Entertaining enough but without a hint of subtlety or edge.

Rating: 6/10 (24 January 2014)

Porn stars, be flattered. You've inspired Joseph Gordon-Levitt to write, direct and star in his first feature film to talk about how much he likes you. I used to like Levitt a few years ago when he appeared in (500) Days Of Summer and Inception, but as he's slowly turned himself into a brand that his film career hasn't justified yet, it's come with a bulking ego. I was excited for Don Jon at first, but the film and Levitt have become much less endearing. I still like what he does sometimes, Looper was one of the best films of the year. But Don Jon is a satire that tries far too hard. The caricature performances and clichéd side-characters may be deliberate, but without a straight man in sight it ends up feeling juvenile and only occasionally funny. With their forced struts, exaggerated accents, matching tank-tops and chains, they talk as if Levitt desperately wants to be in a Scorsese movie, which the flashy camera-work and editing certainly try to match. Unfortunately, the way the, albeit valid, social commentary is on the surface and in the dialogue completely negates its effect.
Sure, he has a good point on the relationship between men and porn, women and rom-coms, but it's kind of stating the obvious. Despite attempts to repair one side, it doesn't elaborate on this argument or come to a thesis, it just merely brings it up. The main problem is that it's difficult to believe its main plot. With a character like Don Jon, it needs a real crisis for us to believe that he needs a real relationship. Instead the film shifts in the direction it needs to go in a contrived way. I quite like where it ends up where Don finds salvation, it certainly wasn't predictable, but there's times when the perspective of women matches this overly macho representation on men and it teeters uncomfortable lines of misogyny. However, despite overdone lighting and photography, its saving grace is its keen-edged editing which really cuts through the problem with the script where it overuses repetition without showing enough growth each time. It's mildly entertaining, somewhat interesting, but sadly without a hint of subtlety or edge. Perhaps I'm still a little bitter that Levitt gave Brie Larson literally nothing to do.
6/10