Joseph Gordon-Levitt kicks off his directorial debut with Don Jon, an audacious attempt with pornography addiction at its roots that borders on being a hybridized big-budgeted mainstream and indie movie.

As the crossing of two unnatural genres would suggest, this movie feels unsynchronized and feels much longer than its 90-minute time frame. Part of the reason this movie feels so long are the sporadic porn clips thrown about, with breasts, butts and the audible moans of pornography flooding the screen at random times (I highly recommend never IN YOUR LIFE watching this movie with your parents). This occurred first as a joke and became more prevalent to suggest a much more serious nature about Jon Martello, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, than was previously thought.

Jon, often referred as Jon “the Don” because of his rhythmic sexual activities, is confronted by his addiction when he meets his dream girl Barbara Sugarman, played by Scarlett Johansson, for whom he actually considers dating an unprecedented month before sleeping with her.

It is Barbara who discovers just how much porn Jon watches and forces him to quit. With a seemingly random subplot that involves Esther, played by Jullian Moore, as an older woman that meets Jon at one of his night classes that Barbara forced upon him, Jon realizes he has a serious issue when he struggles to quit his addiction.

First of all, do not go into this movie with the preconception that it is just another romance flick with two dazzling stars as its focal points, which the trailer suggests, because it is not.

It seems like “Don Jon” tried to be two different types of movie, and unfortunately, detracts from an actual interesting theme. The dialogues aren’t at all witty either, and the resolution and conclusion also waned in the end. As much as I enjoy Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s work, I’d have to say I’m rather disappointed with this one.