Review of Don Jon (2013) by Harry W — 18 Feb 2014

I have a great admiration for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the fact that he turned down a significant role in Quentin Tarantino's spaghetti western masterpiece Django Unchained to create Don Jon meant that it had to be good material.

It is not the slightest bit surprising that it was, because Don Jon is one of the few films to tackle sex in such a head on way. It targets the physical elements of it from many angles, and in that path it makes an interesting argument about the difference between pornography and actual sexual intercourse. It is pretty educational because it teaches viewers about the addictive qualities that the male crowd loves about it and even teaches the crowd that there is more to sex than pornography, which is important in this day and age with entertainment industries dominate much of society.

Don Jon reveals juts how much the entertainment industry affects people's perceptions of both sexual activity and love through different mediums, be they romantic films or pornographic films. In this sense it works as a commentary on how times are changing and the important elements of a relationship are becoming more and more affected by extraneous means which makes the concept or relationships very shallow. If you look at the society of people known for being the most commonly affected by pornography, the teenage male crowd which is my crowd, you can examine a lot of the stereotypical elements of relationships. They tend to rely more on social gain much of the time and are looked at in a lot more physical way. Don Jon is an example of a realistic look at relationships in a comedic and yet intelligent form, and the most praise for the film can be directed straight as Joseph Gordon-Levitt for making his answer to Citizen Kane.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives puts his best talents into writing and directing Don Jon, and so it comes out with a very intelligent screenplay which covers all of the insightful complex sexual material that he explores over the course of 90 minutes.

And the story's Jersey context is well executed because the actors manage to all capture the ideal mannerisms of the stereotypical people from the area, vocally and physically. The talents of the cast is one of the key reasons to watch Don Jon.

Josephy Godon-Levitt's talents as an actor are great as usual in Don Jon because of how he portrays a macho Jersey sterotype, and yet over the course of the story he proves to be one easy to sympathise with, particularly because of how he develops over the course of the story at a realistic pace and just what he learns as a character as if he didn't already know it as a human being. His charm and sex appeal is at some of its strongest in Don Jon, and he proves that he can act his own material out perfectly.

Scarlett Johansson is fiercely powerful in Don Jon as she not only has a line delivery that is so strong she can suck the attention of audiences in, but she has such vivacious teanacity over her character and a simple strong understanding of just what makes Barbara tick. Her intelligent and sexy performance is one of her best, and she is an absolute screen-stealer in Don Jon.

Julianne Moore is just beautiful in Don Jon, both as an actress and as a woman. As well as still having the same beauty she has maintained for many years, in Don Jon her character Esther embodies Julianne Moore's sense of wisdom and sexual knowledge. And her spirit and friendliness makes her a seriously genial presence which largely benefits the development of the story in Don Jon.

Tony Danza does a great job as well.

So Don Jon is a failry funny and very intelligent romantic comedy and examination of the sexual nature of the male psyche which plays on various stereotypes and greatly written characters to serve as an excellently well directed and written debut for Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a great film director.