Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Don Jon follow-up is the AppleTV Plus show Mr. Corman
TV Features Joseph Gordon-Levitt
It’s been nearly a decade since the world fell in love with Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut Don Jon. Since the film’s release in 2013, fans have lived by the titular character’s credo (“my body, my pad, my ride, my family, my church, my boys, my girls, my porn”) as they waited for hitRECordJoe’s next project. Don Jon’s fans have been patient as the actor/writer/director announced project after project to no avail.
Finally, their patience has been rewarded in the form of the AppleTV+ series Mr. Corman, a 10-episode comedy created by, written by, directed by, and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The show follows the titular Josh Corman, a fifth-grade music teacher who never made it as a musician in the way everyone wants to. His ex-fiancé ditched him and his high school buddy Victor just moved in. Plus, he’s got depression, anxiety, and this “sinking suspicion that he sucks as a person.” Hard to believe that JGL went from Sandman to something more sprawling, epic, and confusing. Fans desperate for more of Gordon-Levitt’s directorial flair are going to have to wait just a little longer. Mr. Corman hits AppleTV+ on August 6 and co-stars Arturo Castro, Debra Winger, Logic, and Juno Temple.
Outside of a couple of cameos, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has kept a low profile over the last five years. His post-Don Jon victory lap included appearances in the Sin City sequel, Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk, and The Night Before. Last year, though, he returned with the cockpit-based thriller 7500 and the prestige-y The Trial Of The Chicago 7, and just two months ago, he was announced to re-team with Robert Zemeckis on Pinocchio as Jiminy Cricket. It’s safe to say that the JGL dam has broken.
15 Comments
Why is this so mean?
I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what the target of the snark here is supposed to be. That Don John wasn’t actually good? That the show’s idea sounds unoriginal? That it’s a self-evident joke that Joseph Gordon-Levitt has “directorial flair”?Thank God for the gawkerization of this site. There was refreshingly little directionless snark and woke-for-no-reason copy on this site before, and that needed to be changed.
Everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked Sean O’Neal left.
Newswire under Sean O’Neal used to be the absolute best thing on this site. Newswire is now the absolute worst for the above-mentioned reasons: directionless, toothless snark.
I like to think that after he left this site, O’Neal did indeed assemble an army and invade a sovereign nation.
Is it snark?
I read it as sincere.
But then I do genuinely think that JGL is super awesome and that he can do no wrong.
I honestly couldn’t tell, myself, so… good job?
Thanks, I like praise!
Honestly, it might be. I have no idea.
Same boat as you initially, but the link to the Don Jon review goes to a typically whingey Dowd review (C+). I’m thinking JGL love is verboten, per Schimkowitz.
Sometimes it’s aimless snark, sometimes it’s “we CAN’T EVEN with this FIERCE new [publicist planted] photo shoot from [actress whose career is stalling],” sometimes (most of the time) it’s “looks like those clowns on Twitter did it again – what a bunch of clowns,” sometimes it’s “here’s the latest drama from a conflict that a certain species of Always Online People are currently obsessed with and we’re just automatically going to assume you’re equally obsessed and morally outraged,” sometimes (again, most of the time) it’s merely an incomprehensible, typo-ridden mess.
i believe the joke is that noone remembers don john, and they’re acting as if everyone remembers don john. they aren’t speaking to the quality of the film.
I’m increasingly believing that either Joseph Gordon Levitt is either a huge jerk in real life or else there’s some massive Hollywood in-joke about him that we don’t know.
I don’t think you have much to worry about- were that the case, AV Club’s ouevre dictates that there would be a myriad of articles about JGL’s actions, and every subsequent article would reference back, regardless of their relation to the topic.
debra winger is my mom!
At first I thought they meant a Don Jon sequel… I was so confused. But after reading the entire overlong article, I’m just a different type of confused.