Modern Day Influences

Rating: 7/10 (26 October 2013)

Don Jon is Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut, and it's quite interesting to see what kind of vision he could bring to cinema since he's always been a promising actor. The story he takes seems like something that may define to this generation by portraying how modern media distorts society's view to sex and love, and studies a somehow complex man who thinks he's living in a perfect life. The execution is noticeably crafty, the director has shown a snappy and energetic style that smartly comprehends to the story's themes. Don Jon is not revolutionary, but it is a witty tale that seems really sincere to its own message.
Jon's life mostly runs like a loop cycle. It's mainly about addiction, but what we actually observe is how difficult for him to get away from his comfort zone. Here's the trick: first off, Jon is not so much of a decent person, despite of his reputation. He's a typical playboy, he's a hypocrite, he uses religion as a tool for excuses, and doesn't quite respect a lot of people. When some of his routine breaks, that indicates that he somewhat changes as a different person. However, the real goal we should look forward is his overcome to his porn addiction. Though basically, Jon is not the only one who has a problem. Barbara may be into romance, but her interpretation to love is shallow, since she's only sees that in chick flicks. Beyond Jon's life is sort of a social satire about everyone's influences through modern media. Other than watching unreality videos, there are some people at the background who are also absorbed too much by technology. Example is Jon's sister who hardly interacts with her family because of her ridiculous text messaging addiction. These depictions are supposed to make them look terrible and the film is aware of that, but the ironies of these people are treated as a joke. In the end, it's acceptable to be amused with it.
Honestly (skip to the next paragraph if you're not from my country), the version I saw is not the same one that most have seen. The significant part of the film is to explore Jon's relationship to pornography, but the local distributor wants to release the movie widely and many theaters here can't tolerate the R-18 rating, so they frustratingly removed most of the scenes that involve porno clips and deemed into a smaller rating, thus the porn addiction side becomes a fill in the blanks subplot. This is quite of a stupid decision from the distributor, it's not that its eroticism is really that important, but everyone needs to see how weird the character's obsession to these adult videos to get into the film's big picture. So my current (7/10) rating is probably just an assumption for a while that may change soon as I see the regular US version of the film. End of local censorship complains.
As a director, Joseph Gordon-Levitt delivers a brisk pace through his storytelling. His style mostly relies on editing and it brings a unique flavor to the film. It's not hard to see that he also have learned something from Rian Johnson's Looper, especially the parts when it explores the main character's personal life. Overall, it's all impressive. And as an actor, the role is not supposed to be too likable, but his natural charms are inevitable. He displays them which makes the character even more worth rooting for. The rest of the cast also have the same charms that Gordon-Levitt brings.
Don Jon doesn't go too subtle in the end, but seriously I don't really know. Just like what I said, the movie I saw was a cynically sanitized version of Don Jon, thus I definitely missed plenty of parts beneath its subtext. But what I can presume is the film might have contrasted between gratuitous pleasures and genuine relationships, and probably showed which of their benefits is better. If there's anything else that I can see in this film, then that is its cleverly told satire towards mainstream influences from the internet, romantic film clichés, or any forms of media, which made the majority of current relationships vapid. The film can be strangely engaging, though still not groundbreaking, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt proves that he is competent to the job and it would be nice for him to tell more stories as fascinating as this one.