refreshing and absorbing

Rating: 9/10 (3 August 2014)

Barbara has one rule. Don't lie. OK she has a few other rules that Jon Martello Jr., much to the amazement of those who know him, tries to live up to. His love of porn and a deeply libertarian lifestyle of course threaten to interfere with Barbara's vision. Both Barbara and Jon desire to put their partner in a box that they've built for themselves. This raucous, independent and truly funny satire of tough and sweet talking, sexually supercharged New Jersey hypocrites is a refreshing and absorbing debut by new director Joseph Gordon-Levitt. "The larger conversation here," Scarlett Johansson told the media in Toronto, "is about expectations in relationships . . . and how men and women objectify one another and how this applies to intimacy too. . . there are healthy ways to enjoy pornography for couples." Seen at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.