By TIM DAVID HARVEY
Hey Joe! What you doing with that red button in your hand? It's time to hit record people on the classic, legendary legacy making career of a man who surely is no longer just the familiar face that makes people say "hey isn't that the kid from '3rd Rock From The Sun'?! As great as the 90's and his out of this world situation comedy was, he's all grown up now to the tune of 32 baby-faced years and the long hair has been cut to his production partner brother Dan. Now a clip above the rest the world is Joseph's dream in technicolor. This fall see's the release of the first film he's both wrote and directed, where he plays 'Don Jon', a sex addict who really cares about only a few things in life. His body, his pad, his ride, his family, his church, his boys, his porn and his girl...Scarlett Johannson. Wow! Some guys have all the luck. Who knew Robin would be so cool and have more under his night owl working night-wing than we all thought?
Sure a directorial debut featuring a comedy-drama wrote about an Italian-American who hates movies (particularly rom-coms) but loves porn is a bold one, but it's also a beautifully done one to the good vibrations of a decades back feeling American suburban family life. Complete with the bold Robin Thicke like lettering introduction of the coolest, classiest, confident trailer in a day and internet age of commercial cinema coups of braggadocios popcorn statements that blurs the lines of other efforts and the memories of what film you're about to watch. Yep that's right the Robin that's crossed over superhero franchises like Ben Affleck, the next Wonder Woman and possibly himself again and picked up a Black Widow is really spinning a great web and internet network. Recruiting the lamented likes of Julianne Moore, Rob Brown, Glenne Headly, Brie Lason and Tony Danza it's clear this top Don Joe knows movies and with his own production company behind his script, directors chair and leading man light it's clear he knows how to make them too. Gordon-Levitt is the don when it comes to the next great, pretty boy turned good Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Jake Gyllenhaal actors out there, but there is much more than meets the eyes of the twenty-something 'housewives to be' favorite pin-up. Check past the cover of any 'Vanity Fair' or 'GQ' magazine and you'll see more to this feature presentation than the face that sells newsprint and ticket stubs.
Just like the singing side of his Scarlett co-star (check out her Tom Waits covers or her 'Break Up' album with modern music maestro Pete Yorn (especially 'I Am The Cosmos') for how her voice is more than just the appeal of her 'Lost In Translation' karaoke effort), Levitt has more space in his studio than just room for piling scripts. Are you recording? Why not hit the phrase 'hitRECord' into your browser or more importantly Twitter feed (that you'll constantly want to update with opportunity) and you'll see just what this man is doing not just for himself and his company but everyone in the world whose wanted more than just their 15 minutes of fame on the biggest stage....including you. Yes, you! Taking it further than just the big bucks of Pitt's team outbidding Leo's company for the huge 'World War Z', Joe and brother partnered 'hitRECord' team is offering life and a survival guide to young artists in a digital diluted age of epic expression. With so much material out there in the blog and youtube, Facebook sharing generation and so many big companies taking young, quote on quote, inner-circle to international interns massive work-load for free with little promise or even help (hey, I'm speaking from experience), here is one man who is taking all of this to task. Giving you his word unlike those faceless corporations hiding behind false hope-mongering half-truths. It's refreshing that one of Hollywood's biggest and most in demand stars is doing something he doesn't need to do, for the good of those break searching underground talents who would que up for hours just for the hope to not be turned away for a 'Star Wars' audition and of course the art itself. Just check his personal pitch video introduction to his companies website that is as inspirational as it is charismatic and has as much substance as it does style. It's about to get even bigger.
Right now hitRECord offers writers, illustrators, singers and songwriters and so many more artists the chance to work on all sort of genre creations in video, music, literature, photography, performance, spoken word, screenwriting and graphic art in what is simply THE place to see and be when it comes to artistic integrity and expression in it's purest and most powerful form. What's more if your art makes money, so do you...writers and experience searching artists will know just how refreshingly satisfying that sounds in an industry of wounded and more curbed enthusiasms than Larry David. From it's 'Morgan and Destiny' movies to it's 'Tiny Stories' children's books and it's 'Move On The Sun' C.D. album across the board collaborations to so much more hitRECord is about to tape over the whole industry. Now with a brand new cable variety television show presented by Joe himself about to debut everyone's work to every television in every home stay tuned for a televised revolution of everyman redemption. This is so much more than just another round of reality victim T.V. offering a commercial break interrupted 15 minute shot. This is the real deal from a man that recovered from some child-star forgotten years to a mature mainstream age that can't even pretend to ignore his new 'adult' movie. This man is everything entertainment like singer/comedian/actor Jamie Foxx. Behind that honed fake Italian accent is a man who is anything but fugazi, a man that pays attention to every detail in not only his own work, but the art of others. Like the hidden talents around the globe his underrated talent is bubbling to the surface even more through the Hollywood flipped script of critical doubt and commercial success. His incredible acting will one day garner him the greatest awards, but his inspired internet artist, call to boundary, groundbreaking arms, that...that will be his lasting legacy.
This is a man who even though it seems like he's been around forever has plenty of years and decades left to craft not only his own career, but the success stories of millions of other on just his inspiration itself, yet alone his production company's anti-corporate promise. Still, working like there's no James Franco tomorrow the man is giving us the Jimmy Dean approach with a new flipped script twist, work fast, become legendary young. This is the boy wonder who last year gave life to the end of 'The Dark Knight Rises' (just look at how he acts with his life on the line) and possibly a spin-off to a franchise that had to finish as strong as possible after the groundbreaking but heartbreaking performance of the late, great Heath Ledger as the redefined Joker villain. With his beat cop John Blake assisting Christian Bale's legendary dark Batman, you had to wait until the end-after he throws his badge away brilliantly-and hear this kids real name to see just how close to the caped crusader this perfect partner was. In an 'Inception' cast-loaded film that featured everyone in Christopher Nolan's mind-bending epic but the one-time Riddler rumored Leonardo DiCaprio, Joe stole the show and kept it going alongside Tom Hardy's brutal Bane. Just like he did in his smartly dressed, slicked back, inspired fashion and acting statement in the previous futuristic thriller that really was the true inception of his mainstream rebirth with it's gravity defying, grandiose defining, hand-to-hand action combat sequences. Now just like Hardy he is the present and future of every other major film. From 'Lawless' to 'Looper', last year Tom and Joey played cat and mouse games with everybody. In 'Looper' Gordon-Levitt really cut the cheese as prosthetics and his accented chameleonic portrayal made him able to play a young Bruce Willis in his own character and mans right. Another classic time-travel movie took it to a whole other science-fiction level and gave Levitt more swagger and cool-points than that brown leather and blunderbuss. Right now no one can close this boys loop.
He's been shooting straight his whole career. From his Jewish, Sherman Oaks beginnings to making it in America's Hollywood homeland. In L.A. his acting gigs began earlier than the '3rd Rock', with his own scarecrow take of 'The Wizard Of Oz' and some commercial success for Cocoa Puffs and Pop Tarts among others. After eating all that breakfast it was time to make a meal out of some television work from 'Dark Shadows' to the illumination John Lithgow led sitcom that would never alienate him front the big-time despite him finding the celebrity life uncomfortable. Yesteryear's 'Big Bang Theory' meets 'How I Met Your Mother' displayed comic timing and a face of the future that even Harry could see. Like the Hendersons this was a family comedy for the new ages. A year before the new millennium Joseph hit the movie circuit with a new teenage classic for the young crowd alongside fellow sci-fi, T.V. comedy darling Larisa Oleynik (of 'The Secret World Of Alex Mack' fame...remember?), Julia Stiles and the beginning of Heath Ledger's beautiful but brutally brief career in '10 Things I Hate About You'. A far cry from his 'Halloween', 'Beethoven', or even 'A River Runs Through It' beginnings, this cult, locker pin-up classic flipped the play-write playbook on Shakespeare's 'The Taming Of The Shrew'. After a college break and then a dropout return, Gordon-Levitt looked to get deeper and darker and bolder and better as he took on real roles like the mental institution of 'Manic' or the 'Mysterious Skin' of a gay prostitute who had a darker past than his bleak present.
These haunting and harrowing performances of real complexity, along with the film-noir of 'Brick' or the sexually repressed Mormon themes of 'Latter Days' are resume reasons why this man is black and white perfect for the the eagerly anticipated and long awaited 'Sin City-A Dame To Kill For' sequel. This comic book star is more than just art house or fan girl approved, he's everybody's favorite "new" actor with an old testimony of terrific scripts, where he's turned word to gospel like the kid everyone looks up to in school. He takes everyone to class with his charm, but it's the soul of his performances that could even turn the controversial to instrumental from the heart to the gut. 'The Lookout' bank heist played into more critical and fans hands as did his performance in another cult go-round in 'Killshot'. It's in recent years that he's really come into his own however like most men leaving their twenties for their more secure and settled 30's (see; Gosling, Ryan, Reynolds, same name). Now with a body of work behind him he's a young legend with an old career of catalog hits, sort of like the movie equivalent of singer/songwriter Ryan Adams with subtle indie smashes that strike to the heart of those really listening and paying attention. There's so many films in his career like this, but the golden kid really hit platinum with a modern day rom-com drama for this generation which struck the biggest hearts since '10 Things'. As iconic as the t-shirt wearing poster on every girls dorm room door, Joseph Gordon-Levitt set classic chemistry with new Hollywood 'it' girl Zooey Deschanel in '(500) Days Of Summer'.
You can put that up there with the best of the rest even if you want to leave 'G.I Joe' on the shelf like toy soldier of the time Channing Tatum now has. There has to be some '50/50' in an experimental career that has seen some powerful performing arts of promise like his cancer-stricken character alongside comedic Seth Rogen. Over the last year Robin has gone to war with General Zod in the epic bike-ride across New York in 'Premium Rush' alongside Michael Shannon and played the Presidents son in Speilberg's epic take on 'Lincoln' for an underused but unquestionable contribution. The rest of this year and what follows could look even better for a man who has more comic books to read than just Batman and 'Sin City'. Right now, alongside fellow T.V. funny man turned peoples favorite actor Paul Rudd, Joe Levitt is in the running for the role of Marvel's legendary Ant-Man role. Who knows who will blow-up and who will shrink when it comes to this role because either or would bring their own dynamic and distinct take on the original Avenger leaf carrier. In this ever expanding Marvel universe there's surely room for a man that even convinced Nolan that his dark knight didn't have to be a one man show. Still, whether his multi-facial and faceted career will don another mask is yet to be decided. Right now it's on Jon and everyone else as hitRECord and it's lead man 'Don Jon' are about to win over everyone's hearts and creative minds. If you could script it better than this Joe would probably read it and if you're still not convinced by the man with a great hit career for the record maybe it's time to press play. This dons the one and his names Joe.
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