Don John
Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johannson, Julianne Moore, Tony Danza, Brie Larson, Glenne Headly, Anne Hathaway and Channing Tatum
Written and Directed by Joseph Gordon Levitt
Joseph Gordon Levitt has had a great career trajectory, from sitcom actor to indie darling to a regular player in Christopher Nolan’s film. His first dalliance in writing and directing a movie, Don Jon, portrays, well…dalliances with women. The titular character, played by Gordon-Levitt himself, a guy who, with his wing men, can pick up well at a club, which is what my generation is apparently up to these days. There is a catch however, since these women doesn’t satisfy him as much as the women he sees on his laptop screen. What a shame.
He has his own ideas about sex, and as a writer-director Gordon-Levitt generously applies the same consideration for the other characters, especially his love interests Barbara Sugarman (Johannson), who believes in waiting for sex, rom-com romances and is against porn. Even supporting characters like his night school classmate (Moore) and his club wing men have their own ideas about what’s sexually satisfying. The dialogue is equally generous to them, the actors saying their lines in a matter of fact way and without trumpeting them. And I’m kinda glad to hear these different conversations about desire even if they’re happening within such a tawdry comedy. And of course, I’m also hoping that this movie doesn’t get Gordon-Levitt typecasted into a character like this who is so unsympathetically cartoonish.
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