London Film Festival: Don Jon

 

 

This is my seventh film review in seven days. I have to admit it hasn’t been easy especially when you consider finding the time to write these reviews along with the travelling back and forth to London each day, which takes me around an hour and half. While I still haven’t found my exact reviewing style, I’ve enjoyed writing these reviews the past few days and I’ve had a great experience at the London Film Festival. I’ll admit I find it easier to discuss the movies I feel more passionate about, perhaps because they stay longer in my head. I should probably bring a notepad with me and take some notes in the future. But hopefully you’ve enjoyed reading them too. I’d love any feedback. But thank you so far for your support. I’ve still got Twelve Years a Slave to view tomorrow.

Anyway yesterday I attended the premiere of Don Jon. I’ve been looking forward to this movie for a long time because it is the directional and writing debut of Joseph Gordon Levitt, who is one of my favourite actors. The first film I actually saw JGL in was 10 Things I Hate About You starring the truly amazing Heath Ledger but the first time I actually took notice of JGL was when he starred in 500 Days of Summer, which is one of my favourite movies. I’ll admit after I watched 500 Days of Summer, I went through a JGL phase in which I watched pretty much any movie I could get my hands on that JGL had starred in, movies such as Brick, The Lookout and Killshot. I’ve continued to follow his career closely ever since in which JGL has now begun working with amazing Hollywood directors such as Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg while continuing to collaborate with Rian Johnson. I was intrigued to see if working with these great Hollywood directors had any impact on JGL’s own directional style in Don Jon. I’d also like to mention that JGL has an online collaborative production company called hitRECord which uses video, music, literature, photography, performance, spoken word, screen writing, graphic art amongst other things from different artists around the world to make their own collaborative projects. It’s a very cool website and free to join, you should sign up and get involved. So I arrived at the premiere and waited for the security to start allowing people onto the red carpet. While I was queuing, a vehicle pulled up and out stepped JGL. The security let me onto the red carpet and I walked straight pass JGL who was happily signing autographs. Now I didn’t manage to get a picture of JGL on the red carpet, but I did promise that I would attempt to get a shot walking along the red carpet. I was successful so here it is.

 

 

 It’s pretty awkward to stop and take a picture while on the red carpet, so I had to take one sneakily while I was walking. The random girl in front is staring back at JGL. I don’t know who she is but hey, you made it onto my blog. Congratulations! If you read this, please don’t sue me. Anyway I took my seat inside the venue on the front row as per usual. They give you freebies; today it was a bottle of water and a bar of expensive chocolate. We got the routine London Film Festival and BFI Gothic trailers followed by Clare Stewart welcoming JGL to the stage. I actually thought JGL would do a proper Q and A session after the movie in which they open the questions to the audience, I was actually prepared to ask a question but sadly that didn’t happen. Instead Clare Stewart asked JGL a few questions before the movie and then JGL spoke for a bit. It was still cool; Clare asked the question I was going to ask anyway. JGL seems like a very down to earth person. He mentioned how it feels great to be inside a room of cinephiles in which he can mention certain filmmakers such as Hal Ashby and they know who he is talking about. Right back at you JGL, I feel the same way. Anyway it was great listening to JGL, such an inspiration for me personally. See I already feel happier writing about this, because I feel passionate about it. Here’s a picture I took of JGL, it’s not very clear and at a dodgy angle but that was due to where I was sitting, I wasn’t able to get a clear shot.

So let’s discuss the movie. To be honest when I first heard about this movie, I truly didn’t know what to expect or the reason behind JGL’s decision to make such a movie. Don Jon, which is a play on words of the legendary fictional womanizer Don Juan evolves around the story of Jon Martello, a modern day Don Juan in which Jon’s friends actually refer to him as “The Don” who only has a short list of things he actually cares about which includes “his body, his pad, his ride, his family, his church, his boys, his girls and his porn”. Yes Jon is addicted to porn, even with an active sex life; Jon still prefers to watch porn. The reasoning behind why he prefers porn over sex is hilarious in which I’d rather you watch it for yourself then if I ruined it for you. Jon regularly attends the local night clubs with his boys Bobby and Danny, where they score chicks out of ten with ten being labelled a dime before Jon makes his move and takes them home. Jon is always successful in picking up women, hence the name “The Don”. Bobby and Danny even comment on Jon’s pulling streak, but every streak has to come to an end and that is where Barbara Sugarman enters the equation played by Scarlett Johansson, who in Jon’s eyes is definitely a bonafided dime. Jon makes his usual play but it backfires and Barbara leaves. Jon cannot stop thinking about Barbara after her rejection and is determined to track her down. After finding her via Facebook, Jon sends her a message in which the two meet up and share a mutual attraction. Barbara insists on traditional long-term courtship including a month without sex. Jon agrees and they begin dating and the audience are left wondering if this womanizering, porn addicted bachelor can really change his ways?

 

Honestly Don Jon is hilarious. The movie is set in the Garden State itself New Jersey; I’ve personally never seen an episode of Jersey Shore but I’m familiar with Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, who I believe JGL must have based Jon Martello on. I assume this movie must be what a regular episode of Jersey Shore is like. Anyway both Joseph Gordon Levitt and Scarlett Johansson nailed their New Jersey accents. Scarlett Johansson actually surprised me; she is definitely having career resurgence this year with her roles in Don Jon, Under the Skin and the upcoming Spike Jonez movie Her. I’ve always known Scarlett had the talent and acting ability to be successful and now she is beginning to prove it once again. Scarlett definitely needs to continue seeking roles like these instead of some of the other roles she has played for the past few years. The loveable and always amazing Julianne Moore plays Esther, a fellow class member of the night school in which Jon is attending. Esther catches Jon watching porn on his cell phone before class and attempts to help him try and cure his addiction. Other supporting roles include Tony Danza, who plays Jon’s father Jon Martello, Sr. along with Brie Larson who plays Jon’s sister Monica Martello. While Brie Larson doesn’t say a single word throughout the movie, until her final scene due to being too consumed by her mobile phone, which is humorous in itself. Brie Larson has a very bright future ahead of her, I saw her last week in The Spectacular Now and she is already attracting some awards buzz for her up coming role in Short Term 12 which is released next month. I look forward to seeing more from her.

The movie is actually very well written by Joseph Gordon Levitt in my opinion, which many might find surprising considering the movie evolves around porn addiction. In my opinion JGL is able to make the script work through not only his own bold confidence in what he is writing about but also a combination of JGL’s own intelligent witty humour along with the finer details of the script in which young adults would be able to relate too. I mentioned previously in my Spectacular Now review how the smaller details really matter and make all the difference on movies like this. That’s my personal script writing tip for the day. I’ll admit Don Jon isn’t perfect by any means necessary, some might argue the movie loses its way during the final act but I personally didn’t find that it did. I’ll mention some advice my own script writing teacher passed when commenting my own work before, claiming she didn’t feel my character had earned this moment or the right to say what they just did. Now at the time I didn’t quite understand what she meant but I feel that advice applies to one scene in Don Jon in which Barbara randomly starts an argument with Jon when he confesses that he enjoys cleaning his own pad. The argument felt out of place between the two characters especially after Barbara romanticises about the cliché Hollywood movies. Surely she’d appreciate a man who enjoys cleaning? Don Jon might not be the type of movie everyone will enjoy. I sat next to an elderly middle class couple, who didn’t laugh once throughout the movie. They even commented when JGL entered the stage to a thunderous applause, how shocked they were at the reaction because they had never heard of him. JGL I think you can tick off two people from the earlier cinephile comment you made. I’d just like to mention I loved the contrasting view point over cliché romantic Hollywood movies between Jon and Barbara, it’s something that I’ve personally wrote about myself. Barbara is smitten with these unrealistic fantasies of love portrayed in the movies according to Jon who stands by his completely opposite viewpoint that’s its all bullshit. The scene was really well presented with cameo appearances from Anne Hathaway and Channing Tatum.

Overall Don Jon is a fantastic freshly felt comedy that will have you laughing out loud from the very first montage. You should definitely go and watch this movie in your local cinema when it is released on November 15^th in England. Joseph Gordon Levitt has a bright future ahead of him in both the directing and writing department, I’m not sure how many movies he will make over the course of his career but I certainly hope he decides to make a few more. There are two things I’ll never forget after watching this movie, the sound my computer makes when it turns on and blearing Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch out of a car stereo. Thank you for reading.