( EW.com ) -- How do you make a movie that tackles pornography not just as an `` issue '' or a product but in terms of its psychological effects ? Joseph Gordon-Levitt , the writer , director , and star of `` Don Jon , '' has done it . And he 's pulled it off in a light , fun , unlaborious way : by crafting a high-spirited yet dirty-minded romantic comedy about a New Jersey bartender , Jon Martello ( Gordon-Levitt ) , who goes out to clubs and gets laid every weekend , usually with the curvaceous babe of his choice . She can never be the woman of his dreams , though , because those dreams have already been lost to the hardcore photographs and videos that he masturbates to every day . It 's not really the faces and bodies he 's coveting , it 's the behavior â€ ” the moaning , screaming , make me your nasty toy insatiability , which he thinks is what sex was meant to be . He does n't realize that he 's watching a bill of goods made flesh . As Jon , Gordon-Levitt sports a buffed-up chest and hair greased into a stylish oil slick , and he speaks in low , flat tones , giving a witty turn as a studly `` Guido '' who digs his life of anonymous sex and control ; he 's like The Situation without the fame or preening smarm . One night out at the club with his wingmen Bobby ( Rob Brown ) and Danny ( Jeremy Luke ) , Jon spies Barbara ( Scarlett Johansson ) , as gorgeous a woman as he 's ever seen . He wants to get with her , and before long they 're an item . But then the disappointment sets in . In his mind , his heart , she ca n't compete with the extreme libidos of the porn world . It does n't help that she 's an `` addict '' too , hooked on rom-coms and their fantasy of a man who 'll cater to her every whim . Gordon-Levitt proves a natural filmmaker , nimbly staging Jon 's highly amusing Catholic confessions , along with porn montages that mimic the dopamine-charged editing of `` Requiem for a Dream . '' He also gets a terrific performance out of Tony Danza as Jon 's hilariously blinkered brute of a dad . The bond between Jon and Esther ( Julianne Moore ) , the troubled older woman he meets in an adult-ed class , is n't as deftly drawn . She 's there to teach Jon lessons , and does . But Gordon-Levitt 's intuitive performance makes even this part of the film work . Jon is a guy who needs to quit his porn addiction , but to do that , he must understand that what he 's really been having is a dysfunctional relationship with porn . It 's the mistress he 's devoted to and has to break up with if he wants to start living . Grade : B+ . See the original story at EW.com . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved .
Joseph Gordon - Levitt is the writer , director , and star of ` ` Don ##uts '' He plays a New Jersey bartender who loves beer . He gives it a B+ rating .