Juno by Diablo Cody has been nominated for four Academy Awards, Diablo Cody won for Best Writing, Original Screenplay and the film has many trophies: it is charming, amusing, romantic, original, outré and so much more – I was thinking to look it up on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made site, but what would be the point, I enjoyed it very much, so there is no need for that validation…here is the self-promotion part, pointless, but this is The Power of Habit -one of the more than five thousand posts is on this one – you find reviews on magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other sites, notes on film from the NYT 1,000 and other lists, as already mentioned, more than five thousand of them on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html For Sandu

 

Juno by Diablo Cody has been nominated for four Academy Awards, Diablo Cody won for Best Writing, Original Screenplay and the film has many trophies: it is charming, amusing, romantic, original, outré and so much more – I was thinking to look it up on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made site, but what would be the point, I enjoyed it very much, so there is no need for that validation…here is the self-promotion part, pointless, but this is The Power of Habit -one of the more than five thousand posts is on this one – you find reviews on magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other sites, notes on film from the NYT 1,000 and other lists, as already mentioned, more than five thousand of them on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

For Sandu

 

8 out of 10

 

Juno was one of the best motion pictures of 2007 and indeed, it would be among the Top 1,000, maybe even the first 300 or so, nonetheless, I would be curious to see my reaction, if I decide to watch (some of) it again, seeing as I was so enthusiastic about the thespian in the main role, but I am not really as enthused by the change

 

It does not really matter, if we read about some (most if not all of) the stars and celebrities in general, then we will find that we do not want to see their features – actually, I do have this bias, if they are part of MAGA, then I am sorry, but their productions are not for me, not anymore) latest case in point Sydney Sweeney.

Adventures in The Screen Trade https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/adventures-in-screen-trade-by-william.html is one mesmerizing book that you should read, if you ae a cinephile, even if you are just interested in films, the author won two Oscars, for Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, and All The President’s Men

 

William Goldman tells us about many actors, including Dustin Hoffman: on the set of Marathon Man, there is a scene in which his personage wakes up at night, because his brother it at the door, Hoffman has to take a flashlight, but he would not do it, concerned that his fans will not find this a macho attitude

Hence, he prevaricates, argues, keeping his partner, Roy Scheider, waiting, just like the team, technicians and all, just because of his (too) large ego, then he wants to show Laurence Olivier that he (Hoffman) has the leading role, and keeps the legendary thespian walking, even if the latter was very ill, still, he acted with nobility – noblesse oblige

 

Anyway, that was just about all I had to say about Juno, indeed, even the lines up there are not really much, or at all about this film: the rest of the lines will be about an uncle, Sandu aka Alexandru, who died about ten days ago, only I just found out, and here is epitaph, or better said a few words about him and our connection

To start with, I had to blame him for a disease that I kept along for decades (it could still be there, I have not checked) when I was some one and a half years old, I was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which apparently, I have gotten from Sandu, yes, it was just a question of an innocent ‘transmission’, so why blame him?

 

Because I was treated with the wrong medicine – was it cortisol?- I would get an ulcers, diagnosed when I was just nine, ergo I became a sort of a negative record: youngest fellow to get that, it caused a lot of nuisance, and a few sexual encounters in some hospitals, and we jump to 1990, when we got close, and worked together

I was in love with Miss Romania of the day, and then Sandu drove the Audi (for that other, longer story, place a request) until we had a fight, because I gave him the car to use, on condition this man I disliked is not in it, which Sandu disregarded, I mentioned it and then he said ‘I am not working for an idiot’, or words to that effect, which caused a hiatus of some decades, I saw him when my mother, his sister, dies, but not much otherwise: he was a nice man, unfortunately we had this clash and so we went on separate roads…

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence

Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’