Don Jon

Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut “Don Jon” has been receiving high praise for the last few months, and it is beyond deserved.

Don Jon (Gordon-Levitt) is a misogynist with daddy issues and a porn addiction. He judges women at clubs with his boys (Rob Brown, Jeremy Luke), stays in great shape and goes to church every Sunday.

Although he seems to have the whole world in his hands, at the end of the day and sometimes in the middle of the afternoon, Don Jon only finds satisfaction when he has quality time with his computer and his hand.

Then he meets Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), who could be the right girl to satisfy him.

While this seems like a setup for an uncomfortable adventure in crass, Gordon-Levitt’s twenty-something years of experience in front of the camera works in his favor. In a packed theater, every joke got a big laugh, and many one-liners received applause.

What separates this film from the barrage of crass fart-comedies of the last few years (as well as dark dramas like “Shame”) is both its wit and originality. “Don Jon” is a film of repetition, but Gordon-Levitt has managed to provide nuance.

He separates these scenes of gym-laundry-club-porn-church-repeat with quirky cutaways, such as Don Jon’s computer dinging, the sound echoing through the theater, or displays of him driving and yelling at other drivers.

Admittedly, I was inclined to think that the repetition of pornographic clips was too much, but after thinking it over, I realized that it wasn’t just a gratuitous move of an inexperienced director trying to drive a point home. Merely understanding that Don Jon has an addiction isn’t enough for a film like this to cross over from “comedy” to a “good film with something to say.”

The audience must feel fully uncomfortable with just how much he partakes in watching pornography.

This is where we get the opportunity to stop laughing at this guy (who is very unlikable by most standards) and start to take his addiction as seriously as any other.

If it weren’t for these astute kinds of decisions that welcome us into the most intimate and embarrassing details of his life, I’m not sure I would’ve cared about Don Jon.

Gordon-Levitt has thought this one through, and we’ll be lucky if he takes Hollywood by a storm of originality. From the flashy, bombastic opening to the lofty, sweet ending, “Don Jon” satisfies in its direction, writing and acting.  

Just don’t see it with your parents.