3. He Was Unintentionally Misogynistic
That title may be a bit of hyperbole, so I really want to stress that it was unintentional. I do not for a moment believe JGL is a misogynist. However, Don Jon... well, it kind of is. It can be argued that since Jon is a porn addict, and most porn consists of the women being shown as inferior to men, that JGL was making some kind of connection. Frankly, I think that's a flimsy argument. There are three major female characters in Don Jon: Barbara, Jon's mother, and Jon's classmate Esther (played by Julianne Moore). Barbara is manipulative and demanding, and her affinity for phoney romance movies is condemned much more so than Jon's love of porn. Jon's mother is a stereotype, perpetually obsessed with Jon's love life. As for Esther, she is introduced as a crying weirdo that Jon wants nothing to do with... until he needs something out of her. Only then does she develop any meaning to Jon and in turn, the movie. Don Jon is very much a character study of Jon, so these shallow representations of women can be forgiven to an extent. And you know what? The supporting men aren't given much depth either. Jon's dad is another stereotype as the loud Italian father that's obsessed with football. His buddies are obsessed with getting laid. Not much else to be found. So maybe he's not unintentionally misogynistic - maybe he just needs to develop his supporting characters more.