Don Jon, one of the raunchiest comedies of 2013

Rating: 10/10 (21 December 2013)

Don Jon is one of the raunchiest comedies of 2013. We're The Miller's is also one of them. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a porn addict living in New Jersey, the story is about his day to day life which is preoccupied by taking care of his pad, his ride, spending time with his family, his church, his boys, his girls, and his porn.
The first line in the film makes way for what to expect, when Jon presses the power button on his Macintosh laptop and – referring to the start up chime – says "this sound, gets me hard as a f***in' rock." Filled with pornographic images and used tissue paper for clean up, and his brutally honest narration about his behaviour and with his confessions to his priest, makes this film very raunchy.
There's plenty of hilarious dialogue, and visuals. He works out while reciting Our Father's and Hail Mary's, looks at porn on his cell phone while attending a night school class, and when caught by his girlfriend looking at porn, he denies it and says that only losers look at porn, and he was simply looking at a joke video that somebody sent him over the internet. His says his record for masturbating is 11 times a day.
He's often seen being frustrated in traffic while driving his retro Chevy Malibu SS, and at one point gets out of his vehicle to confront another driver, smashing his rear driver side window and cutting his hand in the process.
Scarlett Johansson's character gives some comical lines too. At one point she confronts Jon for looking at 46 porn sites in one day. He denies it at first, but she traps him by saying it was in his history. He seemingly doesn't know what browser history is, and this makes it all the more comical, as if he only uses his laptop for porn.
The acting by all characters is stellar. Johansson's accent and attitude is well executed, and might be her best acting performance yet. The dinner table scenes with Jon's family are well acted. Jon, his father (Tony Danza), his mother and sister who is often preoccupied with her cellphone throughout the film make way for hilarious chemistry.
Jon's character has an arc, he goes from being a single guy who gets plenty of pussy – but admits that it doesn't quite do it for him when compared to porn – to somebody who can actually make love and be in a committed relationship. There's a love story within the comedy, especially towards the end, with a much older woman played by Julianne Moore.
Don Jon is an excellent comedy, and one that I'll watch over and over again, like listening to a favourite song. The editing is very cool, very snappy at times and is in tandem with the narration. Cinematography is great, with shots of a church and a bright blue sky, cutting to Don Jon running up the church steps, then cutting to him in a confession booth. For a directorial debut, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is off to an awesome start. I look forward to him writing and directing another film.
Another raunchy – albeit serious – film he stars in is Mysterious Skin. I'd also check out Havoc for those that haven't seen it. It's proof that Gordon-Levitt can play a wide variety of characters and is a dynamic actor.