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Thursday, September 26, 2013

Review: Don Jon Objectifies Objectification and It’s Pretty Awesome

StarGazer



        Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut Don Jon is like the more risque, rated-R-bordering-on-NC17 older cousin of his quirky 2009 hit (500) Days of Summer. Although not quite as inventive as that Marc Webb gem, Don Jon similarly studies romance through the skewed perspective of a young, self-absorbed man and positions itself as a takedown of rom-com clichés and traditional media portrayals of relationships. The result is a hyper-energetic, scathing critique of the ways Hollywood shapes both our love life expectations and our treatment of the people around us that has just enough genuine emotion to prevent the snark from feeling soulless.

        Just like with any regular romantic comedy, Don Jon’s success rests heavily on the shoulders of its cast. Fortunately, Gordon-Levitt has assembled a group of actors who are not only incredibly talented, but also share precisely the right kind of chemistry and mesh well without threatening to overshadow each other – not to mention, they all somehow manage to make the exaggerated Jersey accents amusing rather than unbearably grating. As the title character and inarguable lead, Gordon-Levitt exudes a delicate balance of charisma and sleazy, douchebag arrogance as he struts around the screen in a slicked-back pompadour and tank tops that deliberately show off his shockingly muscular arms. With his gym-sculpted appearance, immaculately groomed bachelor pad, preoccupation with sex and porn and unrelenting self-absorption, Jon is like a 21st-century Patrick Bateman but without the whole secretly-a-psychotic-murderer issue. The genius of the performance, though, comes from the way Gordon-Levitt takes what could’ve been an amusing but wildly unlikable caricature and convinces us that this character is capable of real change, that he is, in fact, human. As Jon becomes gradually more aware of the unfulfilling nature of his current existence, he taps into a repressed well of lost, insecure tenderness that might break your heart in the film’s climax, which also acts as a perfect example of how sex scenes can produce emotional resonance, instead of being merely titillating diversions.


        Of course, as the movie argues, a truly effective relationship is a two-way proposition, so Joseph Gordon-Levitt is complemented by a pair of finely-tuned performances from Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore, who play the two other legs of an odd love triangle. Exploiting her sex symbol reputation in order to subtly critique it, Johansson reminds audiences, who sadly seem to have forgotten, that she’s much more than eye candy. Many performers likely would have relied on the bubblegum-smacking, plastic superficiality of her Barbara Sugarman, but Johansson goes further than that, showing how Barbara uses her sexuality as both a weapon and armor in her search for the perfect man. We sense (and wonder about) the past hurt and disappointments that must have contributed to her narrow-minded, cautious approach to relationships, and she gives renewed significance to the normally hackneyed line “I thought you were different”. It’s a quietly challenging role that she pulls off with ease. While she has less screen time and might have benefited from some more detailed backstory, Moore is affecting as Esther, an older woman doing her best to keep it together after experiencing a recent personal tragedy. She avoids self-indulgent hysterics but offers up just enough of a glimpse into her character’s inner sorrow that we understand how it’s a challenge for her to simply make it through each day. Rounding out the best of the supporting cast, Brie Larson steals scenes as Jon’s constantly texting sister without saying more than a sentence of dialogue.

        There are occasions when Gordon Levitt’s status as a first-time director becomes evident. Although the frequent, choppy cuts often serve a higher purpose by drawing attention to the stylized nature of commercial moviemaking, the editing still could have been more finessed, and the whole production stretches on a good five minutes or so beyond what it needed to, emphasized by the intentional repetitiveness of certain parts. Overall, however, he guides the project along with a strong, purposeful hand behind the camera, perhaps aided by a childhood largely spent in Hollywood. He demonstrates a keen knowledge of how films manipulate viewers and amplifies technical components of the movie like the editing, lighting, musical cues and the camerawork in order to expose how ridiculous it all is, how the cinematic world is a construct rather than an unfiltered, accurate reflection of reality. Don Jon is about what’s left when we strip away all the layers of artifice, asserting that embracing the real world will be more rewarding than fiction could ever hope to be because it’s here and authentic. It shows the unattainability of perfection while asking why we’re searching for perfection in the first place.

                             

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