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''Don Jon'' is a 2013 American romantic
comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
film written and directed by
Joseph Gordon-Levitt Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt (; born February 17, 1981) 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 his feature directorial debut. The film stars Gordon-Levitt,
Scarlett Johansson Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has featured multiple times on the ''Forbes'' Celebrity 100 list. ''Time'' magazine named her one of the 100 ...
, and
Julianne Moore Julie Anne Smith (born December 3, 1960), known professionally as Julianne Moore, is an American actress. Prolific in film since the early 1990s, she is particularly known for her portrayals of emotionally troubled women in independent films, a ...
, with Rob Brown,
Glenne Headly Glenne Aimee Headly (March 13, 1955 – June 8, 2017) was an American actress. She was widely known for her roles in '' Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'', ''Dick Tracy'', and ''Mr. Holland's Opus''. Headly received a Theatre World Award and four Joseph J ...
,
Brie Larson Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers (born October 1, 1989), known professionally as Brie Larson, is an American actress. Known for her supporting roles in comedies as a teenager, she has since expanded to leading roles in independent films and blockb ...
, and
Tony Danza Tony Danza (born Anthony Salvatore Iadanza; April 21, 1951) is an American actor. He is known for co-starring in the television series ''Taxi'' (1978–1983) and '' Who's the Boss?'' (1984–1992), for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award a ...
in supporting roles. The film premiered under its original title ''Don Jon's Addiction'' at the
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
on January 18, 2013, and was released in the United States on September 27, 2013. The film grossed $41 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics.


Plot

Jon Martello is a young Italian-American and modern-day
Don Juan Don Juan (), also known as Don Giovanni (Italian), is a legendary, fictional Spanish libertine who devotes his life to seducing women. Famous versions of the story include a 17th-century play, '' El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra'' ...
living and working as a bartender in New Jersey. He enjoys being independent and has a strict fitness regimen, caring for his apartment and 1972
Chevrolet Chevelle SS The Chevrolet Chevelle is a mid-sized automobile that was produced by Chevrolet in three generations for the 1964 through 1978 model years. Part of the General Motors (GM) A-body platform, the Chevelle was one of Chevrolet's most successful ...
, and weekly family dinners. Though he prides himself on his active casual sex life, he is more satisfied by watching
hardcore pornography Hardcore pornography, or hardcore porn, is pornography that features detailed depictions of sexual organs or sexual acts such as vaginal, anal or oral intercourse, fingering, anilingus, ejaculation, and fetish play. The term is in contrast wi ...
and masturbating to it. To atone for his sexual indiscretions, he completes weekly confessions at church. At a nightclub with his two best friends, Bobby and Danny, 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 Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
, he invites her to lunch. There is mutual attraction, but she insists on a long-term courtship and demands he always be honest. Their relationship proceeds over a month and without sex. Barbara encourages Jon to take a nighttime
community college A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior sec ...
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. They finally have sex, but Jon is still dissatisfied. He considers her body perfect, but still finds porn more satisfying. Barbara catches him 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 her as it becomes an addiction. After class, Jon catches Esthera middle-aged classmateweeping 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 the quality of the 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, 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. She 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, he finds her crying in the hall and she reveals that her husband and son died in a car accident just fourteen months ago. 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 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.


Cast


Production

Development for ''Don Jon'' began in 2008, when Gordon-Levitt wrote early notes about the film.
Rian Johnson Rian Craig Johnson (born December 17, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with the neo-noir mystery film ''Brick'' (2005), which received positive reviews and grossed nearly $4 million on a $450,000 budget. Transition ...
gave feedback during the writing process and reviewed several cuts of the film.
Christopher Nolan Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Cinema of the United States, Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. ...
cautioned against both directing and starring in the film due to the extra challenges it would bring. Gordon-Levitt has credited his experience directing short films for
HitRecord HitRecord (pronounced ; often stylized as HITREC●RD) is an online collaborative media platform founded and owned by actor and director Joseph Gordon-LevittGordon-Levitt. The company uses a variety of media to produce such projects as short film ...
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. Principal photography for ''Don Jon'' began in May 2012.


Rating

In the United States, the film was originally certified
NC-17 The Motion Picture Association film rating system is used in the United States and its territories to rate a motion picture's suitability for certain audiences based on its content. The system and the ratings applied to individual motion picture ...
, 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.


Reception


Box office

''Don Jon'' grossed $24.5 million in North America and $16.5 million internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $41 million.


Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
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."
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
gives a weighted average score of 66 out of 100 based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by
CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...
on its opening weekend gave ''Don Jon'' an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale. ''Don Jon'' received very positive reviews at the
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
. ''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." William Goss of Film.com praised Gordon-Levitt for his "assured style" as both director and screenwriter. Edward Douglas of ComingSoon.net gave high praise to the screenplay. 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 Shame is an unpleasant self-conscious emotion often associated with negative self-evaluation; motivation to quit; and feelings of pain, exposure, distrust, powerlessness, and worthlessness. Definition Shame is a discrete, basic emotion, d ...
''. The supporting actresses Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore received praise for their performances. 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 ''Saturday Night Fever'' is a 1977 American dance drama film directed by John Badham and produced by Robert Stigwood. It stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young Italian-American man from the Brooklyn borough of New York. Manero spends his ...
'' that an arm-swinging paint-can reverie wouldn't be out of place."


Accolades


Home media

''Don Jon'' was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 31, 2013 (
New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly referred to ...
). By June 2014, over two million copies of the Blu-ray were sold.


References


External links

* * * * * * {{Joseph Gordon-Levitt 2013 films 2013 directorial debut films 2013 independent films 2013 romantic comedy-drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s sex comedy films American independent films American romantic comedy-drama films American sex comedy films Films about pornography Films about sex addiction Films based on the Don Juan legend Films directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt Films produced by Ram Bergman Films scored by Nathan Johnson (musician) Films set in a movie theatre Films set in New Jersey Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in New Jersey Relativity Media films Voltage Pictures films Films about grieving 2010s American films