Movie Review - Jojo Rabbit

Director: Taika Waititi
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

10s Movie Review - Fighting with My Family

Director: Stephen Merchant
Genre: Comedy
Runtime: 108 minutes
Year: 2019
Starring: Florence Pugh, Nick Frost, Lena Heady, Dwayne Johnson, Vince Vaughn, Stephen Merchant, Jack Lowden

Description: A former wrestler and his family make a living performing at small venues around the country while his kids dream of joining World Wrestling Entertainment.

Review: There are families where all the member devote themselves to the same passion or hobby and the entire family will be dedicated to this activity. For Rick Knight, his wife Julia and kids Zak and Saraya, it’s wrestling. They run a wrestling school in Norwich and both kids are big fans of the WWE.
The real Saraya managed to become the youngest Diva-champion for the WWE, as her alter ego Paige. She was only 21 when she won. And she didn’t only grow to become a phenomenon, she managed to make the sport popular with women.
The story of a simple girl growing up in a warm, working class family is gold for film makers. Especially when it’s based on a true story and they can add Dwayne Johnson to it. It forms the base for “Fighting with My Family”, which is directed by comedian Stephen Merchant.
The life of the Knight family is fully focused on show wrestling. Rick and Julia wrestled themselves and now have all hopes for their children Zak and Saraya. When they get a call from the WWE, after they saw a video of them in action, Zak and Saraya are invited for try-outs. It’s a dream come true. But for one this dream ends quickly, because only Saraya manages to go on to the next round and travel to Florida for a training camp.
That wrestling is based on mutual trust and agreements isn’t enough. Merchant shows that wrestling is a very complex sport. When former models, dancers and actors enter the ring, Saraya judges them, because they never wrestled. But Saraya herself has a lot to learn about showmanship and learns that these ‘pretty faces’ have more to it than just that.
Because this ‘American world’ is showed from the perspective of a down-to-earth British family, the film has a lot more heart and humor to it. It could have easily become a typical Hollywood film with juvenile slapstick jokes. But with a lot of humor and ability to put things into perspective we see a stranger that stands out among the American fashion dolls because of her nonchalant appearance, jet-black hair and piercings.
“Fighting with My Family” was made with a lot of love and has a lot of heart. The direct humor, the sympathetic character and the great story of Paige make this comedic true story a very enjoyable film that I absolutely loved.

Rating: 4 / 5

10s Movie Review - The Girl in the Spider's Web

Director: Fede Alvarez
Genre: Drama/ Thriller/ Crime
Runtime: 115 minutes
Year: 2018
Starring: Claire Foy, Sverrir Gudnason, Lakeith Stanfield, Sylvia Hoeks, Stephen Merchant

Description: Young computer hacket Lisbeth Salander (Claire Foy) and journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason) find themselves caught in a web of spies, cybercriminals and corrupt government officials.

Review: A new introduction to Lisbeth Salander, it takes some time to get used to. The main character from the popular “Millennium” book series by Stieg Larsson and David Lagercrantz is blown up to almost mythical proportions in “The Girl in the Spider’s Web”. Standing in front of a big screen she seems like an avenging angel. Her face covered up partially by her hoodie, nonchalant lighting a cigarette. Her mission: punish men who (sexually) abuse women. She even added some white makeup around her eyes, like some sort of superhero mask.
The title seems to refer to the network of predators (pedophiles, rapist, abusers), but “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” hardly deals with this theme. The film is based on the fourth book in the series, which wasn’t written by author Stieg Larsson, but by journalist David Lagercrantz. And to be honest, it’s noticeable that the material has gone from Larsson to another writer. Especially when we’re looking at Lisbeth Salander, she is further from the character’s origin.
The ‘spiders’ appear to be leaders of a crime syndicate. The do everything to get codes from an online nuclear weapons program, byt masterfull hacker Lisbeth is trying to stop them. In this film she sometimes even feels like a female James Bond.
This cyberthriller has lots of bizarre twists, but has a high tempo and is well shot. And director Fede Alvarez manages to create some stylish scenes. Most attention goes to Lisbeth, and not to Mikael Blomkvist. His character is not very prominent in this film and sometimes even feels like he didn’t need to be there. When Stieg Larsson wrote the first books, they centered around Lisbeth and Blomkvist and their relationship. Claire Foy had big shoes to fill. Noomi Rapace portrayed Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish trilogy and Rooney Mara played her in the American version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. Foy does a good job, but not as good as her predecessors. We can see Foy is a very versatile actress, since she also plays the role of Queen Elizabeth in series “The Crown”.
It's a given that the original series from Sweden is the best and I don’t think that will even change. “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” is a good effort, but since the books have been written by someone other then Stieg Larsson and it already feels different, the movie suffers from that too.

Rating: 3 / 5

10s Movie Review - Table 19

Director: Jeffrey Blitz
Genre: Drama/ Comedy/ Romance
Runtime: 84 minutes
Year: 2017
Starring: Anna Kendrick, June Squibb, Lisa Kudrow, Craig Robinson, Tony Revolori, Stephen Merchant, Wyatt Russell

Description: Eloise (Anna Kendrick), having been relieved of maid of honor duties after being unceremoniously dumped by the best man via text, decides to attend the wedding anyway, only to find herself seated with five fellow unwanted guests at the dreaded Table 19.

Review: Weddings aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. It’s the most beautiful day of someone’s life, so when you are a part of it, you must be a special person. But not when you’re placed at the titular table 19.
“Table 19” deals with the social conventions of attending weddings. You can not NOT go, but you’d rather do a million other things.
Eloise McGarry is invited to the wedding of her oldest friend. She once was supposed to be the maid of honor at that wedding, but she broke up with the brides brother and now she has been placed at table 19. Which is far away from all the festivities. She is accompanied by random guests, who all don’t really understand why they are there.
Eloise is actually the only character we really get to know and she has depth. The rest stay rather flat and we don’t get to know much about them. But the cast is good and makes sure that it’s not a bad movie. It eventually is a mediocre drama/ comedy.
It’s an okay movie, but it will not be remembered long.

Rating: 3 / 5

100 Movie Challenge 2017 - # 34: Logan

Director: James Mangold
Genre: Drama/ Action/ Science Fiction/ Thriller
Runtime: 137 minutes
Year: 2017
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant

Description: In the near future, a weary Logan (Hugh Jackman) cares for an ailing Professor X (Patrick Stewart) in a hide out on the Mexican border. But Logan's attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant arrives, being pursued by dark forces.

Review: There aren’t a lot of Hollywood stars that stayed so true to their break through roles as Hugh Jackman. For “Logan” he portrays the role of Wolverine for the ninth time. For about seventeen years he carried this role, starting with “X-Men”. “Logan” takes the super out of superhero. Jackman plays Wolverine for the last time, and he was never better.
It’s 2029 and the world is not doing well. Logan is a broken man: he drinks, curses and doesn’t care about the world. He works as a limo driver and also takes care of Charles Xavier, who is old and ill. Logan himself isn’t in the best physical shape either. He doesn’t heal as quickly as he did before. They are the only mutants left, until they find a girl named Laura.
Wolverine has always been the rougher character in the X-Men series, but in “Logan” he is rougher than ever. Jackman gives his all here, it looks like he had to hold back in all the other films he played Wolverine in. The film is rated R. It’s explicit, raw, bloody and very violent. And it all looks fantastic. The choreography of the fight scenes is amazing.
Director James Mangold clearly doesn’t like the stereotypical superhero. In the previous film “The Wolverine” he showed that he had more affinity with the human side of Logan than his powers. In “Logan” that’s also the focus.
When Laura comes into Logan’s life, you expect it to be emotional. But the connection between the two never gets too sentimental. I loved “Logan”, it’s a fantastic film. My favorite X-Men film and a worthy good bye to Hugh Jackman as this iconic character.

Rating: 4,5/ 5