This movie a couple of Jersey man brimming with poisonous masculinity was Gordon-Levitt’s characteristic writing and directing debut. He starred because the title character, with Scarlett Johansson as the girl of his desires, who nonetheless can’t match his distorted, X-rated expectations.
“That’s what I all the time needed,” he says. “Direct a film that performs Sundance. It was a life purpose. Humorous sufficient, I keep in mind loving the expertise of watching the film, however one of many issues I keep in mind most afterwards is speaking to my mother in regards to the film. Don Jon offers closely with the objectification of ladies—and males as effectively—however that is one thing that my mother all the time raised my brother and me to be fairly centered on. And I made a film about that, however in a roundabout approach. It satirizes it and brings that objectification proper into your face.”
“The film is enjoying at Sundance, the place I needed it to play, and it performed effectively in entrance of a giant viewers, and all that exterior validation was there. However truly, the very first thing that involves thoughts after I consider that night time is a dialog I had simply with my very own mother,” he says.
Years would go earlier than his subsequent massive Sundance expertise, however that one would contain the story of a mom too.
2023 — Flora and Son
Gordon-Levitt’s newest movie, Flora and Son, is about to debut on opening weekend of this 12 months’s Sundance Movie Pageant. Eve Hewson stars as a single mother in Dublin whose battle to earn a residing whereas elevating a troubled boy has withered most of her different hopes and desires. She nonetheless clings to music as a ardour, and Gordon-Levitt performs her on-line guitar trainer.
The musical is directed by John Carney, the filmmaker behind the 2007 Sundance musical hit As soon as. “He strikes a steadiness between bringing that type of magic that solely a musical can deliver, however alternatively, grounding it in actual, human, heartfelt life in a approach that I believe is fairly distinctive,” Gordon-Levitt says. “Attending to lastly do some music in a film is momentous for me in a brand new and completely different approach. Though it’s type of a humble musical—that’s extra my fashion.”
Regardless of his lengthy historical past at Sundance, Gordon-Levitt says the annual gathering means extra to him than only a platform to indicate off work. He thinks of it as an inspiration, and quotes one thing he as soon as heard from that man who gave him his first Sundance T-shirt.
“I’d simply echo Mr. Redford in making an attempt to direct our focus again to the inventive course of itself,” Gordon-Levitt says. “Finally that’s what the spirit of Sundance is, for my part. And the inventive course of itself is one thing that individuals can have—you’ll be able to have, I can have, anyone can have—whether or not you get into Sundance otherwise you don’t get into Sundance. It doesn’t should all be this elite clique of the business. It may be anyone, all people.”
