Don Jon

Joseph Gordon-Levitt – 2013 – USA

This is a really lousy movie.  I have a lot of respect for Joseph Gordon-Levitt as an actor, but Don Jon – his feature writing/directing debut – is such a transparent vanity project that I found it grating and almost unwatchable.  It seems to me that the movie was made for only two reasons; 1) because Gordon-Levitt really, really wanted to do that accent as a stereotypical blue-collar Jersey guy, and 2) because a premise occurred to him that he found extremely profound, namely that porn is to men as chick-flicks are to women; fantasies that are harmless enough on their own but don’t do much to prepare people for the reality of being in a relationship.  It’s an okay concept, but that’s all there is to it; Gordon-Levitt as writer and director does nothing subtle, original or challenging with it.  Worse, he shows no sign of having any knowledge or respect for cinema; it’s clear he was only interested in working with the actors and entrusted the camerawork to his crew.  And what a weenie too; he made such a show of his pride in his bold and provocative movie, but immediately backed down and cut stuff out when it was threatened with an NC-17 rating.  Gordon-Levitt’s own character was so uninteresting that I had zero curiosity to see how his heart softens by the end of the film, which I’m only assuming is what happens because I didn’t stick around for it.