Reviews Film / Jojo Rabbit

A biting satire that will punch you in the gut.

I'd heard of this film as a retort to the idea that Mel Brooks movies couldn't be made today...and in some ways, that's correct. I just wasn't expecting the deft use of such appropriate gravitas in with the masterful irreverence. The whole product doesn't remind me much of Brooks at all, but its serious side is warranted and done well.

Ten-year-old Johannes Betzler is a cute kid who has a strong nationalistic side, including seeing a version of Hitler as his imaginary friend and conscience. However, Jojo gets scarred by a Hitler Youth grenade drill gone awry and learns his mother has been hiding a Jewish girl, Elsa, in an attic cubbyhole, causing him to reevaluate what he has been taught.

The film establishes its dark comedy chops right away as it opens with a montage of Hitler-saluting Germans paired with a German-language rendition of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand". The comedy continues to be sharp and hilarious. Director Waititi makes imaginary Hitler a spectacle to watch as we're both charmed and uncomfortable watching that face act as a sassy friend, and the egregious bigotry and lack of safety Nazi-brainwashed children were under is framed as ludicrous.

Still, the film has quite a bit more heart and gravitas than I expected, and it works out. It's a story with strong motifs and themes that recur and then shock and sadden you when beats meet a climax you never realized was coming. The emotional depth of an innocent junior nationalist dealing with a bitter, mischievous refugee is solid. He's wrong but not evil; she's sad but not weak. He wants to learn about Jews but she knows it's for the wrong reasons and doesn't appoint herself cultural ambassador, instead letting him learn she's a person organically. His mother also gives the film a lot of depth as she has an affectionate and cheeky relationship with her son, who she also feels to be trapped in hateful ways of thinking she is risking her life to subvert. The acting in the film is fantastic and when it gets real, it makes a point of it, and makes points that need to be made. It's got good jokes and reflects the absurdity of the truth, but it doesn't let the audience forget the real tragedies of the time. I think it's a delicate balancing act but a successful one, and a nice approach to the question of "drama vs. irreverence" in the handling of Nazis. Jojo Rabbit ridicules the Nazis when appropriate, but depicts the horror honestly when appropriate. It works.

This film is a really solid package that understands itself perfectly while providing a story that's in turns hilariously wicked and satirical and also heavy and humanly affecting.