8 March 2021
Don Jon (2013)
Jon (director Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a bartender who was born and bred in New Jersey, and he’s never leaving. He knows what’s important in life – his family, his friends, his car, his church. That is, until he meets Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), and realises that the only way he can get closer to her is by changing some of his habits.
Crucially, he’ll have to try to stop watching so much porn. Jon has never had a real relationship with a woman and is in the throes of a full-scale addiction.
Dating Barbara is the closest he’s ever come to having a girlfriend – but will his addiction to erotica destroy their fledgling relationship?
Julianne Moore plays a woman he meets at community college, and Tony Danza stars as his father, Jon Senior.
Critics have praised Gordon-Levitt’s ear for dialogue and the wit of the script, as well as the performances of Johansson and Moore: “Thankfully, the women of the film are what save the movie, bringing something fresh to the table – for Jon, a chance at lasting love, and for us, some seasoned comic chops,” writes Film Comment Magazine.
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