Don Jon
September. 27,2013 RA New Jersey guy dedicated to his family, friends, and church, develops unrealistic expectations from watching porn and works to find happiness and intimacy with his potential true love.
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Reviews
I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Fresh and Exciting
Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
I put the reviews of Don Jon into 3 categories which, paraphrased are 1) "The film is shallow and sleazy and I hate it"; 2) "The film is shallow and sleazy and that's great because it's telling it like it is – it's an accurate "slice of life" story and I love it"; 3) "The first 95% of the film is shallow and sleazy, but at the very end, it rejects the sleaze for something better and I like it."#3 is what Gordon-Levitt (writer & director) was aiming for. However, that approach has been the standard out of Hollywood for decades and it fails. For the reviewers in categories in 1 & 3 above, they already recognize the shallowness and sleaze of that lifestyle. For reviewers in 2 above, by far the largest group, they view the 95% about shallowness and sleaze and that just reinforces their view that that's the way life is. What's needed is a romance movie that has heart and soul and beauty throughout – before the 1960s that was common especially in the '30s & '40s. But beginning in the '60s a downward spiral for "romance" movies started with each year being worse – each year the difference between Hollywood romance and porn shrunk with many describing most such fare as soft porn and many producers admitting they were aiming to produce soft porn as the best way to make money. Maybe that's why LaLaLand, which was a throwback to an earlier era, was so well received, but even it seemed like a pale shadow of Demy's films which in turn were a pale shadow of the romance films (and life) of the '30s & '40s. Gordon-Levitt is a very good actor. Regarding technique, he can write and is a good director. However, he doesn't seem to have anything to write about. Maybe shallowness and sleaze is all he's experienced, first or even second hand. His efforts have no heart or soul or depth. Modern action adventure movies are well done, but modern movies about the relationship between a man and a woman too often are just soft porn.The formula was wrong but to make it work, the audience should at the very least have been rooting for Jon to go with Esther (Julianne Moore) because of her inner beauty and heart, etc. – I knew in advance that's how it should go, but felt nothing except that she was annoying – not Julianne's fault – it was 100% the fault of the empty script. Jon only rises a few levels, out of about 50, from the shallowness and sleaze at the end as that's as high as Gordon-Levitt's vision can see. I don't think the new movie writer generation is capable of improving so the only solution seems to be to watch films from a different era.
Let me start this review by saying that I love Julianne Moore, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Scarlett Johansen. As such, I was really looking forward to it, and perhaps that expectation contributed to my ultimate disappointment.Everyone looks gorgeous in this film (special praise for Tony Danza, a 65-year-old with a much younger man's physique: well done!), but apart from that, there isn't much to recommend it. If it's a comedy, we must have missed all the jokes because it just wasn't funny. The "late '80s North Jersey guido" stereotypes are all trotted out in quick succession, whereafter viewers are beaten over the head with them. The accents! The muscle cars! The tight clothing! The product-heavy hairstyles! The gratuitous shouting and swearing! The mother who endures it all for the unconditional love of her son! If there were an adaptation for the stage, I bet we'd have been sprayed with Drakkar Noir to complete the feeling.Other points: * The always delightful Julianne Moore is under-used here. * The exploration of a character's addiction to porn is at best a side show. This is not a film with really much depth at all.
I wanted to see Joseph Gorden- Levitt's movie Don Jon, because I saw him in 'Mysterious Skin' directed by Gregg Araki. Joseph was good when he was young. He really knew how to act and he would put emotions in the character which would make you cry. But I was totally disappointed at Joseph in this character in Don Jon. He forgot how to act. He thought that he could really play a New Yorker and Italian plus Joseph, comedy is really hard. You are not a comedy actor. Why would you choose to write and direct and then you wanted to be a lead actor in it too. There was no real plot in the film and actors were just superficial and there was nothing natural about them. There was vulgar sex like every 10 minutes as if that was the way to keep audience engaged. Scarlett Johansson was struggling to produce New Yorker accent and I don't really care about her acting anyways. I don't know who wanted to put money into this film. Ryan Kavanaugh kept putting money into bad films that's why he is bankrupt.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt excels with his directorial debut and shows that he is equally as strong behind the cameras as he is in front of the cameras. Don Jon is a movie about a New jersey bartender called Jon Martello (Joseph Gordon-Leviit) who portrays a universal image for men as porn lovers. Also starring alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore who give performances just as strong as the main actor. This movie stuck out to me in one major way, the power to portray how both men and women's perceptions of relationships are deceived by porn and romance movies. Men who watch porn expect women to be like the female porn stars they engage so much time into. In this respect, men automatically decide that all females in this world act like porn stars, which is not the case. When their hopes and dreams of a 'perfect' woman turn out to be false they are automatically let down and don't think that woman is for them. The same can be said for women, who expect a relationship with a man to be that from typical romance movies, romantic, perfect and unbreakable. When these standards are not met by the man and woman in a relationship, it breaks down due to the deception from these romance movies and pornography. Overall Don Jon gives a realistic perspective on modern day relationships, with strong acting, directing and narrative on top. Don't be drawn away from this movie because it is cast under romance as it's nothing like the genre it claims to be. Any moviegoer should see this movie, especially with your other partner as it may say a lot about your relationship and provide ways in which you can improve upon it.