Don Jon traces the trials and tribulations of a New Jersey man’s conflicting relationships between porn and his girlfriend. Joseph Gordon-Levitt not only wrote and directed the film but also starred as the protagonist, Don Jon.

The movie opened with the Gordon-Levitt as Jon Martello narrating his life while the camera flipped through the important parts of it.

“My body, my pad, my ride, my family, my church, my boys, my girls and my porn,” Martello said.

His sculpted body, clean house, nice car, respectable family, religious affiliation, good friends and high abundance of attractive women often took a back seat to his unhealthy relationship with pornography. When Don Jon landed Barbara, a blond, Catholic girl played by Scarlett Johanson, he found that not even his “dime” could hold a candle to the pornography that occupied his life up to ten times daily.

While the amount of pornography in Don Jon is enough to send the Catholic viewers running for the hills, the movie veered in a deeper direction, allowing the audience to connect with the protagonist on a level far beyond pornography. The numerous exposed breasts and action shots were not what resonated with viewers.

“There was a lot of porn in that movie,” said sophomore communications major Juliette Delany. “It seemed to segue nicely into the story line and wasn’t over done.”

Even though this was Gordon-Levitt’s first time implementing his collaborative efforts as a director, writer and actor, he did a fairly good job balancing what could’ve easily been over-the-top pornography with a modern, romance and interesting story line. If there was anything that did seem to detract from the movie it was the fake, Jersey accents that the cast put on to match the greasy hair, leather jackets and tight, club dressed.

“At times it was hard to concentrate on the movie because the accents were pretty horrendous,” said sophomore communications major Ryan Perrucci. “Tony Danza, playing the father, was easily the best actor and stole every scene that he was in.”

The movie makes a good case for itself when it comes to expectations of relationships. Pornography holds sexual endeavors to new standards. Because females in pornography are frequently seen squirting, performing oral sex for long periods of time and climaxing with little stimulation, males may be confused as to why they have yet to bring their partners to orgasm. Men are made to feel insecure about the size of their genitalia and may feel that they don’t “last” long enough.

Don Jon was ultimately not a story about how many times one man can masturbate in one day or the number of “dimes” a Jersey boy could pick up in a club. It was about the human connection that is established between those involved in a sexual relationship and the strong ability that pornography has in compromising that necessity. Technology influences our lives in every aspect, some stronger than others. If anything, Gordon-Levitt’s triple threat attempt at a film left audiences yearning for human interaction outside from a movie theater, whether it be for public or private viewing purposes.