Diablo Cody – This Had Oscar Buzz

After the Oscar winning success of Juno, 2011 gave us the reunited creative force of screenwriter Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman, but in a different mode that that heartwarming crowdpleaser. Young Adult cast Charlize Theron, an author and former prom queen who returns to her hometown to win back her high school boyfriend, played by Patrick Wilson. After Reitman’s Up in the Air peaked early in its Oscar season, this film skipped the festival route and performed modestly, earning an immediate reputation as a mean and caustic movie. With brilliant supporting work from Patton Oswalt, Collette Wolfe, and Elizabeth Reaser, the film has earned ardent fans since, despite missing out on Oscar.

This episode, we discuss the film’s cutting observational humor and the thorny wit that makes Mavis Gary such a memorable character and performance by Theron. We also discuss the Best Actress and Original Screenplay field of 2011, the film’s use of Teenage Fanclub’s “The Concept,” and long-suffering Pomeranian, Dulce.

Topics also include KenTacoHuts, gay people liking mean women, and hating the 2011 Oscar lineup.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

After a string of August (yes, early buzzed) hits, Meryl Streep collaborated with two Oscar-winning names that sent Oscar obsessives to get lost in their rock and roll: director Jonathan Demme and screenwriter Diablo Cody. 2015′s Ricki and the Flash didn’t set the box office on fire and a very competitive Best Actress year possibly kept it out of the conversation, but that doesn’t mean the film doesn’t reveal why we once had such high hopes for it. The film isn’t as much of a harmonious fit as we originally expected for this trio, but they do give us something uplifting that deserved more of a shot than Oscar gave it.

This week we look at the gifts of Diablo Cody, Ricki’s parallels to his recent (foolishly underloved by Oscar) masterpiece Rachel Getting Married, and the major flub of 2015′s Best Original Song nominees and eventual winner “The Writing’s On The Wall”. Just as Ricki gives and takes with her family, we rewrite history to take some of Meryl’s Oscar nominations away to give them to some of her underrated performances.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

Tag: Diablo Cody

239 – Young Adult

032 – Ricki and the Flash