Don Jon (2014), A Sweet Sleazy Love Story




In Don Jon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Jon, the title character, unreconstituted working class Brooklyn, who, in the first 30 seconds of this trailer, spells out quite specifically, the things about which he cares the most.




Don Jon
This is a rare, excellent trailer in that it effectively tells you what the movie is about, without giving away the story at all. It seemed to me that most of the press when the movie came out was hung up on the main character being addicted to porn, to the point that he believed it was better to get off with porn than to have sex with an actual girl.

In reality that was only one aspect of the character that Joseph Gordon-Levitt so excellently portrayed. He considers Scarlet Johansson the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. But when she becomes his girlfriend, he finds out that she is as shallow as he is, if not moreso.



What I really like about this movie is the fantastic acting by the two leads: they are completely believable, and you have never seen them do characters like this. The actors who play Jon's parents are equally amazing, especially Tony Danza as Jon Sr.



Julianne Moore is also excellent as a fellow college student who Jon meets in class. Without giving away the story, lets just say that by the end of the movie, Gordon-Levitt grows to the point that he can finally have a real relationship with a woman. I find Don Jon to be a sweet sleazy love story.



About the sex, verbally the film is totally graphic. But the visuals are so artfully directed that they leave nothing to the imagination, yet there is very little nudity in Don Jon. The fact that Gordon-Levitt wrote the film and directed it makes his accomplishment all the more impressive. I gave it four out of five Netflix stars.

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