Don Jon
A 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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- Cast:
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt , Scarlett Johansson , Julianne Moore , Tony Danza , Glenne Headly , Brie Larson , Lindsey Broad
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Reviews
So much average
Simply Perfect
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
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.
To start off, the first time I saw this movie I was sixteen years old, so my opinion back then was that this movie was absolutely disgusting.This year I watched it again, only this time I am eighteen. And what I retained from it was a change, first Jon was like the name says a Don Jon but then when he meets this woman who show's him that he has to lose himself in others he completely changes! So what I think is that this movie illustrates very well our nowadays society, a huge part of men and women only think about sex, their own pleasure, instead of connecting and really feeling/living the moment as a unique experience not as thing that you do with however goes your way every Friday night. Suming up, this a movie worth watching, not one of my favorites but not bad either! It shows how most of the people act but only a few have the ability to realize what Jon did.
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.
In the same month (September 2013), American movie fans may have noticed the release of two movies about sex addiction. Although it's good to call attention to this very real problem, one of those two movies did it much better than the other. "Thanks for Sharing" takes the subject seriously and has a good story with appealing characters. And then there's "Don Jon" (R, 1:30).This film is written and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who also stars. Jon is a man who cannot get enough sex. He has issues and, as the kids say, he needs tissues for his issues (literally). He brings to bed an endless parade of beautiful women, but still looks at pornography - constantly - even when his latest conquest is sleeping in his bed. He doesn't see a problem with this. He further shows his character's contradictions both as he swears at other drivers while he's rushing to church and as he makes completely insincere confessions in said building.Jon continues unapologetically on this path until he meets Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), who he's convinced is a "10", but who refuses to be his latest one night stand. Jon and Barbara are adorable together, but their constant sexual play and public displays of affection eventually make us feel like voyeurs and border on the disgusting - a word that describes many aspects of this movie. Barbara begins to change Jon's behavior and just might be the one to change his priorities. Or maybe it'll be Esther (Julianne Moore), Jon's college classmate. Or maybe Jon won't change at all.As we wait to see whether Jon accepts that he has a problem and remedy his approach to life and love, we're subjected to Jon and his friends' gross disrespect of women, Jon's obnoxious and dysfunctional family (headed by a very loud, foul-mouthed Tony Danza) along with characters' actions and reactions that don't make sense and are just plain dumb. Helping the audience (especially sex addicts in the audience) see that pornography can never substitute for true intimacy (and can even inhibit it) is a worthy goal, but, in this case, the destination does not justify the journey.So, to sum up, we have a dumb script, disgusting displays, dysfunction and disrespect. Hmm. That's a lot of Ds in my review of "Don Jon". I guess one more won't hurt. This movie's grade also starts with a "D".