Don Jon’s Addiction had its international premiere last night at the Berlinale. It played in the Friedrichstadt-Palast, the biggest venue of the festival, and opened the Panorama section. This section of the festival is a place for the more offbeat films that try to straddle the gap between arthouse and commerce, mostly focused on first time directors and auteur films. In short, it was the perfect context for DJA.
When Joe entered the (completely full) theater, he was greeted with cheering and applause. He took a seat before hopping on the stage to introduce himself and the film.
Here he is with Vanya after they arrived at the theater.
And here he is doing his usual heating-up-the-audience shtick “Are you excited to watch the movie now? *Audience cheers* “I don’t believe you yet. ARE YOU EXCITED?” *CHEEEEEERS*
It’s kind of a running gag at the Berlinale that the audience claps and cheers when the logos of the different distributors and production companies appear at the beginning of the film. We were all laughing because it’s so silly, but when “Hitrecord Films” flashed on the screen, there were a few particular loud whoops.
The film itself opens with a bang - figuratively and literally. In a flashy, quickly cut montage Jon shows and describes his wanking routine: switching on the laptop, the sound of a Macbook booting up, the home screen, the browser window and finally pornhub. And during all this there are quick cuts of a close up on Jon’s face, illuminated by the laptop screen. Nathan Johnson created a fantastic musical theme for these sequences, a bass heavy, eerie booming sound that makes the entire sequence strangely sinister, even though these scenes are also played for laughs throughout the movie.
The opening is deliberately crude and provocative, and probably would have worked just as well without the voice over. This is the one thing he picked up from Rian Johnson, that I could do without. The repetitive nature of the porn montages are essential to illustrate Jon’s addiction, but also develop their own comedic dynamic. After a while the audience already started chuckling at the first sound of the booting Mac. (Sorry wirrow, I missed your orgasm FX, I promise to look extra hard for it next time
However, the first time it happens, it has the desired effect and you are really taken aback. For me it was mostly because you see Joe unlike you have ever seen him before. He is almost unrecognizable, he looks, talks and moves completely different. Having seen his usual dapper, slim self hopping around on stage just seconds before, amplified the jarring effect.
You can see he relishes in playing against type and he makes a very convincing sexist douchebag. It’s probably his most unflattering role to date and you have to admire that he is not afraid to make a total fool out himself as Don. A lot of humor comes from his body language alone. For example, the way he walked had the audience in stitches. Everybody, who prefers Joe Tom Hanson flavored, is in for a treat…
Scarlett similarly seems to enjoy playing up the trashy princess stereotype. She is simply hilarious and deliciously manipulative. It’s my favorite performance of hers since Lost In Translation. And it’s very satisfying to see her taking complete control of her sex kitten/femme fatale image by over-emphasizing how ridiculous and shallow these images are.
Joe really has a good hand with directing actors, because everyone else brought their A-game as well, down to the smallest supporting role.
His overall directing style is very confident. He has a good sense for pacing and all these years on 3rd Rock from the Sun have paid off, because he really has great comedic instincts and utilizes them on all levels – from visual gags, over hilarious bits of dialogue to physical comedy. If you are familiar with his work on hitrecord, you’ll recognize a lot of influences, such as his love for patterns, repetition, cycles and the interplay between music, visuals and editing.
The majority of the film has a very specific rhythm and a firm structure. And while it’s a neat strategy to visualize how trapped Jon is in his routines (wanking, clubs, family, church, gym, cleaning etc.), the repetitiveness of it feels a bit rigid after a while.
There is a tonal shift in the last third of the movie that I feel very conflicted about. On the one hand this is the part of the film, where Jon finally gets a clue, where you see some of that old JGL persona that you are familiar with from his other movies and where the emotional scope of the film broadens with some melodramatic elements. But this also means steering it back into traditional rom com conventions and I can’t help but feel, it would have felt more consequent to keep up the highly stylized and thus distanced approach from the beginning. Even if it meant deconstructing the character completely. It doesn’t help that Jon’s transformation is very rushed at the end and not totally convincing. But on the other hand, seeing Jon failing to evolve would have been unsatisfying as well. So yeah, conflicted about that.
As for some of the criticism the film has faced:
I can see why some critics say the direction was heavy-handed at times. Subtlety is definitely not this film’s strength and Joe makes sure to spell out the messages he wants to convey. It didn’t bother me personally, but I hope that he has more faith in his material and the audience’s ability to pick up on more subtle themes and critique the next time.
And yet despite the simple nature of the film’s central message – that Jon’s dissatisfaction with sex and life in general stems from his one-sided way of consuming everything in his life and that intimacy is supposed to be a two-way-direction road – it made me think about how one-sided our engagement with actors and films is, even though social media interactivity is blurring the lines a little.
Regarding the sexism allegations the film faced, I can however see why he or any filmmaker tend to favor being blunt with their messages. Having a misogynist character as your POV doesn’t mean the film itself is misogynic. Yeah, Jon is a sexist douchenozzle, and since we see everything through his eyes the worldview is colored likewise. But the film also shows what a tool he – and by extension Scarlett’s character as his foil - is. Perhaps you could argue that by using these broad gender stereotypes, DJA simultaneously enforces them. But while the film doesn’t subvert those stereotypes completely and submits to traditional genre conventions, it very clearly invites you to question them in my opinion.
As for the rating debate:
Joe said in a recent interview that the MPAA was scheduled to watch the film at the end of January. Clearly they have, because there is a significant change in his tune since his Sundance interviews about this issue.
Just to make this clear: the only thing that will get cut are porn clips (although they really aren’t that explicit). The sex scenes in this movie don’t need any editing for an R-rating. It’s worth noting that with one exception they are also deliberately unsexy, because they reflect Jon’s inability to have satisfying sex.
I do think that the film won’t lose much of its impact, if the porn montages are trimmed or framed differently, because they mainly serve to visualize Jon’s compulsiveness. Thus they show up over and over again. But they are not drastic or explicit enough to function as a contrast, so modifying them without changing the rhythm and getting the message across should not be a problem.
There was a fun little moment during the end credits, when the audience started to clap when the actresses of the “adult clips” were listed.
Joe and the film itself were also cheered on after it ended. Sadly he didn’t do a Q & A afterwards like he did at Sundance and only thanked everyone for coming, before vanishing off the stage. But that very well may have been instructed by the Berlinale officials.
Sorry for writing such a novel. The more I thought about the film, the more I had to say. In short, it was an enjoyable movie with great performances, amusing insights, a few shortcomings, but ultimately showed Joe’s potential behind the camera. I can’t wait to see him evolve as a director.
