[Locke]

Don Jon takes time, a lot of time, to truly get good. For almost the first hour the film is basically just noise. It's big, loud, in your face, bolshy, repetitious to the point of monotony and utterly vulgar. But Gordon-Levitt spends this time building this utter douchebag so he can tear him down, and after the movie makes us hate everything about him, it's so satisfying to see him brought close to ruin on his path of salvation.

It's the most clever kind of smart movie, it's a critique of itself and Gordon-Levitt lays the pieces so carefully, and distracts you so much with the vulgarity, that we don't even realise a great movie is unfolding before our very eyes until almost all the pieces have fallen into place already. Plus come on, the fact that the movie alone centres around a guy addicted to porn, who could hate that?

Really the most problematic aspect of the movie is Barbara, played by Scarlett Johansson. I'm sorry, I just don't find her attractive. And before someone tells me that's not the point, that is the WHOLE point of nearly the whole movie. And if you can't join in on 'The Dons' drooling, then you can't really appreciate the movie.

Thankfully (admittedly pretty late into the movie) steps Julianne Moore as Esther, her actually character may be pretty thinly drawn, but it's less who she is and more what she is about that matters in this context. Esther has a more lasting impact on the film than Barbara does despite having like three times the screentime. Barbara turns out to be a bit of a bitch, and Jon realising this and through the help of Esther he is able to grow into a better person so the movie can leave on a high note. We're just fucking lost together.

Obviously a big part of the movies strength though is not Gordon-Levitt's acting ability, but his directing skills. He has a brilliant eye and imagination for staging a scene and finding beauty in every day surroundings, using lots of visual motifs to tell stuff that other movies would do through boring dumps of exposition, and most crucially he knows how to use his actors to get the best performances he can.