Hollywood screenwriter Diablo Cody: take two

Happy Christmahanukwanzaakkah, ladies and gents! I’ve got a holiday present for you. A month or two ago, we ran an interview with screenwriter extraordinaire Diablo Cody. Well, we ran the first half of that interview, anyway: the second half had gone missing. I recently located the rest of the interview, however, and now I’m sharing it with you! In this portion of the interview she and I touch on various topics, among them Wes Anderson; teen movies in general; and the Monkees—only our favorite band ever. Enjoy… and see you in 2010!

Have you seen… there’s this tiny little movie; I think I’m the only person who even knows it exists. It’s by this super-underground cult guy who just died named Ray Dennis Steckler and it’s called The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!??.
I think I need to see that!

It’s super-low-budget, terrible acting, etcetera. It’s brilliant.
Movies like that can really be appreciated on more than one level. Have you seen The Room?

Not yet. Should I?
Please go see this movie! You need to go online, buy it immediately,—it’s called The Room; it was written and directed by this guy named Tommy Wiseau, and it’s the single funniest movie you will ever see as long as you live. And not intentionally.

You know, I just saw The Royal Tenenbaums for the first time, and I thought it was going to be a lot more solemn, but it was really funny.
Yeah, that movie is funny. Wes Anderson is amazing. But who doesn’t think that?

That’s the first Wes Anderson film I’ve ever seen, and now I want to see his others. He blended comedy and drama so wonderfully.
Yeah. You haven’t seen Bottle Rocket?

No.
It’s great. You’ve gotta check out the whole collection.

I really want to see Rushmore.
Rushmore is probably my favorite. It’s kind of the film where he found his style. And Rushmore was kind of like—I don’t know. I’m babbling. [laughs] I’m on this winding road to Malibu and the car is winding all over the place!

Aren’t you on your way to another interview right now?
Yeah. I’m going to be talking to Brendon Urie from Panic at the Disco.

So you’re interviewing him.
We’re interviewing each other. It’s like one of those weird mutual-masturbation sessions where they sit you down together and you… ask each other about your art. They contributed to the Jennifer’s Body soundtrack, so we’re going to chat about that.

That’s really cool. No, but I think the reason I want to see Rushmore so badly is I’m really drawn to the whole teenage coming-of-age kinda thing. I mean, I am a teenager, so I’m biased, but…
Oh, completely. And you have a legitimate reason to be interested, whereas I’m just a crazy old lady. I’m completely obsessed with teenagers. I don’t know what it is, and I wish I did because then maybe we could commiserate.

[laughs]
I just feel like there are these heightened emotions during adolescence. A lot of stuff feels like the end of the world, and then you get a little bit older and get some perspective and life just feels a little less romantic.

The thing about teen movies is there’s a sense of urgency that usually only exists in adult movies if there’s a gun.
Yeah. Exactly. For instance, in Jennifer’s Body, the friendship between Needy and Jennifer is so incredibly intense that Needy doesn’t even care that it’s become incredibly toxic. There’s like… it’s just… I don’t know.

I don’t know if you’ve seen Brick…
Oh, yeah! Not yet, but I’d really like to see it. I’ve heard great things about it and about the director.

It’s very good. In the commentary the director makes an interesting comment: “I know this isn’t what high school looks like, but it’s closer to how teenagers view high school than typical teen films because there’s this urgency in Brick. Adults often forget how urgent everything feels.”
Right. And that’s why John Hughes was a genius: because he made films like The Breakfast Club where their seemingly trivial issues were the end of the world.

Right. By the way, I wanted to ask you about your now-defunct blog. Back when it was still up, there was a picture of you very excitedly standing next to Micky Dolenz.
Yeah! I love Micky Dolenz.

I flipped out. I grew up on the Monkees.
I’m a huge, huge Monkees fan. When I was a little kid I used to throw a tantrum when I missed the show. Last year I was fortunate enough to meet Micky Dolenz at a screening of Head at the New Beverly, which is this amazing theatre in Los Angeles where they show stuff like Head, and it was so incredibly exciting.

That’s absolutely wild. The first thing I ever watched in my life was a VHS of two Monkees episodes, and the first thing I ever listened to was the Monkees’ Greatest Hits.
They’re such an underrated band, and the show was amazing.

I know! Whenever I bring them up there’s always somebody sneering “They aren’t a real band!” And I launch into like a tirade about how they wrote Headquarters all by themselves—
Yeah. And they played the instruments for Headquarters, too.

They don’t get enough credit. And even when they were fake they had the best songwriters the studio could hire.
Yeah. And Mike Nesmith was a legitimate talent as a guitarist. Whatever, people can hate on the Monkees, but they’re amazing.

Did you talk to Micky Dolenz about the Monkees? Was he chill about it?
Oh, yeah, he was super chill. We talked about the Monkees; we talked about… I guess he did this kids’ show in Britain called Metal Mickey… [laughs] But it was just incredibly great to be able to talk to him.

I’m so jealous. Did you know that Peter Tork has cancer?
I didn’t know that. That sucks!

He’s apparently going to be okay, but still.
Yeah. Wow. I hope he has a speedy recovery.

If anything happened… that would be like part of my childhood dying, man!
[laughs] Oh, god. That’s a bummer. Yeah, that would be so awful. I'm glad he's going to be okay.

Season 2 of United States of Tara will premiere March 22nd.