Don Jon

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The first half hour of this film makes you feel quite uncomfortable, I saw a pre-screening with my girlfriend and It made me feel a little tense as I wasn't able to gauge how she was perceiving what she was watching. There are a lot of sexually orientated scenes, cut scenes from * movies, scenes of our protagonist Jon getting off with a hell of a lot of women. Scarlett Johansson's arrival doesn't slow any of this down, despite her being cast in the archetypical female role. That being the girl Jon is going to give up his wicked ways for. I won't spoil how this ultimately pans out. Around this point the humour kicks in and I must say there are quite a few laugh out loud scenes. Jon's relationship with his family in particular and just his strange character in general provide a good comedic vibe. This film will not be for everybody. Those faint hearted souls who wont be able to stand anything more offensive than the solitary use of the F word, well you guys should certainly pass this by. Overall the F word is used in excess of 120 times in this picture for starters. For me, as the film plays out the sexual cut scenes begin to have more substance. They start to mean more than just the showing of perverse acts, I believe what JGL was trying to show was an insight into how modern day men perceive women and relationships. How expectations are raised by * and advertising to create an image that will never be fulfilled in normal life. In some ways the film ends a bit of a damp squib, despite being an enjoyable ride there is somehow a lack of conviction in the ending. Our 'hero' does see the error of his ways, but it could have been done more convincingly in my opinion. All in all though this is a solid directorial debut from JGL, there seems to be a real pace about the film from beginning to end. The way the dialogue is delivered and the temperament of the characters keeps things running steady and keeps you hooked. Definite recommendation from me.

Halfway through Don Jon, the point of its madness all hit me; this is the Easy Rider (1969) of Generation Y. To explain, Don Jon is pure social satire. Joseph Gordon "The Situation" Levitt's directing debut is a mirror into what our generation is. Not what's wrong or right with it, just a mirror. And like the reflection in said proverbial mirror, you either like what you see, or don't. Jon, nicknamed "The Don" due to his skill of always picking up at least 8's every night, meets and subsequently falls in love with the girl of his dreams. He then must come to terms with his routine-infested little life, the superfluous B.S. that comes with having a relationship these days and, oh right, his * addiction. I suppose it goes without saying that there is gratuitous explicit dialogue and pornographic clips intertwined into the story. Don Jon is visually exceptional and expediently acted. It's editing is off the Richter scale and its comedy is as tongue-in-cheek as it gets. Don Jon pings and fizzes with energy and feels positively alive. For that, Don Jon gets two stars. And one bonus star for being truly original, both in its seismic delivery and its tenacity. There's a clear sense that Don Jon has been honed for people that love film, in that it's singular purpose is to inspire thought and discussion. It's message is 100% subjective. Unfortunately, and perhaps in and effort to highlight its point as a satire, Don Jon has a story with all the cohesion and structure of balsa wood. There is no background, buildup, climax, or falling action. Don Jon fails on the premise of basic storytelling. And that is unforgivable. Make no mistake, this movie WILL be looked upon years from now as a concealed insight to our psyche. I know this may sound excessive, given this movie's La-De-La approach, but look past what's on the surface…. And you'll be looking at us. You may just not know it yet.

Main character Jon is used to round up women from the disco. He always succeeds in getting the one who received the highest marks from his friends. He has sex with his prey, seemingly enjoyed by both, but the real satisfaction comes afterwards when watching * on his laptop. History repeats itself every week, each time with a new woman appointed by his friends as an attractive target. He knows this is not the proper thing to do, and he makes a habit of dutifully confessing in church how many times he had "intercourse out of wedlock". Each time his sins are forgiven after a standard penance of 10 Holy Mary's and 10 Our Father's. A break through this routine seems imminent when he meets a very attractive women, who is determined to turn him into a house trained husband. She even gets him to present her to his parents as his fiancée. The parents applaud his choice. Only his sister sees that this relationship is heading nowhere, but no one listens (as seems standard operating procedure in this household). Only the last half hour was interesting and worth seeing. I suspect that it must be my fault, because of the apparent fact that people around me looked like enjoying themselves, with several laughs where I failed to see the humor in the scene at hand. I appreciate that this first hour of the film is needed as context, but while waiting for something relevant to happen, the overload of (bleep) F-words and stereotypes did not help to pass the time. The latter was most apparent in his parent's house, where no one seems to listen (really listen) to the other, where the father continuously watches sport on TV, and more such things we also see in the daily soap opera. The interesting part starts at the moment his self-appointed fiancée wants him to stop cleaning his house by himself, though he enjoys it and knows he is competent in this. But she insists, and considers this a simple sacrifice, something that a man needs to do for a woman he loves as a matter of course. We observe some hesitation but he gives in, unknowingly that she has more such sacrifices on her sleeve. Though each seems trivial when considered separately, we gradually see these "sacrifices" sowing a few extra bits of doubt. Near the end of the film she explains her philosophy that bringing sacrifices to a woman, is a natural thing to do for a man. She considers this a love test, so it seems, for her a matter of principle. When he objects that this is a bit one sided, she reacts baffled as if she does not understand what he is saying. (***warning***spoiler ahead***) In the meantime he met a totally different woman by accident, this time not harvested from an evening in the disco, the latter being the place where he used to pick up women and take them home to have sex, following by a wanking session before the laptop. Conversely, he has no sex with her initially. It is made very clear that they come to a mutual understanding on other grounds. He confesses his * addiction to her, and she helps him finding out why his wanking before a laptop screen is more satisfying than real sex. Eventually, the expected happy end comes about. As said before, the first hour was a bit of a drag to me, though the rest of the audience seemed to enjoy it and had several laughs where I failed to see the humor of the scene at hand. Yet, the story takes an interesting turn in the last half hour. A second compensation may lie in the casting and acting, both adding much to making this film enjoyable to watch. Let me conclude with assuming that my problems with the first hour are my fault, and won't probably apply to you as a candidate viewer of this film expecting entertainment. Given that this film was part of the Panaroma Special section of the Berlinale 2013, I can only assume that the festival programmers saw some quality in it, something that I cannot confirm after the fact.

(This review is based on an advanced screening at the Revere Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts.) Let's get this out of the way right from the start: if you will be offended by a movie with lots of F-bombs and/or one that's about a guy from Jersey who's addicted to *—or more specifically, masturbating to * —then Don Jon isn't for you. That said, there's a lot to like about Joseph Gordon-Levitt's feature debut as Writer/Director and as starring actor. Don Jon doesn't waste any time letting us know what it's about. There's nothing subtle in an opening that shows Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character, Jon Martello, masturbating to *. His matter-of-fact voice-over explains precisely what he likes about getting off to * and why he prefers the women on the screen to actual warm-bodied women in his bed. His friends call him 'Don', though, because he manages to score 'dimes'—meaning a '10'—whenever they go out. Enter Scarlett Johansson (for whom Gordon-Levitt wrote the role) as Barbara, a 10 in any movie, but especially in this one. It's a jolt initially to hear her accent—which some argue sounds more like one from Staten Island—but if you're not from New Jersey, you won't have a problem with it. Barbara is the game changer for Jon, perfect in every way, except for one minor problem: she's not happy about the *. Julianne Moore and Tony Danza round out a stellar cast that includes cameos from Channing Tatum, Anne Hathaway, and Cuba Gooding, Jr. Danza plays Jon's dad in a performance reminiscent of (and just as strong as) Robert De Niro's fatherly role in Silver Linings Playbook. Moore plays a middle-aged student in a night class with Jon. She provides an older woman foil for Jon's girlfriend/* issues—someone other than his buddies and family to heckle and care for him. Moore gives a layered performance, ably demonstrating the disappearing effect of age when hanging out with students half her age, gracefully revealing that there is much more under the tender shell of her character Esther than Jon can possibly imagine. donjon1 Gordon-Levitt's screenplay is solid and well structured, built around themes like the fact that Jon Martello is a devout Catholic. With welcome regularity, we see Jon back on the pew with his family, followed by a weekly rendezvous in the confessional in which he itemizes his sexual transgressions to the priest on the other side—the number of times he had sex out of wedlock, how many times he masturbated to *, etc. The next scene invariably shows him in the gym working out to the prescribed number of Hail Marys and Our Fathers (and we get to peek at just how buff Gordon-Levitt has been keeping himself). The laughs get louder every time the screenplay whips around to this place keeper, and we fall into pace with Jon and his routine as we get to know him. Gordon-Levitt takes what should be a ridiculous premise for a movie and through strong writing and directing outputs a sincere plot. Though full of the American Pie-style humor requisite for a story about *, Don Jon more importantly takes its characters (and us) somewhere—and it's not where you think. In the wasteland of cookie- cutter movie plots, Don Jon's story is a breath of fresh air—one that makes us laugh, makes us think, makes us cringe, and makes us come out wanting more from Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Jon, a confident, promiscuous, foul-mouthed, obsessive-compulsive, Catholic New Jersey boy. Though he is able to sleep with any woman he likes, which is how his friend's gave him the name Don Jon, he is unable to find the same level of satisfaction he attains through his addiction to online *. After meeting Barbara, played by Scarlett Johansson, Jon falls in-love and struggles to choose between her and his addiction. Where a typical Hollywood romance would end, Don Jon just gets started. This is not a romantic comedy, this is a character-study within an anti-romantic comedy with great performances by an excellent cast in perfectly written roles. Tony Danza and Glenne Headly, as Jon's parents, provide some of the film's biggest laughs while Julianne Moore's character gives the story genuine heart. Joseph Gordon-Levitt proves to be just as talented behind-the-camera as he is in-front of it. Don Jon does more in one small, 90-minute film than most 2 hour big films have ever accomplished. There is much to learn about relationships in this little tale yet it's never preachy and it keeps the laughs coming. This isn't the kind of film couples will feel comfortable or even want to see but it's the film they need to see. It's sincere and honest truth, no fluff.