Tony Danza plays Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s father in Don Jon, and while I suspect he’s there mainly to provide Italian-guy cred to make it seem more okay that the rest of the non-Italian cast are basically doing blackface-level Italian impressions, as you can see in this special Father’s Day clip, he also seems to be displaying some long-forgotten acting chops. I’d be interested to see what the rest of the movie looks like, because in this 54-second clip, he crushes it.
Don Jon, formerly Don Jon’s Addiction, stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt in his directorial debut, as a guido-y guido whose crippling porn addiction is interfering with his first real relationship.
Jon Martello (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a strong, handsome, good old fashioned guy. His buddies call him Don Jon due to his ability to “pull” a different woman every weekend, but even the finest fling doesn’t compare to the bliss he finds alone in front of the computer watching pornography. Barbara Sugarman (Scarlett Johansson) is a bright, beautiful, good old fashioned girl. Raised on romantic Hollywood movies, she’s determined to find her Prince Charming and ride off into the sunset. Wrestling with good old fashioned expectations of the opposite sex, Jon and Barbara struggle against a media culture full of false fantasies to try and find true intimacy in this unexpected comedy written and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
In Theaters: Sep 27, 2013. [RottenTomatoes]
Let this be a lesson to all the young actors out there: If you work hard at your craft for years, gradually building respect starring in both crowd pleasers and indie darlings, eventually you too can write a movie about about a sex addict and cast yourself in it opposite Scarlett Johansson. Must be nice. How do you think he directs himself in those scenes anyway? “Guys? I think it’d be better in this scene if Don grabbed Barbara’s boob and gave it a sort of ‘honk-honk,’ you know? Like really groped her. And then she gets so hot she pulls his underpants down with her teeth.”