Jojo Rabbit
Jojo Rabbit follows a young Hitler Youth named Jojo Betzler and his imaginary friend, who just so happens to be Adolf Hitler. The movie is set during the last year of the war in Nazi Germany and deals with Jojo's coming to terms with the fact that not all is at it seems. It stars Roman Griffin Davis, Scarlett Johansson, Rebel Wilson, Sam Rockwell, and Taika Waititi and was released in US theatres on October 18, 2019. Jojo Rabbit is rated PG-13 for war violence, disturbing imagery, language, adult themes, and hate speech, and runs for 1 hour and 48 minutes.
Don't like spoilers? Then you won't want to read any further until you've seen the film for yourself, because there are some spoilers below. You've been warned!
I saw Jojo Rabbit at the theatre with a crowd of about a dozen other folks during a Sunday afternoon matinee on 11/17/19. If I were to describe the film in one sentence, I would say it's as if Wes Anderson directed a movie about Nazi Germany. That's selling the film short, of course, because it's a very well-written dark comedy about a young boy indoctrinated into the Hitler Youth who comes to learn that his hatred of Jews is unfounded, and Hitler (both the real person and his imaginary friend version played by writer/director Taika Waititi) was an incompetent fool.
Roman Griffin Davis is both adorable and pitiable as Jojo, for how he gets made fun of by his fellow Nazis as well as how easily he accepts ridiculous lies about Jewish people, and how naive he is in general. The imaginary version of Adolf Hitler as portrayed by Taika Waititi is at times completely ridiculous and sometimes downright terrifying as he spits angry epithets while speechifying at Jojo. Most of the Nazis in the film (especially Rebel Wilson's and Sam Rockwell's characters) are played for laughs, which fits the overall tone of the film perfectly. There is a very dark turn of this black comedy at the climax, but I was smiling again by the time the credits rolled.
The opening sequence of the film matches up documentary footage of Nazi rallies and parades of screaming sycophants with a rousing Beatles tune (in German, of course). Fanaticism in any form is bad, ok? Jojo Rabbit ends with a dance number set to a David Bowie song (also in German), which was cathartic and ends the movie on a high, hopeful note. The dark turn I mentioned earlier was surprising because I didn't see it coming (there was no obvious foreshadowing), but in retrospect it makes perfect sense and was certainly not out of place in the context of the film's events.
I've seen reviews that mention that Taika at times falls into the "Not All Nazis Were Bad" trope, but I disagree. I assume they're talking primarily about Sam Rockwell's character who is obviously gay, covers for Jojo's "sister" with the Gestapo, and ends up saving Jojo's life at the end of the film. I don't see that as a not all Nazis are bad situation, though, I see it as someone who's going to die anyway not being a completely heartless bastard. Then again, reviewers seem to have trouble with nuance and tend to boil things down to broad strokes.
Favorite line in the film: It's not a great time to be a Nazi. That's true in real life, I think, even though social media would have us believe we're experiencing a veritable Nazi-renaissance. Social media does a great job at amplifying everything, but especially the horseshit, which makes the horseshit seem much more important and prevalent than it truly is. I think the Nazis have come out of the shadows, certainly, but that makes them visible and less scary. It is, in fact, not a great time to be a Nazi because it is also always acceptable to punch a Nazi in the face.
Overall, I was satisfied with Jojo Rabbit, and I highly recommend it.
Have you seen Jojo Rabbit and have a different opinion? Please post a comment and let me know what you think. Have a nice day!
Don't like spoilers? Then you won't want to read any further until you've seen the film for yourself, because there are some spoilers below. You've been warned!
I saw Jojo Rabbit at the theatre with a crowd of about a dozen other folks during a Sunday afternoon matinee on 11/17/19. If I were to describe the film in one sentence, I would say it's as if Wes Anderson directed a movie about Nazi Germany. That's selling the film short, of course, because it's a very well-written dark comedy about a young boy indoctrinated into the Hitler Youth who comes to learn that his hatred of Jews is unfounded, and Hitler (both the real person and his imaginary friend version played by writer/director Taika Waititi) was an incompetent fool.
Roman Griffin Davis is both adorable and pitiable as Jojo, for how he gets made fun of by his fellow Nazis as well as how easily he accepts ridiculous lies about Jewish people, and how naive he is in general. The imaginary version of Adolf Hitler as portrayed by Taika Waititi is at times completely ridiculous and sometimes downright terrifying as he spits angry epithets while speechifying at Jojo. Most of the Nazis in the film (especially Rebel Wilson's and Sam Rockwell's characters) are played for laughs, which fits the overall tone of the film perfectly. There is a very dark turn of this black comedy at the climax, but I was smiling again by the time the credits rolled.
The opening sequence of the film matches up documentary footage of Nazi rallies and parades of screaming sycophants with a rousing Beatles tune (in German, of course). Fanaticism in any form is bad, ok? Jojo Rabbit ends with a dance number set to a David Bowie song (also in German), which was cathartic and ends the movie on a high, hopeful note. The dark turn I mentioned earlier was surprising because I didn't see it coming (there was no obvious foreshadowing), but in retrospect it makes perfect sense and was certainly not out of place in the context of the film's events.
I've seen reviews that mention that Taika at times falls into the "Not All Nazis Were Bad" trope, but I disagree. I assume they're talking primarily about Sam Rockwell's character who is obviously gay, covers for Jojo's "sister" with the Gestapo, and ends up saving Jojo's life at the end of the film. I don't see that as a not all Nazis are bad situation, though, I see it as someone who's going to die anyway not being a completely heartless bastard. Then again, reviewers seem to have trouble with nuance and tend to boil things down to broad strokes.
Favorite line in the film: It's not a great time to be a Nazi. That's true in real life, I think, even though social media would have us believe we're experiencing a veritable Nazi-renaissance. Social media does a great job at amplifying everything, but especially the horseshit, which makes the horseshit seem much more important and prevalent than it truly is. I think the Nazis have come out of the shadows, certainly, but that makes them visible and less scary. It is, in fact, not a great time to be a Nazi because it is also always acceptable to punch a Nazi in the face.
Overall, I was satisfied with Jojo Rabbit, and I highly recommend it.
Have you seen Jojo Rabbit and have a different opinion? Please post a comment and let me know what you think. Have a nice day!
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