Jojo Rabbit – 5 out of 5
I’m a big fan of Taika Waititi and try to seek out and consume every bit of media he creates and produces. I was exposed to his brilliance with What We Do in the Shadows and have since watched everything he has made prior to and proceeding that amazing comedic work. Additionally, he is responsible for one of the best films in the Marvel Cinematic Universeand is returning to bring Jane Foster’s version of Thor to the big screen. The man is a big, big, big deal to me so when I heard about his new project that would involve a member of Hitler’s youth and would see the writer/director/actor play an imaginary friend version of Adolf Hitler, I knew there was going to be something unique with this one. Waititi is just a master when it concerns exploration of human emotions and story in general so once Jojo Rabbit was available in a theater near me, I didn’t hesitate to go and see it…and, no surprise, I loved it!
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| Fox Searchlight Pictures It's 2019, we really should be at a point with the human race where we are all okay with making fun of Hitler. |
Jojo Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis) is a 10 year old German boy with dreams of rising among the ranks of the Nazi army. He even has an imaginary friend version of Adolf Hitler (Waititi) who he talks to. However, after earning the nickname “Jojo Rabbit” and running afoul of a grenade in the Hitler Youth training camp, Jojo is forced to stay home with his mother (Scarlett Johansson) and ends up working for Captain Klenzedorf (Sam Rockwell), usually in the form of spreading propaganda posters. While his mother is away for the day, one afternoon Jojo hears a sound in his home and learns that a young Jewish woman named Elsa Korr (Thomasin McKenzie) is living within his walls. Fearing that alerting the authorities to her existence will result in punishment to both him and his mother, Jojo decides to use this time to learn all about the believed enemy of his state but with learning comes understanding and Jojo soon realizes that love is far stronger of an emotion than hate.
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| Fox Searchlight Pictures I'm assuming that Stephen Merchant is just playing the creepy guy from Raiders of the Lost Ark. |
Jojo Rabbit is another win for an already amazingly talented man. The film is absolutely beautiful as it made me laugh and made me cry with its exploration of human emotion and how we can be conditioned to hate but also how we can learn to care for one another. The film is also very appropriate for this day and age as we literally see Nazis rising up in the United States of America and have a president who won’t condemn them but rather say there are “plenty of good ones.”
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| Fox Searchlight Pictures Captain Klenzendorf is a touch casual with his uniform. |
The approach to this film and its exploration is so smartly done as it never comes off as too obscure with its satire but it also doesn’t come off as too obvious either. This is also seen in the way that Jojo goes from this jingoistic follower of a very evil man to one who comes to understand a believed enemy, through the use of time, companionship, and even personal loss. The journey that character takes is an enthralling one and a very unique one too because our main character is literally a child who longs to be a member of the Hitler youth and has great hatred instilled in him. It’s really easy to make Nazis enemies in films and to make a joke about them because they suck but to make a film where you watch a character unlearn what it is to hate and root for him the entire time (and to have it feel natural and authentic and not like Waititi was just going for the easy buttons to push) is an extremely difficult thing and Waititi made it look easy. The end result is an overwhelmingly emotional film (one that had me still crying tears of joy in my car as I drove home) but one that also can have some fun and make you laugh along the way—something Waititi is just incredible at doing.
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| Fox Searchlight Pictures Rebel Wilson doesn't have a lot of scenes but, dammit, she makes the most out of all of them and they are all memorable. |
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| Fox Searchlight Pictures Honestly, only Waititi could have made this movie and made it work so well. |
The cast in this film is just fantastic. It’s already loaded with tons of talent like Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, Stephen Merchant and Waititi himself but the true stars were the two leads themselves; Roman Griffin Davis and Thomasin McKenzie. Working with younger performers is tough because their time on this planet has been limited so they don’t have a lot of work under their belt but these two were so amazing and made their characters feel so natural. Davis really had his work cut out for him because he had to play a Nazi that we couldn’t hate but had to be onboard with from the moment we are introduced to him. Davis was able to make his character not only understandable but his evolution from being someone indoctrinated by hate to a person who realizes that this way is no way to truly live felt so fluid and natural. The film is already terrifically written but Davis’ performance and his chemistry with McKenzie as their two characters grown, evolve and learn only made the product that much more engaging and meaningful.
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| Fox Searchlight Pictures If only deprogramming our modern day Nazis were as easy, touching and funny as this movie was with deprogramming Jojo. |
Jojo Rabbit is a timely and simultaneously an absolutely timeless story about how hate can be instilled but can also be overcome. The film has the perfect blend of being funny and emotional and the cast in it the production is the absolute best. This film is just another example of how good Taika Waititi is at what he does and how good he is at exploring and showcasing real human emotion.
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