Jojo Rabbit

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Director Taika Waititi has definitely become someone to keep an eye on in his continuing career. In the near future, he'll be regarded as one of the best modern filmmakers of this age, with such titles as 'Thor: Ragnarok', which single-handedly revamped the 'Thor' series to something much better, and 'What We Do in the Shadows', which is seriously one of the funniest vampire movies in existence. This one is his answer to an adaptation film, basing it on the book 'Caging Skies' by Christine Leunens.

We meet a young German kid named Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) who has an imaginary friend in Adolf Hitler (Waititi, himself), and allows him to guide his decisions, wanting more than anything to serve the real Hitler, and do everything a "good little Nazi" is supposed to do, without going into specific detail. Here we see a great example of kids being brainwashed, telling the German youth about the "horrors" of the Jewish race, in order to make them easier targets, painting them as actual monsters.

During his time at a young Nazi training camp ran by Captain Klenendorf (Sam Rockwell), an accident befalls Jojo, and he's brought back home to heal up, with his mother, Rosie (Scarlett Johansson). Returning to the camp, he's allowed to do more light duty things like handing out fliers and such. It's here that Jojo sees some of the first horrors of Nazi Germany, even though he's still very much a Nazi boy, and we start to see what the film wants to do as part of its unfolding.

While at home one day, however, Jojo hears a sound, goes to investigate, and finds a secret passage he never knew about. This leads him to a Jewish girl named Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie), and Jojo suddenly finds himself trapped about what to do, leading him to have to leave her be. During this time, he asks her to educate her on Jewish people, and she exaggerates everything to great comedic detail, which he takes seriously. Eventually, Jojo starts questioning the bigger things in life, and we realize that this is a movie that balances drama and comedy extremely well.

The film is overall supremely acted, being one of the best roles I've ever seen Scarlett Johansson play, another great role for Sam Rockwell, and both Roman Griffin Davis and Thomasin McKenzie are completely believable in their overall awkward relationship they develop. Somehow, this is a movie that profiles a German kid in World War II, wanting to be a Nazi more than anything, and it makes you empathize with him. It's a whole untouched area when it comes to war movies, and in that sense sort of reminds me of 'Grave of the Fireflies', where the movie says "but wait, look what happened over here through all of this."

Depicting a Nazi wannabe child's point of view seems a risky move, especially when he's lead by Hitler as his imaginary friend. But it also serves a purpose, and in a 'Breakfast Club' sort of way, we get to see just how much Jojo, a German, and Elsa, a Jew, have in common. It's hilarious, but also deeply profound, and will have you laughing just as much as tearing up. On a personal level, so far, this is my favorite movie of 2019!

5/5

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