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| Joseph Gordon-Levitt overexerts himself in his directorial debut. |
Kind of a mixed bag this month. A review of Gravity will be up Thursday night, so that should be fun, no? But the review is in the print version of ICON, which you can pick up right now.
These reviews previously appeared in ICON and are reprinted with permission.
Don Jon (Dir: Joseph
Gordon-Levitt). Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne
Moore, Tony Danza, Glenne Headley, Brie Larson, Rob Brown, Jeremy Luc. What
matters to twentysomething Jersey bartender Jon (Gordon-Levitt) can fit on a
postage stamp. Topping the list is online porn, a pursuit he prefers to the sex
he regularly gets. Jon’s priorities shift when his desire to hook up with a “dime”
(Johansson) turns into an actual relationship. Gordon-Levitt’s directorial
debut starts with lots of energy and smarts—Jon doesn’t realize that his dream
girl is playing him like a fiddle—before running out of ideas. A working-class
cartoon, complete with dem-dese-dose accents and greasy leering, then emerges.
The worst part of this quest for “authenticity” is whenever Jon and his father
(Danza) meet for Sunday dinner. Donning wife-beaters, they compete in a Stanley
Kowalski-off while the TV blares football and Jon’s mom (Headley) wails about
not having grandkids. By the time Moore’s pointless character arrives,
Gordon-Levitt is so consumed with establishing his blue-collar bona fides—and
spoon-feeding us emotions a la David O. Russell—that he obscures his main
character’s soul. We can’t root for a caricature. Don Jon is not only hopelessly
disconnected to anything resembling real life, writer-director Gordon-Levitt
embraces the Hollywood nonsense his main character openly disdains. ** [R]
Inequality for All (Dir:
Jacob Kornbluth). With this and last year’s pandering Bully, The Weinstein
Company must stop being part of releasing documentaries that urge us to change at gunpoint (or
at least via Website) and support movies where the content alone inspires
viewers to act. Fortunately, Robert Reich, the Secretary of Labor under
Clinton, is eloquent and intelligent in explaining why we have constant class
warfare. Very simply put, America’s wealth is hoarded by a small number of
people who don’t pay enough in taxes. That burden falls to the members of the
vast middle class, a faulty plan considering those people spend the most money.
Spending, of course, helps revive a sagging economy. Investing in the middle
class—for example, higher education—is one way to straighten things out. The movie
veers from Reich’s graphics-assisted rhetoric to his life story to profiles of
real people. The last part is when the movie breaks the bonds of ideology and
marketing slickness to become something audiences can appreciate. **1/2 [PG]
Blue Caprice (Dir: Alexandre
Moors). Starring: Isaiah Washington, Tequan Richmond, Tim Blake Nelson, Joey
Lauren Adams, Cassandra Freeman. Quiet, unsettling debut feature from Moors
examines the relationship between John Allen Muhammad (Washington) and Lee Boyd
Malvo (Richmond), the man and teenager behind the Beltway sniper attacks in 2002.
They first meet in Antigua, where an abandoned Malvo, flocks to the charismatic
Muhammad, who gives him work and food. Later, the pair heads to Muhammad’s old
home in Tacoma, Washington. In America, Muhammad is just another disaffected,
unemployable loser. Desperate for any adult influence, Malvo latches onto
Muhammad and his anger at the world. Muhammad, finally, has someone who takes
him seriously who is also in his debt. Moors and screenwriter Ronnie Porto show
how easy it was for this tragedy to come together without offering much insight
into how the killers’ minds operated. “You’re not going to figure it out, even
if I tell you,” Malvo says to an investigator after he’s caught. The
willingness to embrace vagueness gives Blue Caprice a coiled, cold menace--even
if you wish it would boil over instead of simmer. *** [R]
Salinger (Dir: Shane
Salerno). From our friends at TWC comes A Current Affair meets American Masters.
Highly anticipated documentary of author J.D. Salinger (1919-2010) contains a
stunning announcement that fans of The Catcher in the Rye scribe’s catalogue
will relish. Other than that, things bottom out after Salinger reaches the
crest of his literary success and morphs into a shut-in with a fondness for
young women. Information gives way to distractions—whether it’s pundits
offering theories or journalists recalling brusque encounters with Salinger.
And, Lord help us, there are breathless, almost laughable reenactments such as
Salinger feverishly typing on a stage bathed in atmospheric lighting, like he’s
opening for Jethro Tull. The first half is solid because we actually learn something
about Salinger the person and the writer. (The insights of his former paramour,
Jean Miller, are particularly revealing.) Salinger was so good at being inscrutable—tightening
his inner circle, isolating his family and friends—that his mysteriousness is
practically impregnable. For all of Salerno’s urgency and energy, not
unexpected from someone who helped write Armageddon, we leave not understanding
Salinger. I almost expect the late author would be pleased with this film. He’d
be in a slim minority. Note: This does not refer to the newer version with exclusive footage. ** [PG-13]
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