‘Ed’ Short Film Review: The Hollowness of Addiction [SFF 25]
‘Ed’ isn’t the first film to tackle the subject of porn addiction among young males. In fact, the 2013 romantic comedy Don Jon that was written, directed, and starring Joseph Gordon Levitt tackled the same topic with a similar approach. Much like Ed, the premise of Don Jon was relatively simple in that it centered on the addiction to porn it’s titular character Jon Martello (Levitt) suffered from to a point where it denied him the ability to be intimate or even sociably functional. However, Don Jon was a comedy where eventually, although it didn’t end on a traditional romcom note, you could count on it carrying an optimism that felt more authentic while still giving a decent middle finger to all the superficial Hollywood BS that paints much of what is considered a romantic comedy. Ed On the other hand is a much darker take on the more horrifically hollow road an addiction to porn can lead, and the fantastic performance writer, director, and lead star Victor Del Rio gives brings that message to the forefront of what is a very critical matter in today’s culture.
As stated, much like Don Jon, Ed’s premise is simple in terms of how it centers on Ed (Victor Del Rio), a college student who suffers from a porn addiction. Within seconds of the raw and beautifully captured close up angles and engrossing cinematography, the film portrays Ed losing himself in the sheer ecstasy of imagery with women whom he has no emotional association with, while the unnerving feeling that this film promises is delivered in showing a story of a man who falls victim to demons he tries to hide from his friends, and even the girl he’s seen staring at while in class. Sadly, as much as Sami (Jackie McCarthy) attempts to be intimate with Ed on his own birthday, her efforts, and even those of his friends’ to help him enjoy life to a more authentic degree than the more isolated existence he’s made apparent through his avoidance of them ultimately end in failure.
The full extent of Ed’s failure goes beyond him stormin out of a surprise birthday party meant for him and leaving Sami and his friends Carlo and Kyle baffled. Ed invokes the feeling of a tragedy that was long set in motion, while equally operating as a proper commentary on the current state of young men and their relationship with porn. Victor Del Rio’s intense acting only gives that commentary a stronger floor to stand on.
A 2024 FHE Health poll showed that children from the ages of 8-16 have viewed porn, while 70% of men between the ages of 16-34 typically visit a porn site on a monthly basis. These numbers are staggering to accept, and the sad reality in looking at them further encapsulates something sad about the current age, and how disconnected it has become from the basic intimacy often associated with sex. With the rise of porn and the apps making it more accessible, men have become less intimate and much less communicable. Ed is a perfect example of not just the disconcerting aspect of a porn addiction, but it also succeeds in clarifying the more destructive elements that porn can have on the social development of young men through the use of technologies that grant them the opportunity for greater desensitization and social dissociation. Ed shows through its protagonist’s inability to be sexually intimate with a real girl versus the greater intimacy he can experience through his use of porn as a warning on the social dangers a porn addiction can have because by now it is no secret that the imagery young men like Ed fixate their sexual appetite on isn’t real, at least not in any emotional sense. It could be argued that in some aspects of pornography, the sex within the simulated performances that entices many young men as opposed to that of a woman who is naturally attracted to them, has some aspect of authenticity to it. But ultimately, because what they are seeing is in fact a simulation rather than anything constituting actual human emotion, it just further shows how far deep the hollowness within a porn addiction really is, and what sort of price it robs men like Ed of.