Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut has enjoyed critical success but an Italian-American Watchdog Group condemns it for perpetuating a stereotype.

The group,  Italian American One Voice Coalition, has called out Gordon-Levitt on his film's "stereotyping and denigrating" both Italian Americans and Jews in its character portrayals. In a press release sent Monday, they note that Gordon-Levitt's parents had founded a once-famous Jewish national social justice organization, yet his movie has irresponsibly generalized an entire race. They were referring specifically to Tony Danza's character and the title role.

"Here we go again with the same shop-worn, racist stereotypes of Italian Americans in movies," said organization founder Dr.Emanuele "Manny" Alfano. "It never ends. Levitt, himself the son of proud parents who once founded the Jewish Progressive Alliance and fought for social justice causes, should be ashamed of himself for the negative portrayal of Italians and Jews in his movie."

"Levitt, much like his pornography-addicted character, needs an intervention and should go into serious therapy for his ethnic denigration of Italian Americans," said Alfano. "Levitt ought to quit now, take this trite garbage out of movie theaters and donate his profits to charity."

The distributors of the film don't seem to be affected. "Don Jon" debuted to $9 million from 2,422 locations (rival studios have it opening slightly lower with $8.8 million).

"We're really pleased. It's a strong gross, and we want to be in the Joseph Gordon-Levitt business," said Relativity distribution chief Kyle Davies. "We think the picture will play well. You can't have reviews this strong without there being a connection to an audience."

Critics from Rotten Tomatoes have showered praise on the film.

From Adam Graham of Detroit News: "Gordon-Levitt's characters feel real and 'Don Jon' is a convincing, authentic, funny, modern romance."

Annlee Ellingson of Paste Magazine : "Joseph Gordon-Levitt makes an assured debut as a writer-director with Don Jon, a cultural critique of the expectations placed on relationships in an environment saturated with media misrepresentations of both women and men."