Genre: Comedy/ Drama
Runtime: 108 minutes
Year: 2019
Starring: Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Scarlett Johansson, Taika Waititi, Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, Alfie Allen, Stephen Merchant, Archie Yates, Luke Brandon Field
Description: A young boy (Roman Griffin Davis) in Hitler’s (Taika Waititi) army finds out his mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) in their home.
Review: “Jojo Rabbit” is a film about Jojo, a 10-year-old boy, at the end of WWII. A German boy. He doesn’t know better than that Hitler is ruling and joining the Hitler jugend is just as normal to him as joining the boy scouts. As many kids his age, Jojo has an imaginary friend. But this one is a little out of the ordinary: it’s Adolf Hitler himself.
The tone is set in the opening scene, where Jojo and imaginary Hitler are practicing his ‘Sieg Heil’ until he is finally convincing. At first you think it might be a dumb juvenile joke, but it’s far from that. The film has a satirical take and it’s brilliant.
Although the film is set during WWII, the tone is light hearted. It does star a 10-year-old boy. Scarlett Johansson plays his mother Rosie, a jolly woman who is focused on doing the right thing and tying Jojo’s shoes. Captain Klenzendorf is the leader of the Hitlerjugend and almost always too drunk to notice that shots are fired. And Jews, in Jojo’s imagination they are mythical creatures with horns and telepathic powers. He has an idea of what to do when he sees one, but it never came to that. Until he meets Elsa, the young woman Jojo’s mother is hiding in their house. Elsa is a smart and pretty teenage girl and she is also very friendly. Jojo doesn’t understand any of it anymore.
This extremely ingenious story, from the book by the Flemish New Zealand Christine Leunens, offers plenty of room for strong satire. Director (and portrayer of imaginary Hitler) Taika Waititi adds to this a sharp visual symbolism and subject matter. Even with the Wes Anderson-type shots and composition this movie never wants you to think that 1944’s Germany was a place without worries. Because the actual gruesome details of the war stay in the background, you still notice they are there. And even the protective world of a 10-year-old isn’t free of the monster that’s called war. We can laugh, we even have to some times, but people are still dying and you can’t deny or flee that.
This combination of playfulness and cruelty is what makes “Jojo Rabbit” so strong in the end. And if you can’t find the humor in a young kid that, while skipping around town, greets random strangers with a stretched arm, you’d better pass on this one. But I’ve never seen a jet black comedy that was so colorful. “Jojo Rabbit” will make you laugh and cry, whether it’s because of happiness or sadness. “Jojo Rabbit” is a fantastic film, a definite favorite for me.
Rating: 5 / 5
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten