Juno and, more better - Diablo

You know that if I, as far removed from high school, Previas, the midwest, and snow as can be, walk out of a movie kinda wishing I were that accidentally pregnant 16 year old... something good was up there on that mythic silver screen. After 90 minutes with Juno I really wished I could be that clever and cool even some of the time, let alone all the time. Mostly, though, after seeing Juno, the movie, what I really wanted was to meet Diablo Cody, screenwriter thereof. Well you know what comes next: thank heavens for the internet. 'Cause, maybe I can't meet her in person, but... aha! she has a blog.

And, sickeningly, she seems to be just as cool on her blog as she came across in her movie. I know, I know, it wasn't her up there -- but they were her words -- and her dialog is up there with some of the best I've heard in a long, long, long time. It doesn't hurt that the fabulous Ellen Page -- if you don't know her, a) imagine that Winona Ryder and Jena Malone had a daughter who was raised by Wendy Wasserstein - that's sort of Ellen Page and b) go rent "Hard Candy" -- spoke about 50% of the dialog, and that the rest rested on the shoulders of hacks like Allison Janney, J.K. Simmons, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner...

It's a real gift to write a movie that is enjoyable and serious, funny and honest, that zings along until the end comes and the audience is left saying, "wait, that's it? There's no more?" After the string of over-promised and under-delivered sea of dross I've been sitting through, this was a golden moment. Magical movie alchemy.