowledge that QT lifted much of that exciting, original, highly cinematic things from, well, OTHER movies. He was quite the video clerk cinephile. I am not hating on him, good for him. I applaud his selfmade success and his longevity. I like his movies. I like Juno and Cody too.

QT's a pop culture pilferer for sure, but I think his first three movie were a great synthesis of all his inspirations.

I watched CITY ON FIRE (which I hadn't heard of before) after I saw RESERVOIR DOGS and was amazed at how awful it was.

He may have ripped off CITY ON FIRE (and THE KILLING to a degree), but he definitely improved upon it. Sadly, I can't say that he's improving upon his source material with his recent efforts.

Did the dog write Poseidon?

Funny!

I've loved absolutely everything Tarantino's done -- JACKIE BROWN being my favorite -- except DEATH PROOF, which I absolutely fucking hated. But the guy's amazing and riffs on all my favorite genres -- making them fresh again. And I love grindhouse films and spent a lot of my childhood watching them, but DEATH PROOF - ugh. Biggest disappointment of the year.

I tried to picket at the Bronson Gate at Paramount but they wouldn't let me past the velvet rope. I told them I knew Diablo Cody and that she said it was cool to come by but they still denied me.

Fine. Me and my pals took our signs and t-shirts and went over to Raleigh to picket. Bronson Gate thinks it's so fucking cool.

The following few paragraphs are unnecessarily angry and I've had a long day:

How is it possible that you people are trying to start a Diablo Cody backlash before the film has even come out? I'm glad I've spent the last few days picketing instead of wasting my time on the internet. I swear, if Jesus H. Tap Dancing Christ came down from heaven and wrote the greatest screenplay since The Apartment some fucker would still show up on the internet and rip him a new one.

Why does everyone have to be the new Tarantino? Or the new Spielberg? Diablo Cody is the new Diablo Cody. She's not a celebrity, but she's the closest thing someone like us can be to one, and it will only help us. And by us, I mean actual working screenwriters and not douchebags posting on message boards and this site. Please find new hobbies. Please stop typing. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to do a few more things, crash, then picket early tomorrow.

I'd like to add, several people that post on here are insightful, interesting, and always fun to read. You know who you are. I hope I didn't come across like MilkMan or Malibuglio this time around.

I just finally watched the long version of Death Proof last night on DVD, and it's probably by favorite movie of the year, so another one of the many, many things I disagree with Dirty Harry about. It's so much fun.

"Diablo Cody" sheesh, what a bullshit LA pseudonym. She looks like she shops at Hot Topic. Probably a few years ago you could of seen her prancing around a suburban mall wearing a Jack Skellington hoody. Juno looks like a re-tread of about a dozen other 'quirky' indie flicks from the past ten years.

JD: "I guess I can see why some people like the film, but even if Cody hits everything in that script out of the park (which she doesn't), there's no way you can compare her to Tarantino, who was actually doing exciting, original, highly cinematic things in his early scripts."

Remakes =/= original.

"Juno is a glorified sitcom -- a great sitcom if you like it -- but it's not art... or even great writing."

Haven't seen the movie, but judging by the trailer and clips, I feel the same way. In fact, it seems like an unused Gilmore Girls episode to me.

Ogami: "I watched CITY ON FIRE (which I hadn't heard of before) after I saw RESERVOIR DOGS and was amazed at how awful it was."

Yeah, actors who can show genuine range, rather than just crib lines from other movies, are the worst.

"He may have ripped off CITY ON FIRE (and THE KILLING to a degree), but he definitely improved upon it."

All he did was make the Asian cast white.

Hell, I'm happy for "Diablo Cody". She's on the Gurus of Gold chart, for heaven's sake. Haven't seen the picture, but since when did that part matter? I'm sure it's as clever as all get out.

And furthermore, there are plenty of dipshit late boomer/early Gen X wankers (I know, because I am one of them) who would name their unfortunate offspring with such an affected piffle of a monicker. (My kid is named Lavender Care Bear. So there.)

In a recent Entertainment Weekly, Jason Reitman basically called her the most-talked about new writer since Quentin Tarantino.

By the way, Jeff's right -- the energy on the picket lines is exciting and maybe even a little intoxicating. Stop by just to hear the horns and the chants, and then talk to some of the writers hoisting those signs. I recommend the Fox lot.

"I've loved absolutely everything Tarantino's done -- JACKIE BROWN being my favorite -- except DEATH PROOF, which I absolutely fucking hated."

I haven't seen the extended cut because I've heard it's just more inane chatter, but I saw the GRINDHOUSE version and liked parts of it. There was just too much dialogue that wasn't interesting or amusing to me.

I loved the car crashes/chases and Kurt Russell, though.

And that Latino chick's ass.

I've got no beef with Ms. Cody, I just thought Juno wasn't funny enough to be a straight comedy and it wasn't honest enough to earn the emotional payoff it was trying to milk at the end.

If the hype hadn't been so loud, I might've forgotten all about it by now and moved on with my life. On the other hand, if I'd just stumbled upon it without knowing anything about it, I might have warmed up to it a little more.

I wish I was a woman so I could bait some internet-trolling Hollywood male by stripping and writing about it. In some sense, this is just another girl who whored her way into Hollywood. I wish her all the success in the world.

PerfectTommy: "JD before you said Juno is just sitcom writing. I actually misread his post and thought it said sitcom writing isn't 'writing' when it said it isn't 'great writing.' Not to get DZ back in the Seinfeld debate, but I do think there has, though rarely, been great writing on sitcoms."

I think you're ocnfusing two different points that I made. Yes, I think Juno is a glorified sitcom. No, I don't think it's great writing. But that doesn't mean other real (or glorified) sitcoms can't contain great writing.

buckzollo: "I think it is pretty much common knowledge that QT lifted much of that exciting, original, highly cinematic things from, well, OTHER movies."

No shit. That doesn't mean he's not original. You'd be hard-pressed to find any filmmaker who doesn't borrow from other sources, Tarantino just has a more eclectic mix of inspirations and does far more interesting things with his influences than most filmmakers. If Tarantino was simply ripping people off without bringing anything original to the table, why do you think his imitators have such a hard time capturing the same quality in their films. Even if you do a shot-for-shot remake, you still have to make thousands of original choices... which is the reason Gus Van Sant's Psycho is so unlike Alfred Hitchcock's.

JD: "No shit. That doesn't mean he's not original."

Actually, it does mean that.

"Tarantino just has a more eclectic mix of inspirations"

The grindhouse/chopsocky/blaxploitation homages were done long before him...

"and does far more interesting things with his influences than most filmmakers."

How is swiping dialogue from other scripts interesting?

"If Tarantino was simply ripping people off without bringing anything original to the table, why do you think his imitators have such a hard time capturing the same quality in their films."

You don't seem to get that he is an imitator, too. And Memento and Snatch are way more entertaining Pulp Fiction-wannabes than Pulp Fiction.

"Even if you do a shot-for-shot remake, you still have to make thousands of original choices... which is the reason Gus Van Sant's Psycho is so unlike Alfred Hitchcock's."

The only way it's not like Psycho is that it's in color. Well that, and the acting sucks.

I love non-conformists who dress exactly like all of the other non-conformists.

"You're all different!"

"We're all different!"

"I'm not."

Monty Python's Life of Brian

Strange.. I like Tarantino a little bit more with each post DZ makes about him.

DZ's opposition has a way of validating all your points. Thanks, DZ.

Josh: Yeah, I hate Tarantino fans, too.

JD Tarantino can be exciting and highly cinematic, but early work being original I don't thinks so. It may have been popular, but it was not original. Unless Roger Avery was lying when I drove him across town 15 years ago and he basically proffered that much if not all of Reservoir Dogs was wholesale lifted from OTHER movies. I like Juno. I like Diablo. I like QT.
JD not so much.

is it possible for there to be a comment about a woman that has nothing to do with whether or not some dude wants to fuck her?

a female writer should be judged or discussed based on real or perceived talent (or lack thereof)...

the second sex indeed.

ps. i'd like to coin a new phrase: silfc or sexist i'd love to fucking cut.

Yes because Diablo Cody doesn't know from sex.

i don't know shit about diablo cody's sex life, nor do i care to. i care more about art than people's sex lives. i haven't seen Juno, so i can't comment on how much i like her artistic vision, but how 'va va voom' she is hardly has much to do with this topic.

that said, how much discussion on this board is devoted to the fuckability of quentin tarantino? or any other male star/director/writer?

pretty much none, and i know this because i'm a longtime reader (going so far back as reel.com)

You could have noted T.Holly's comments on the attributes of Wahlberg and Gosling, or how hot she thought the male picketers are. Which just ain't no big deal.

I suggest you go to Cody's blog "The Pussy Ranch" and behold her own sexual austerity.

Saying "va va voom" is hardly slobbering sexist geek porn speak.

i don't think you're a slobbering sexist geek, but you've gotta admit, "swilf" is pretty repugnant.

and, i'll admit it's weird that as a longtime reader i have posted perhaps three comemnts, once a review of that shitty film 'vers le sud' and now these comments regarding my long simmering resentment about the rampant sexism on this blog.