Since Diablo Cody took home an Oscar for it Juno in 2007 she has written a steady string of memorable films featuring characters who are vulnerable yet tough, both funny and flawed – and relatable yet larger than life. Her screenplay for the upcoming Lisa Frankenstein should hit the screen in the summer of 2023, and there’s already a lot of buzz surrounding this ’80s twist on the classic monster story – featuring an unpopular high school girl instead of the crazy doctor.
Over the years, Cody’s film and TV scripts have shown her ability to move seamlessly between dark humor and emotional devastation without missing a beat. From Charlize Theron’s slow-motion self-realization Young adult until the tragic twist and reveal at the end of TullyCody has never shied away from brutal honesty as she explores and confronts subjects that others would struggle to approach.
Regardless, Cody’s career as a screenwriter has been a huge success. And yet her daring body of work is often overlooked or underappreciated when critics and fans debate the best screenwriters of the past few decades. But the fact is that Diablo Cody has clearly evolved into one of the most versatile and astute screenwriters of her generation. And as proof, you just start where Cody did: with a smart, 16-year-old girl who has to make huge decisions with a sarcastic wit and a disarming confidence.
June (2007)
Elliot Page gave in to the performance of his fledgling career Juno, giving the role excellent comedic timing and an understated coolness. Cody’s screenplay follows Juno, a teenage girl navigating an unplanned pregnancy, making real-time decisions as her situation develops. Juno’s path leads her to a lavish adoptive couple who seem to have their lives completely on track, when in reality they are just as struggling to find their way as Juno. With a cast including Michael Cera, Allison Janney, JK Simmons, Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner, everyone in Juno seems to make up their lives as they go along.
And it’s Cody’s script that gives each character a distinctive, memorable voice – especially the protagonist. As Cody explained to Entertainment Weekly, “I saw writing this screenplay as an opportunity to create an iconic woman.” Funny, moving, sad and hopeful, Cody’s screenplay not only won her the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, but it also opened the door for a gory feminist satire about a demon-possessed teen who craves human flesh.
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
When it was first released, Jennifer’s body received mixed reviews and audiences who weren’t quite sure what to make of it. Was it a comedy? Horror? In reality, Cody’s inspiration for Jennifer’s body was pretty simple. As she explained Vox, “I love horror. I’ve always wanted to do something like this – a horror movie with a female lead and a female villain. And that was what I wrote.” With its feminist spin on conventional horror tropes, Jennifer’s body is really a story about friendship between women and growing in their own identity and self-esteem.
At the beginning of the film, a deadly fire breaks out when best friends Needy (Amanda Seyfried) and Jennifer (Megan Fox) join a band at a local bar. They both survive, but Jennifer is ritually sacrificed by the bar band in exchange for fame. As a result, a demon possesses Jennifer’s body as a vessel to consume the living. While not exactly an episode of Saved by the bell, Cody’s story follows Needy as she tries to stop her best friend from killing every boy in their school. And while it’s certainly the goryest movie Cody’s written, it’s also arguably the funniest – as her knowing, snarling, and tongue-in-cheek dialogue fuels each scene with memorably funny lines. Sure, the negative reviews and the confused audience that greeted it Jennifer’s body have faded and the film has now achieved bona fide cult classic status.
Young Adult (2011)
Young adult tells the story of Mavis, a troubled writer on a fateful journey to try to reconnect with a high school flame and rebuild her crumbling life. Starring Charlize Theron, Cody’s story is about acknowledging the consequences of one’s actions, and how misplaced confidence can mask deeper insecurities – ultimately delaying one’s ability to mature until actual adulthood. As Mavis’s homecoming tour to break up her old boyfriend’s marriage goes from bad to worse, Cody’s script evolves the character from confident to awkward to cringy to emotionally broken before a series of confessions and revelations put Mavis in a position to determine her life’s path and Continue.
“I feel like I’m part of a generation of people who are stuck in the past and really turned in on themselves,” Cody said. NPR when discussing Young adult“I mean, we actually take pictures of ourselves and post them on Facebook, and keep in touch with people who should have been out of our lives 15 years ago. Obsessed with who’s getting married, who’s having kids, who’s more successful. It’s like we mimic high school every day using social media. And it’s weird.”
United States of Tara (2009-2011)
Toni Collette won a Primetime Emmy and a Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of Tara, a suburban housewife who suffers from dissociative identity disorder, in United States of Tara. For three seasons, the show’s writer and creator, Cody, was able to balance humor and sensitivity, presenting an ensemble comedy centered around a character with a serious mental illness. And while she claimed to have been shocked when the United States of Tara pilot was originally picked up by Showtime as a series, Cody conveyed a sense of accomplishment to Vulture by saying, “We’ve made an innovative and interesting show.”
But tara hasn’t been Cody’s only foray into the small screen. She co-created Tig Notaro’s critically acclaimed, semi-autobiographical comedy A Mississippiand wrote multiple episodes of Rob Corddry’s outlandish overnight cult hit Children’s Hospital.
Tully (2018)
In Tully, Theron delivers a powerful, complex performance as Marlo, a mother who pushed her boundaries. It tells the story of an overwhelmed mother of three who develops a close bond with her night nanny Tully. The bond between the women grows closer as Tully helps Marlo through her nights. But as the film climaxes and Marlo survives a car accident, it is revealed that Tully only existed in Marlo’s mind and that the mother is in fact suffering from severe exhaustion and sleep deprivation.
To create Tully while a new mom herself, Cody wrote in the Los Angeles Times that “Writing this script saved me. Tully became my Tully, my helper, a glowing, soothing presence I could return to when I felt overwhelmed. astute, that Tully would be the logical last installment in our (unplanned) trilogy – Juno is about premature adulthood, Young adult is about resisting adulthood, and Tully is about finding grace and acceptance in middle age.”
From dark humor to emotional depth, few screenwriters have shown the range and courage of Diablo Cody. Her complex character studies demonstrate Cody’s ability to handle sensitive issues with unflinching compassion and truth, while also exposing the absurdity of their situations. When the topic of the best screenwriters of her generation comes up, Cody’s body of work speaks for itself, and her name should be one of the last ones left standing after the debate.