The Boy Who Loved His Screen More Than His Girl
Don Jon made a splash when it was released in 2013 because it was impossible to ignore. Like it main character, it showed up in style, confidence, and with a mirror to reflect what many were not ready to see.
With Writing, Directing and Acting, Joseph Gordon Levitt created a character named Jon Martello — a hyper masculine New Jersey “perpetual checklister,” who is obsessed with his body, objectifies women, and is a club head frequenter. Caught in the cycle of addiction, Jon watches hours of online pornography, a “secret” hidden in plain sight.
The film was a cultural satire and its highest form was in the seamless editing, morphed emotions, throbbing soundtrack and the swaggering Italian-Americans. It was about loneliness and screens of modern times. More than that, it made a striking commentary on the changed dynamics of masculine love.
When Style Became Substance and a Meme
Don Jon was quickly integrated into everyday popular culture and the imitation of his ritualistic mirror glances in the scene “You can’t beat the real thing” is a meme.
In TikTok and Instagram’s early phases, Jon’s self-satisfied smirk and bed-making routines became the subjects of viral posts. The phrase “Don Jon energy” emerged as a label for stylish men who were emotionally distant. The expression found its way into informal discourse about dating even in urban India.
Men started talking about Jon’s grooming and leather jacket control obsession, and his stylish outfits, and noting his stylish meticulous bed-making and obsession for control, even his sleek leather jackets. His fashion was clinically East Coast with a minimalist aesthetic, gold chains, and a sharp, industrial machismo, gelled hair, and a sleak, clean silhouette and no frills with the bed-making. It was classic East Coast machismo with a metrosexual flair — and audiences ate it up.
Jon Martello’s life circles through gym, church, family meal, club, and bed with a woman and then porn. Relationships disintegrate as his fantasies exceed the warmth of any woman’s reality. Enter Barbara Sugarman, a lavish, romantic woman with a passion for classic films and a love for adult cinema just like Jon.
Barbara and Jon arm wrestle in a sadistic fantasy tug of war. Jon wants a woman just like the characters in his browser tabs, and Barbara desires a man straight from a Hollywood love story.
It is only when Jon encounters Esther (played by Julianne Moore), an older woman mourning her own losses, that he begins to understand closeness, not as a performance, but as a connection.
That shift from obsession to openness hit home. A lot of viewers, especially millennials, admitted to identifying with Jon. In India, where the conversation around digital addiction and intimacy was just starting, Don Jon came as a humorous and stylish wake-up call.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt — The Artist Beneath the Six-Pack
For Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Don Jon was not just a film, it was a proclamation of independence. After years of playing the charming sidekick or the romantic lead (500 Days of Summer, Inception), he wanted to make something that was raw, risky, and relevant.
He personally drafted the script after reflecting on discussions regarding the distortion of romantic expectations in media, including Hollywood and pornography. “It’s not about porn,” he explained in one of the interviews. “It’s about the disconnection we have between people and the images we consume.”
To prepare for the role, Gordon-Levitt studied extreme East Coast bodybuilding and the associated hyper-masculinity in gym culture. He also analyzed the accent and persona of reality television characters, particularly from Jersey Shore. However, the most significant transformation took place in directing, as it was his first feature. He had to manage the ego of a leading actor and reconcile it with the vulnerability of an artist confronting and exploring painful realities.
For Scarlett Johansson, playing Barbara was especially interesting because of the contradiction she embodied. “She’s strong, she’s sexy, but she is also trapped in her own fantasy,” Johansson explained. “We all perform for an audience. Barbara just doesn’t know she’s doing it.”
The chemistry between the two actors was both electric and calculated; it was intended to feel simultaneously entrapping and vacuous. Gordon-Levitt frequently directed his camera operator to capture the distance between them for a number of shots. “The camera had to reveal the space between desire and comprehension,” he clarified.
When the Internet Became the Co-Star
In an era characterized by rapid-fire distractions and an obsession with images and screens, Don Jon anticipated the emotional consequences of screen addiction, long before the issue became prominent in public discourse.
People started to describe the movie in terms of therapy rather than just comedy. This movie was even referenced by relationship experts in their lectures on media conditioning and expectations. Reddit users described Jon’s nightly routine as social media addiction, where mindless scrolling offers a similar dopamine rush as his compulsive nightly routine.
Some of the broader social trends were also connected to the film, like the loneliness epidemic, hookup culture, and the pressure of “performative perfection.” In India, Don Jon was described as “a film that understood swipe culture before swiping existed,” in reference to its criticism of dating apps which parallels to the obsession with swipeable “catch” features on dating apps and the loneliness epidemic.
The Buzz Behind the Scenes
The making of Don Jon wasn’t as smooth as Jon’s hair. Gordon-Levitt reportedly faced studio resistance regarding the film’s theme, especially its unflinching look at the consumption of porn. He also insisted on keeping the explicit scenes balanced with humor and honesty, making sure it didn’t slip into exploitation.
Editing posed its own unique challenges. The sequence of rapid cuts throughout the film — gym, computer, car, church — mimicked the rhythm of addiction. Repetition of a sequence in editing creates a slight shift in tone and ultimately a feeling of suffocation. “The pattern is the point,” said Gordon-Levitt. “You laugh at it, then you start feeling trapped in it.”
There was a light atmosphere on set, which was unexpected. Scarlett Johansson introduced improvisation in several scenes, which contributed the warmth to Barbara’s character, who is otherwise controlling. From Julianne Moore’s improvisation in her last conversation with Jon, “The real thing isn’t perfect, but it’s better,” became one of the most quoted lines in the film.
From Screen to Street — The Cultural Afterglow
By late 2013, Don Jon was a conversation starter, and not just about porn or relationships. It was about authenticity in the digital age. People began calling “Don Jon” anyone who was lost in an illusion — a friend trapped in a reality filter, a boyfriend glued to his smartphone, a celebrity living for clicks, or a boyfriend glued to his smartphone.
Within popular culture, it sparked a smorgasbord of parodies inspired by its style and soundtrack. Jon’s cleaning routine comparison to “Indian moms on Diwali” was a trend on Desi Twitter. Fashion influencers began to recreate his sharp monochrome looks and used the hashtag #DonJonAesthetic. Even gym posters used his popular line: “I care about my body, my pad, my ride… and my vibe.”