Don Jon | |
---|---|
Directed by | Joseph Gordon-Levitt |
Written by | Joseph Gordon-Levitt |
Produced by | Ram Bergman |
Starring |
|
Cinematography | Thomas Kloss |
Edited by | Lauren Zuckerman |
Music by | Nathan Johnson |
Production companies |
|
Distributed by | Relativity Media [1] |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 90 minutes [2] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $7.5 million [3] [4] |
Box office | $41.3 million [4] |
Don Jon is a 2013 American romantic comedy-drama film [5] written and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in his feature directorial debut. The film stars Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, and Julianne Moore, with Rob Brown, Glenne Headly, Brie Larson, and Tony Danza in supporting roles. The film premiered under its original title Don Jon's Addiction [6] [7] at the Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2013, [8] and was released in the United States on September 27, 2013. The film grossed $41 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics.
Jon Martello is a young Italian-American bartender and modern-day Don Juan living in New Jersey. He enjoys his independent life, which consists of working out, caring for his apartment, driving his 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle SS, going to church with his family, and engaging in a casual sex life. Though he enjoys sex, he is more satisfied by masturbating to hardcore pornography.
While at a nightclub with his two best friends, Jon becomes enamored with Barbara Sugarman, a beautiful young woman from an affluent background. Despite heavy flirting, she declines his offer for a one-night stand. Finding her on Facebook, Jon invites Barbara to lunch. There is mutual attraction, but she insists on a long-term courtship and demands that he always be honest. Their relationship proceeds over a month and without sex. Barbara encourages Jon to take a nighttime community college class to obtain a career outside the service industry, and he indulges her love of romance films, which he usually dismisses as fantasy. They meet each other's friends and families, and Jon's parents are immediately smitten by Barbara.
Jon takes great satisfaction in thoroughly cleaning his apartment, but Barbara criticizes him for this, considering the job unmanly and beneath him. She urges him to hire it out or have her family's maid do the job.
Jon and Barbara finally have sex, but he is still dissatisfied. He considers her body perfect, but still finds porn more satisfying. Barbara catches Jon watching porn, but he manages to convince her that it was a joke email sent by a friend. Their relationship resumes, with Jon concealing his habit from Barbara as it becomes an addiction.
After class, Jon catches Esther –a middle-aged classmate –weeping by herself, and when she sits next to him just before the next class to explain herself, she catches him watching porn on his cell phone. She teases him about watching this type of video, but he brushes her off.
Before the next class Esther shocks Jon by handing him an erotic video which she believes has a healthier depiction of sex. Barbara finds Jon's porn history on his laptop and breaks up with him.
Jon tries to go back to his old life but struggles to do so. His friend persuades him to return to community college where he sees Esther again, and after class they wind up having sex in her parked car. She asks why he loves porn so much, and he reveals that he wants to get lost in sex, but cannot do that with a partner. Esther persuades Jon to try masturbating without porn, but he is unable to. They continue having casual sex, and Esther expresses the belief that Jon enjoys sex alone because he has not found a real intimate connection with a romantic partner and focuses merely on his own satisfaction. After suggesting they take a bath together, Esther starts crying in the hall and does not join him. He comes out to find her sad and smoking a cigarette in the living room, where she reveals that her husband and son died in a car crash just fourteen months prior. The intimacy of this moment deepens their emotional connection, and Jon experiences truly satisfying sex for the first time in his life.
Jon tells his family about the breakup with Barbara. While his parents are upset, his sister Monica bluntly tells him that Barbara's demands showed that she wanted to date someone who allowed her to control him. Jon meets with Barbara and apologizes for lying to her. They discuss her expectations, which he asserts were unattainable, and she tells him not to call her again.
Although, or because, she is considerably older and neither of them has any interest in marriage, Jon and Esther happily begin dating and "lose" themselves when being intimate.
Development for Don Jon began in 2008, when Gordon-Levitt wrote early notes about the film. Rian Johnson gave feedback during the writing process and reviewed several cuts of the film. Christopher Nolan cautioned against both directing and starring in the film due to the extra challenges it would bring. [9]
Gordon-Levitt has credited his experience directing short films for HitRecord for teaching him what he needed to know to make Don Jon and has said that he hopes to make films in a more collaborative way in the future. [10]
Principal photography for Don Jon began in May 2012.
In the United States, the film was originally certified NC-17, due to some explicit pornography that Jon watches. Gordon-Levitt decided to remove some of the more graphic scenes to qualify for an R rating because he felt the original rating would cause people to think the movie was about pornography. [11]
Don Jon grossed $24.5 million in North America and $16.5 million internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $41 million. [4]
Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 80% based on 202 reviews, with a rating average of 6.8/10. The website's critical consensus states: "Don Jon proves to be an amiable directing debut for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and a vivacious showcase for his co-star, Scarlett Johansson." [12] Metacritic gives a weighted average score of 66 out of 100 based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [13] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore on its opening weekend gave Don Jon an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale. [14] [15]
Don Jon received very positive reviews at the Sundance Film Festival.Entertainment Weekly managing editor Jess Cagle called the film "one of the best movies I saw at the fest" and wrote "Funny, touching, smart, and supremely confident, Don Jon is also Gordon-Levitt's feature directorial debut, and it establishes him as one of Hollywood's most exciting new directors." [16] William Goss of Film.com praised Gordon-Levitt for his "assured style" as both director and screenwriter. [17] Edward Douglas of ComingSoon.net gave high praise to the screenplay. [18] Consensus of the film when it was played at the Sundance Film Festival, as noted by Odie Henderson, was that Don Jon was a "more fun version" of the 2011 film Shame . [19]
The supporting actresses Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore received praise for their performances. [20] [21] Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice praised the film, writing: "There's no dancing in Gordon-Levitt's writing-directing debut, Don Jon, although the movie is so heavily reminiscent—in the good way—of Saturday Night Fever that an arm-swinging paint-can reverie wouldn't be out of place." [22]
Award | Category | Subject | Result |
---|---|---|---|
Bombay International Film Festival | Golden Gateway | Joseph Gordon-Levitt | Nominated |
COFCA Award | Breakthrough Film Artist | Brie Larson | 2nd place |
Chicago Film Critics Association Award | Most Promising Filmmaker | Joseph Gordon-Levitt | Nominated |
Denver Film Critics Society Award | Best Comedy Film | Nominated | |
Georgia Film Critics Association | Breakthrough Award | Brie Larson | Won |
Golden Trailer Awards | Don LaFontaine Award for Best Voice Over | Mark Woolen & Associates | Nominated |
Most Original Trailer | J.D. Funari Dylan O'Neil Sohini Sengupta Mark Woolen & Associates | Nominated | |
Gotham Award | Best Actress | Scarlett Johansson | Nominated |
IGN Summer Movie Awards | Best Comedy Film | Nominated | |
Independent Spirit Award | Best First Screenplay [23] | Joseph Gordon-Levitt | Nominated |
Jupiter Award | Best International Actor | Nominated | |
Key Art Award | Best Trailer—Audio/Visual | J.D. Funari Dylan O'Neil Sohini Sengupta Mark Woolen & Associates | 2nd place |
MTV Movie Award | Best Kiss | Scarlett Johansson | Nominated |
Joseph Gordon-Levitt | Nominated | ||
Phoenix Film Critics Society Award | Breakthrough Performance Behind the Camera | Nominated | |
Prism Awards | Performance in a Feature Film | Nominated | |
Feature Film—Mental Health | Nominated | ||
Don Jon was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 31, 2013 (New Year's Eve). [24] By June 2014, over two million copies of the Blu-ray were sold.[ citation needed ]
Pornography addiction is the scientifically controversial application of an addiction model to the use of pornography. Pornography may be part of compulsive behavior with negative consequences to one's physical, mental, social, or financial well-being. While the World Health Organization's ICD-11 (2022) has recognized compulsive sexual behaviour disorder (CSBD) as an "impulsive control disorder", CSBD is not an addiction, and the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5 (2013) and the DSM-5-TR (2022) do not classify compulsive pornography consumption as a mental disorder or a behavioral addiction.
10 Things I Hate About You is a 1999 American teen romantic comedy film directed by Gil Junger in his film directorial debut and starring Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Larisa Oleynik. The screenplay by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith is a modernization of William Shakespeare's comedy The Taming of the Shrew, retold in a late-1990s American high school setting. The film follows new student Cameron James (Gordon-Levitt) who is smitten with Bianca Stratford (Oleynik) and attempts to get bad boy Patrick Verona (Ledger) to date her antisocial sister Kat (Stiles) in order to get around her father's strict rules on dating. Named after a poem Kat writes about her romance with Patrick, the film was mostly shot in the Seattle metropolitan area, with many scenes filmed at Stadium High School in Tacoma, Washington.
Boogie Nights is a 1997 American period drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Paul Thomas Anderson. It is set in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley and focuses on a young nightclub dishwasher who becomes a popular star of pornographic films, chronicling his rise in the Golden Age of Porn of the 1970s through his fall during the excesses of the 1980s. The film is an expansion of Anderson's mockumentary short film The Dirk Diggler Story (1988), and stars Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Heather Graham.
Zooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress and musician. She made her film debut in Mumford (1999) and had a supporting role in Cameron Crowe's film Almost Famous (2000). Deschanel is known for her deadpan roles in comedy films such as The Good Girl (2002), The New Guy (2002), Elf (2003), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Failure to Launch (2006), Yes Man (2008), The Happening (2008), 500 Days of Summer (2009) and Our Idiot Brother (2011). She has also ventured into dramatic film territory with Manic (2001), All the Real Girls (2003), Winter Passing (2005), Bridge to Terabithia (2007) and The Driftless Area (2015). From 2011 to 2018, she starred as Jess Day on the Fox sitcom New Girl, for which she received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards.
Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his leading performances in 500 Days of Summer (2009) and 50/50 (2011). He is the founder of the online media platform HitRecord whose projects such as HitRecord on TV (2014–15) and Create Together (2020) won him two Primetime Emmy Awards in the category of Outstanding Interactive Program.
Mysterious Skin is a 2004 coming-of-age drama film written, produced, and directed by Gregg Araki, adapted from Scott Heim's 1995 novel of the same name. The film tells the story of two pre-adolescent boys who both experienced sexual abuse as children, and how it affects their lives in different ways into their young adulthood. One boy becomes a reckless, sexually adventurous sex worker, while the other retreats into a reclusive fantasy of alien abduction.
Brick is a 2005 American neo-noir mystery thriller film written and directed by Rian Johnson in his directorial debut, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Brick was distributed by Focus Features, and opened in New York and Los Angeles on April 7, 2006. The film's narrative centers on a hardboiled detective story set in a California suburb. Most of the main characters are high school students. The film draws heavily in plot, characterization, and dialogue from hardboiled classics, especially those by Dashiell Hammett. The title refers to a block of heroin, compressed roughly to the size and shape of a brick.
(500) Days of Summer is a 2009 American comedy-drama film directed by Marc Webb, written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, and produced by Mark Waters. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel and employs a nonlinear narrative structure, with the story based upon its male protagonist and his memories of a failed relationship.
Alexis Texas is an American pornographic actress. In 2020, Texas was characterized as one of "the most popular porn performers", based on her Instagram following of around 3.8 million followers. She was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame in 2022.
Women in Trouble is a 2009 American sex comedy film written, produced, and directed by Sebastian Gutierrez and starring Carla Gugino, Connie Britton, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Marley Shelton, Adrianne Palicki, Simon Baker, and Josh Brolin. It was shot in 10 days for $50,000.
Hesher is a 2010 American comedy drama film written and directed by Spencer Susser in his feature directorial debut, from a screenplay by Susser and David Michôd, and based on a story by Brian Charles Frank. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rainn Wilson, Natalie Portman, Piper Laurie, and Devin Brochu, the film follows the titular rebellious metalhead and his misadventures with a depressed teenage boy coming to terms with the death of his mother in a car crash.
Looper is a 2012 American science fiction action-thriller film written and directed by Rian Johnson, and produced by Ram Bergman and James D. Stern. It stars Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Emily Blunt. It revolves around "present-day" contract killers called "loopers" sent back through time by criminal syndicates from the future.
50/50 is a 2011 American comedy-drama film directed by Jonathan Levine, written by Will Reiser, and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Anjelica Huston. The film is loosely inspired by Reiser's own experience with cancer, with Rogen's character Kyle based on Rogen himself. It was filmed from February to March 2010.
Misty Stone is an American pornographic actress and nude model. She was the Penthouse Pet of the Month for December 2014.
HitRecord is an online collaborative media platform founded and owned by actor and director Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The company uses a variety of media to produce such projects as short films, books, and DVDs. HitRecord has produced such films as Don Jon and the short films Morgan M. Morgansen's Date with Destiny and its sequel Morgan and Destiny's Eleventeenth Date: The Zeppelin Zoo.
Lovelace is a 2013 American biographical drama film centered on porn actress Linda Lovelace, star of Deep Throat, a landmark 1972 film at the forefront of the Golden Age of Porn. Lovelace covers her life from age 21 to 32.
Kink is a 2013 American documentary film produced by James Franco about the BDSM website Kink.com. The film was originally released in January 2013 and had a staggered release worldwide in 2013 and 2015.
Frank is a 2014 independent black comedy film directed by Lenny Abrahamson, produced by David Barron, Ed Guiney and Stevie Lee and written by Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan. It stars Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scoot McNairy, and François Civil.
Taboo is a 1980 American pornographic film starring Kay Parker. It was written and produced by Helene Terrie and edited and directed by Kirdy Stevens. The film is the first of a series of 23 episodes to date.
Dominique Fishback is an American actress. She played Billie Rowan on Show Me a Hero, Darlene on The Deuce, and Deborah Johnson in Judas and the Black Messiah, the latter of which earned nominations for a Critics' Choice Movie Award, and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. In 2023, she began starring in the Amazon Prime Video psychological horror series Swarm; her performance in the series has received universal praise, earning her a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards.
The Sundance cut was us pushing it past where it really ought to be, and I think it was sort of distracting for audiences. People came away feeling like, 'Oh, this is a movie about porn,' and I was like, 'No, it's not a movie about that at all.' I think because those images were so strong, they were leaving a heavier impression than I wanted them to.
Moore is a marvelous actress and this role is just another reason to love her.