With new comedic female voices like Amy Schumer and Melissa McCarthy, can Diablo Cody still compete?
You’re watching Beyond The Trailer’s review of Ricki and the Flash...
Well at least Diablo Cody has Meryl Streep in her corner, who’s not only - well, Meryl
Streep - but still something of a box office draw these days. Yes, Streep has been able
to keep her Devil Wears Prada momentum going for over a decade now, with hits like Mamma
Mia, Julie and Julia, It’s Complicated and Into The Woods. Heck, even Hope Springs was
a solid box office performer! But Cody hasn’t been so lucky. After making a huge splash
with Juno, Jennifer’s Body was a major misfire for the stripper turned screenwriter. And
while Oscar winner Charlize Theron starred in Young Adult, it turns out that even Cody
couldn’t make audiences sympathize with a high school beauty queen who was unhappy
with her life choices - and was convinced stealing her old boyfriend away from his wife
would solve all her problems. And while Juno helmer Jason Reitman re-teamed with Cody for
Young Adult, well, he’s been having career problems himself... (Men Women and Children,
Labor Day). So now Cody is trying again, this time teaming with director Jonathan Demme
who helmed some top notch comedies with female leads back in the 1980s, including Something
Wild and Married to the Mob. He also directed Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia, so
yeah, he’s also got some career problems... It is interesting that Cody hasn’t joined
the current female comedy movement, which is headed up by two men ironically, Judd Apatow
and Paul Feig. Perhaps she tried and was rejected, or perhaps she prefers traveling in more prestigious
circles - after all, Ricki and the Flash is chock full of Oscar winners and nominees while
Trainwreck and Spy, definitely are not. So, like her characters, is Cody still the cool
loner in Hollywood, hanging out with the “artists” - or is Cody’s idea of cool a little dated at this point?