Don Jon (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 2013)

6.5/10
Don Jon is Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut. He also produced it, wrote it, and stars in it. All that considered, it's a pretty good effort. It's very watchable, never boring, and the acting is excellent - the Italian Jersey accents sound a little forced at first, but the cast pulls them and the roles off. It's a movie about a guy named Jon, addicted to porn, and his relationship with Barbara, addicted to romantic comedies. It's a clever premise that lays a lot of ground for an exploration into male and female sexuality and the role pornography (and movies, and the media, and commercials) plays in our expectations from the opposite sex, ourselves, and how it affects the rest of our life. Regrettably, Gordon-Levitt avoids most of the heavy questions and, despite lampooning the airiness and unreality of porn and rom-coms, opts for a painfully hackneyed resolution himself.
Maybe I set my own expectations too high in wanting JGL to dig deeper than he did. I respect him for trying to make a movie that takes risks, but I feel like he only did half the job. In the end it seems like he had less to say on the subject than I thought he would, which was the most disappointing thing.