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Chris Knipp
09-29-2013, 06:58 PM
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: DON JON (2013)

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/544/p12n.jpg
SCARLETT JOHANSSON AND JOSEPH GORDON-LEVIT IN DON JON

Jokey message movie is Gordon-Levitt's debut

In the 32-year-old Joseph Gordon-Levitt's indeed, as the poster says, bold and confident directorial debut, which he wrote and stars in, he works fluently in stereotypes, clichés, schticks, and repetition. And laughs. His hero, who his buddies call "the Don," is a young working-class New Jersey Italo-American who keeps things real simple. He often eats with his mother Monica, father Jon Sr., and sister Angela (Glenne Headly, Tony Danza, and Brie Larson), but has his own apartment, which he enjoys cleaning himself. He likes hanging out with his two best pals Bobby and Danny (Bob Brown and Jeremy Luke) at the bar where he works, rating the chicks on a scale of one to ten, picking up the best, making out with her on the couch, and taking them home for sex. He loves family and he loves his local Catholic church, which he attends with them -- each shot of them in a row in the pew shifting fast to his weekly confession, when he admits his sex out of wedlock and his masturbation with porn and gets his Hail Marys and Lord's Prayers. The porn: that he loves especially, and this R Rated movie will show you many glimpses of it and give you lots of blunt sex talk in Jon's (Gordon Levitt's) frequent voiceovers.

This movie is notable for its clarity, simplicity, bluntness, and vulgarity. It's also sweet, and almost naively simple and uplifting in its message. It says if you want to have good sex, you must learn to lose yourself totally in the other person.

At the bar one night Jon picks up a babe who blows the guys away, a "dime," a perfect ten, Barbara Sugarman (Scarlett Johansson), a voluptuous bleach-blonde Jewish girl. Johansson plays Barbara as just as simple and iconic a Jersey cliché as Jon and everybody else. With Barbara, things go further. It's not just a lay. They keep going out, and she doesn't put out at first, he has to wait. When his patience is rewarded, he becomes so interested he brings her to meet his family, and his parents are very happy, Jon Sr. impressed that her boobs are real, his mother ecstatic that Jon's settling down. But after Jon has sex with this babe, no matter how good it is, every time he's still horny. So he sneaks away to jack off with his online porn. Immediately she catches him and is outraged and insulted. He promises to stop. But of course he doesn't. And she insists he must not lie to him. And of course he does.

Eventually when Jon's not in the room Barbara looks up his browsing "history" on his laptop and sees he's surfed over 40 porn sites, on just that one day! He loves his porn. All he goes to on the Internet is porn. He's been lying to her, and she forbade him to lie. It's over. They break up.

Barbara says all she asked of Jon was one thing. But in retrospect he realizes she's asked for a lot of things.Notably, she told him he could not clean his own apartment any more. She found that humiliating. She won't evenn allow him to shop for cleaning supplies when she's at the store with him. But this is no real surprise. She wanted him to do everything her way. She was a "princess" -- the word is used only once, and Gordon-Levitt refrains from the word "Jewish," but we know what he means.

While they were dating Barbara also commanded Jon to take an evening class, and he's been obeying. And that's where he meets Esther (Julianne Moore), an older woman who's weeping when he first sees her, but who approaches him persistently, a little annoyingly, also flatteringly. Eventually they have sex in a car. With her, he shares what has happened with Barbara, and the porn issue.

Esther is fully understanding. She knows all men use porn, and greatly sympathizes how when he tries to do without it he winds up not having an orgasm for a week. This is when they have great sex at his place, and she teaches him about how to have really fulfilling sex he must learn to lose himself completely in the other person when he does so.

Don Jon's tongue-in-cheek stereotyping doesn't mean it contains a cool or ironic world view. In fact Esther, who wants sex but can't give love now because she's recently lost her husband and son in a tragic accident, can be taken very straight.

The simplicity extends to all the repetitions, the ritual family dinners, with Monica staring into her handheld device (till that one moment when she finally speaks, to condemn Barbara); the church and confession and penance sessions; the porno sessions, with the Kleenex thrown with a click into the waste basket to show the job has been done; the prance down the health club hallway to the weight room and the weight lifting, reciting phrases from the Lord's Prayer as he pumps the iron.

In its comic stereotyping and repetitions Don Jon has something in common with classic Fifties or early Sixties film comedies, maybe Italian ones -- with the crude language and sexual explicitness of the present era added. This is fine. Still, it's a bit too simple to be a really good movie. But it's also a bit too assured not to be a distinctive beginning for Gordon-Levitt. He was a child actor. He became known through the TV show "3rd Rock from the Sun." He went on to be in remarkably edgy and original films like Manic, Latter Days, Mysterious Skin, Brick and The Lookout, all unexpected and smart. He played a different kind of role in Stop-Loss; then he caught more and different eyes with the cute, original rom-coms (500) Days of Summer and 50-50. After G.I. Joe, he played the weirdly sleazy titular character in Hesher. Since then he has seamlessly slid into the "big time," so to speak, with roles in Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, and -- edgy again, and cool, but higher profile, in Brick director Rian Johnson's much admired Looper. There is an admirable balance and range in what he has done. If you haven't been following Joseph Gordon-Levitt, it's high time you started catching up.

Being an actor, Joe makes good use of actors in Don Jon. Even if she is a stereotype, Johansson is delicious as the crudely luscious Jewish princess. Tony Danza is a nice piece of casting. Julianne Moore, as usual, is good. Everything else being bright and shiny, the dimmer, off-center evening school scenes are the most different and interesting, setting a new mood that opens the way for Jon's revelations. Esther represents a different, more adult and nuanced world that will help him become more of a real human being. In another film, Gordon-Leavitt may take the risk of starting out as one. Or, he may like working with broad satire. Time will tell, but judging from the varied career he has had up to now, it's certain he'll be trying new and different things and growing as he moves on. So Don Jon's simplistic aspects don't seem a worry, but probably a good opening strategy in the career chess game Joe has played so well up to now.

Don Jon, 90 mins., debuted at Sundance, and opened in the US 27 Sept. 2013.

cinemabon
09-30-2013, 10:17 PM
I wondered how Gordon would do on his directorial debut. Glad you enjoyed parts of it. I wanted to go this weekend and got caught up in some BS stuff. Perhaps this week. Hope you had fun in NY.

Chris Knipp
10-01-2013, 06:59 AM
You mean Gordon-Leavitt? Don't forget it's a double name! I didn't like parts of it, I just partly liked it. I don't know why he chose to dumb himself down. Maybe he thought he was too smart for wide release. What's wrong with it maybe is what AV Club (http://www.avclub.com/articles/don-jon,103344/) reviewer A.A. Dowd says, he adopted a "sub-Edgar Wright" syle and the effect is "a little one-note." Fun is to be had though, up to a point, all through. Dowd gives it a C+. That I'm afraid is just about right. Many will be put off by the topic.

oscar jubis
10-01-2013, 11:31 PM
This is a "thumbs up" for me, basically, "worth watching" but I would temper my expectations cinemabon. It seems to be what CK is doing in his last post, which is not as (partly) positive as his spot-on review.

Chris Knipp
10-02-2013, 06:45 AM
Was mostly aiming to describe the movie in my review more than rate it. I would never give thumbs up on it to women of mature years. I would go to anything by or involving Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, even if it was directed by Christopher Nolan. Why he chose to dumb himself down like this is hard to say. See reviews for speculaiton.

Johann
10-02-2013, 03:30 PM
In Canada the Conservative government (read: Stephen Harper) has labelled J G-L's DON JON as an obscene porno flick and should be banned.

Can you believe that?
Harper has been attacking the Arts ever since he took power.

"Hello Stevie. It's your Uncle Bingo. Time to Pay the Check."

cinemabon
11-04-2013, 11:55 AM
My wife and I went to see this other night and came away impressed with several aspects of the film: the shallow relationship between Jon and Barbara; the role of Esther, and the daughter Monica who finally speaks up at the end (priceless) - summing up their relationship in one phrase that neither the mother nor the father understood. Being in a film that you're also directing must be extremely difficult for most actors. Having to go back and forth between takes to make certain you got the right one must be maddening. Allen is one of the few directors who has done so successfully over a lifetime of filmmaking. Gordon-Levitt manages several scenes (the lunch kiss off, for example) very well by shooting back and forth straight-on shots and cutting on the dialogue (an easy solution as each actor can do all of his or her lines during one take) or at the dinner table where you can combine a two shot in one direction and cut with the opposite direction as in the lunch scene. But in tracking shots where the camera is in motion you've got to do walk throughs or else you'd be shooting all day. That's very complex for a first time director and Gordon-Levitt pulled it off (pun intended) with panache.

Chris Knipp
11-04-2013, 01:02 PM
Being in a film that you're also directing must be extremely difficult for most actors. That doesn't keep a lot of them from trying it though, does it? And most recently Ralph Fiennes is another example in THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (NYFF). Gordon-Levitt has a lot of energy and is a smart young man. I hope he will do something with a bit more depth next time. Perhaps the simplicity of his lead character and setup helped him deal with these technical challenges you mention.

Chris Knipp
11-09-2013, 11:46 PM
I've just gone over my old mail and found Rex Reed's scathing Sept. 24 review of DON JON in New York Observer (http://observer.com/2013/09/all-the-real-girls-don-jon-looks-at-love-in-the-time-of-porn-addiction/). Reed is more willing to be mean than I am. I was trying to be nicel; I like Gordon-Levitt. He has had an interesting acting career so far. But there is a lot of truth in what Reed says.

For a vanity showcase most wannabe actor-writer-director hyphenates would kill for, he appears to be coasting on cruise control. . .

Are these people real? It’s all supposed to be amusing, but it’s just one-dimensional and obnoxious. Mercifully, it’s over in an hour and a half, but these are the kinds of people you would not want to spend 90 seconds with, much less 90 minutes. . .

The writing is superficial and amateurish, never rising above rambling conversations about condoms (“To use or not to use?”). The point is synthetic.

cinemabon
11-16-2013, 10:59 AM
New forays into film can be frustrating at the start. How many people remember Woody Allen's first movie, "What's Up Tiger Lilly?" Who would believe that Allen would be Oscar nominated for writing more than any writer in the history of film? I enjoyed "Don Jon" for what it was - a New York comedy about a lifestyle exploited recently by reality television. I'm certain there are many people who live in that world. It was easy for Gordon-Levitt to poke fun at those whose life consists of work, nightclubs, family and church. What makes "Don Jon" endearing is the main character's ability to break from his mold and see his world in more dimensions.

Chris Knipp
11-16-2013, 11:27 AM
There's no evidence Gordon-Levitt is another Woody Allen. It's your opinion that WHAT'S UP TIGER LILY? is poor stuff. Some authorities disagree. Jonathan Rosenbaum recently wrote (http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/whats-up-tiger-lily/Film?oid=1072346) that TIGER LILY is "Arguably Woody Allen's funniest movie." ROTTEN TOMATOES compiled 24 reviews of it and the score was 83%. TIGER LILY may have been odd and sketchy, but it showed originality and promise. DON JON doesn't, is the trouble.

cinemabon
11-16-2013, 10:12 PM
75? I would never have guessed. Comments amended.

cinemabon
11-16-2013, 10:14 PM
As to Don Juan, I liked it. Granted, it was a niche film. I disagree with Rex Reed.

Chris Knipp
11-16-2013, 10:43 PM
Age is a state of mind, cinembaon.

I am glad you cut out the harsh personal remarks about a certain critic. I have removed my reply to them.

I don't completely agree with Reed on DON JON. I enjoyed watching it too actually. But I think Gordon-Levitt took a too-easy path and could have done something much better. I think Reed's strong criticisms had merit and clear the air. I like critics who go out on a limb. This is why i lik Rex Reed, Armond White, and Walter Chaw. But their writing varies. Reed is very fluent and elegant. White's writing is iffy at times. Ditto Chaw, with his overlong sentences. If more critics would write like Rex Reed or Anthony Lane I'd be happy.

cinemabon
11-16-2013, 10:48 PM
I've read Reed for years and didn't get that vibe from his critiques (going against the main stream). Perhaps he's changed. I always considered him one of the main stream critics (Vincent Canby, James Agee, etc.)

Chris Knipp
11-17-2013, 09:37 AM
Since Vincent Canby and James Agee are long gone, the context has changed. You haven't been reading Reed's reviews in recent years in The New York Observer, I gather.

cinemabon
11-17-2013, 05:10 PM
Judging from your tone I would assume you are a friend of Rex. Since I respect your judgment and don't wish to cause an argument, I will refrain from saying anything else for or against him or in any regard.

Reed has made many social faux pas recently and is not well liked - comments about Marisa Tomei, Melissa McCarthy, the country of Korea, Candy Spelling and many others have upset many people. But again, I respect you, Chris and would prefer not to get into a tiff over this.

Chris Knipp
11-17-2013, 05:36 PM
You say you will not offend me by saying anything against Reed and then you proceed to do so. . .

I am not a friend of Rex Reed. I've never met him. He was once pointed out to me at a Lincoln Center screening.

I am aware that Reed has made outrageous remarks. I do not go down his path on all these slurs.

I still enjoy reading his movie reviews. They are well written and entertaining. Few reviews really are. The other person like that is Anthony Lane of the New Yorker. But Reed writes more reviews. Lane one or two every other week; Reed two to four every week.

Armond Whie makes slurs too. It seems to be part of being an independent, provocative critic.

Beware of a film critic who is comfortable and easy and never offends anyone. He will probably never say anything interesting either.

Reed's most famous recent slur was against the comedienne Melissa McCarthy. He dared to call her fat and offensive. She is fat and offensive. He simply had the temerity to say so. Of course all fat, foul-mouthed women rose up in outrage.