An excerpt from my script review for Tully which will be available 05/07/18:
3.) Quality of Characters
I will forgive the predictable plot if one thing holds true…
Diablo Cody is Marlo.
TULLY
What’s wrong with that? You know
what your problem is? You’re
convinced you’re a failure, but you
actually made your biggest dream
come true.
If this was a cathartic, “coming to terms” with her career writing exercise, AND she got paid to do it…well kudos to that.
Marlo longs for a time when she was young, free…apparently gay (for the sake of appealing to this artsy audience), and Tully shows up being most/all those things.
It’s as if Diablo Cody met a younger version of herself, who she needed to convince her that she turned out alright. She might not be all she envisioned starting out, but she still did rather well for herself and her family.
Going back to that marketing section, perhaps she feels a bit of failure herself, not being the “Second Coming” everyone expected, but when the chips are down, she made it as a professional screenwriter.
When viewed through this type of lens, I can appreciate the story more, because what is any form of art, but a piece of the artist herself.
Although…maybe it was just a hastily thrown together screenplay.
I’m not great at stories requiring deep thought…
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