Jojo Rabbit is the 6th Feature film to be helmed by director Taika Waititi. After exploding into the spotlight after the success of Thor’s 3rd (and best outing) Thor Ragnarok. Waititi returns with an ‘awfully’ funny, supremely made and masterfully acted Satire on Nazi propaganda, family and friendship.
Its based on a book called Caging Skies by Christine Leunens and Follows a young boy named Jojo and his imaginary friend (Adolf Hitler) who discovers his mother is hiding a Jewish girl named Elsa.
The film opens up with a German rendition of “I wanna hold your hand” by the Beatles, which in itself is an odd choice for an opening for a war film, but this is Taika Waititi so anything goes. Straight away he slathers the film in his distinctive style, with bright colours and hilarious characters. A stand out performance comes from Roman Griffin Davis as Jojo. Not only does he play off the role of a wannabe Nazi perfectly, but he also hits the mark in every scene he is in. Perfectly capturing the emotion and struggles of trying to fit in and all of his jokes landing and sounding as if they were off the cuff rather than written. I was caught off guard so many times with quick-witted jokes that mock both the Nazis and the Jewish Faith with hilarity – Rabbis performing circumcisions and using “Jewish penises as earplugs” come to mind.
Roman Griffin Davis is the stand out actor here but all the cast are great. There wasn’t a character that I thought was a terrible edition or a Jar Jar Binks if you will, that ruins the film. The chemistry between Jojo and his mother is played excellently, by Scarlett Johansson, the banter that goes back and forth feels just like what a mother and son would do. It feels authentic. Not to mention that I could actually believe that Roman Griffin Davis could be Johansson’s actual son. They look so much alike in my opinion. Thoughts?
Now let’s move on to the biggest selling point for this film for me… Taika Waititi as Adolf Hitler. He obviously steals the show in every scene – cracking one-liners and playing them off in a “I’m been serious” manner in classic Waititi fashion. The way he approaches the role is obviously nothing like the real Adolf Hitler but on occasion, Hitler isn’t making jokes and acting all goofy. Sometimes he gets angry and Waititi embodied this in such a way that sometimes it’s close to terrifying.
My biggest praise about Taika Waititi’s films are even though they are extremely funny they also have a lot of emotional weight to them. The relationship Jojo has with his mother and with Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) has a lot going for it in terms of morality and humanity and what to do when given a choice that goes against everything you believe in. The biggest shocks for the film is when Jojo is doing his daily duties around the town, enjoying his day when he stands up and to the left of the screen we see his mothers shoes as she hangs from the Gallows. This totally caught me off guard and I have goosebumps from just writing about. Waititi shows that Jojo’s mum likes to dance by having her do it most of the time she is on camera focusing in on her footwork playing it off as “Hey we’re just seeing her dance for her son to cheer him up” but in reality, he is just setting us up for the biggest gut-punch of the film and it was masterfully paired with Roman Griffin Davis performance once he comes to the realisation he is now alone and what he believes in killed his mother.
Other standouts are Sam Rockwell as Captain Klenzendorf who surprised me in actually being a great character that I empathised with him having quite a huge and kind persona despite his Nazi uniform. Elsa, the Jewish girl who Jojo’s mother is hiding, is introduced as quite menacing – threatening to kill Jojo if he says anything and also threatens to get his mother hung if he tells her he knows (little bit for foreshadowing there that I missed). This is a flip on the Nazi-Jew stereotype which is usually the Jewish are the Protagonists and the Nazi’s are the Antagonists. However, the film progresses and we as the audience learn to love both characters along the same time as the characters themselves begin to fall into friendship with one another. It’s just another thing Waititi does excellently. Our feelings evolve the same way the characters do.
Final Score.
Title:Incredible
Jojo Rabbit is a perfect satire on Nazi Germany and Taika Waititi’s signature film making style oozes out in the shed load to make a perfect comedy film and an almost perfect film with emotion and hilarity that makes me stand at attention and wait for what he does next…and maybe dance a little.
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