Just the Ticket #77: Don Jon

Welcome to a new year in critical cinema, Ticketholders! We begin 2014 with a more-than-commendable (to understate the point a considerable amount) effort by actor/writer/director Joseph Gordon-Levitt. In Don Jon, JGL stars as the titular porn-addicted man-boy who thinks he's found a proverbial 10 in Barbara Sugarman (Scarlett Johansson), but differences of opinion on everything from the reality of porn and romantic comedies to the necessity of Swiffer pads challenge the strength of their relationship.
Jon's rapid-fire exchanges with his preist inject an extra edge of social commentary on commercialized religion, as he rattles off his sins like a man who wants fries with his Hail Marys, receiving only a blanket response from the unseen Father, who might be a robot for all we know.
The laughs come smartly and often, without resorting to excessive crudeness or fantastic spectacle. Don Jon is a film with purpose, going through the usual romantic comedy motions and R-Rated man-talk, but giving every character and situation a story to tell and a point to make. Even having Channing Tatum and Anne Hathaway in the movie says "I'm Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and I'm so good that I can get Channing Tatum and Anne Hathaway to be in a fake movie for five seconds of my movie."
There's so much more I could rave about (like Tony Danza as Jon's father or Julianne Moore as his mildly stalker-ish classmate), but Don Jon as a whole says JGL is that good, and better.
A+

Stay tuned as I review Sweetwater in the next issue of Just the Ticket.

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