Rating: R
Runtime: 1 hour, 48 minutes
Director: Taika Waititi
Quick Impressions:
Last week I left The Lighthouse burgeoning with ideas for the review. Jojo Rabbit, on the other hand, left me burgeoning with worry. After seeing three excellent films in a row, I now fear I’m getting spoiled. If I like all the other Oscar hopefuls I’ve heard about as much as these three, then I’m setting myself up for a downward spiral into deep depression after awards season is over next February.
I really liked Parasite, and I loved The Lighthouse, but I’ve been quietly rooting for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood for Best Picture for months since it was easily my favorite of the year–until now. Maybe Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is still my favorite (jury’s out!), but the choice is no longer easy. Jojo Rabbit is an excellent film with tons of heart and characters that easily win sympathy and demand emotional investment.
To be honest, I’m a little irritated that I liked the film as much as I did. The trailers made Jojo seem too cynically comical, too amusing and smugly impressed with its own hilariously off-kilter whimsy. But the trailers are misleading. This film has the most easily likable, compelling characters you can possibly imagine, and so when bad things happen to them, you cry. You care. At least, I did. I dare you not to become emotionally invested as you watch.
The whimsy is a bit Wes Anderson, and the satire is sort of Death of Stalin (a film actually as odd as Jojo pretends to be), but the heart is more like your favorite Disney movie, and you’re five years old on the edge of your seat, unironically eating it up and sobbing into your popcorn.
I cared far more about the characters in this movie than I did in any of the other films I’ve loved this year (with the possible exception of Toy Story 4 because after spending two decades with characters, you get invested). When you watch The Lighthouse, the characters seem fascinating, but you ultimately don’t care much what happens to them as long as you get to see whatever it is. It’s more about curiosity than emotional investment. In Parasite, your sympathies constantly shift until finally you’re left with a bunch of feelings, but you’re not entirely sure whom they’re for (maybe yourself and your rotten society). Honestly, for me, Joker was far more emotionally resonant than Parasite because again, once you’ve known characters for a long time, you can’t help becoming invested (and that little twist mid-movie feels personal and important because you already know the people). (Early-in-the-year Arctic is another one where you get deeply attached and genuinely care.)
But Jojo Rabbit is basically the opposite of what it appears to be in trailers. It looks so cool and edgy and self-impressed, but instead it’s full of heart and high emotion. I haven’t been so happy to be wrong about a movie since Her (another film far less self-impressed than its smug trailer made it seem, also featuring surprising heart and the talents of Scarlett Johansson). Trust me, you’ll care about Jojo. He’s this adorable, cherubic looking little boy who just wants to be a good Nazi, and he’s trying so hard. But it’s hard to be a good Nazi, you know?
On some level, Jojo is all of us. At least, I personally relate to him. We all just want to be good and do our best, but the world makes no sense. We’re getting conflicting advice, and thanks to our collective failures, the world’s ending in five minutes, anyway, so no matter who is right, we’re all “losing the war.” Doesn’t life feel like that sometimes?
Jojo Rabbit will bring tears to the eyes (and down the face) of anybody who has a child…or a parent…or anyone. You don’t need any specialized knowledge or niche concerns to appreciate this film. It’s just about being human, and it will probably make you cry.
You’ll laugh, too. My husband and I laughed a lot, and so did the rest of the theater. Somebody there clearly hadn’t seen any of the trailers and burst out laughing in baffled delight the second Hitler popped up as Jojo’s imaginary friend.
The first several minutes of the film are extremely funny. Then suddenly, something shockingly sobering happens, something chilling. And the movie continues like that. From moment to moment, the tone shifts, and you laugh, gasp, cry, squirm, laugh again.
It’s much better than I expected, and I knew it was a Best Picture contender going in. (Plus, I’d heard glowingly positive recommendations from multiple friends.) Still, the film managed to exceed my expectations.
The Good:
Jojo Rabbit is shockingly well cast and features perfect, energized performances by everyone. Taika Waititi deserves recognition for directing since the film is perfectly paced with controlled tonal shifts and exceptional performances. I really don’t know why I’m so shocked to love his work. I also loved Thor: Ragnarok. I love it when things are funny. Even tragedy should have humorous moments in my opinion. (Perhaps the funniest play I’ve ever seen was a production of Hamlet at the Globe.) (And that is not a hint that I’ve lived an exceptionally dour life. The production intentionally made me laugh out loud multiple times, yet the tragedy was no less tragic for it.) (That was such a great experience. I was standing so close to the stage that Polonius spat on me!)
Waititi is great as Hitler. In fact, he’s not unworthy of an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor himself. People aren’t usually nominated for playing Hitler in a comedy, but it’s not like it’s never been done. The Producers springs to mind immediately. (I’m not saying Dick Shawn was nominated, just that he was playing Hitler in a comedy, though technically he was playing someone playing Hitler, which might make all the difference. Mel Brooks did deservedly win the Oscar for his screenplay, though.) What I love best about the performance is that like the film itself, Waititi’s Hitler undergoes dramatic, unpredictable, (and frankly unsettling) tonal shifts. Sometimes when he is angry or darkly passionate, his eloquent rants sound like direct quotes from the historical Hitler (from his speeches or maybe Mein Kampf). I hope that’s the case. And then I do wonder where some of his other advice is coming from. Is he acting as a substitute father, a more male mother, a projection of Jojo’s understanding of the world, all three? I don’t expect Waititi to be nominated for his performance, but he is both Maori and Jewish, so that would be quite a delightful story for the red carpet. Best Director would be a better category in which to honor him, though.
Scarlett Johansson absolutely shines as Jojo’s mother Rosie, and she definitely should be nominated for Best Supporting Actress, though I don’t know that she will be, especially because she’s also supposed to be fantastic in Marriage Story. My husband commented that every time Johansson appeared on screen, he was entranced. I agree that her presence is deeply felt, and she brings a kind of electrifying magic to the character. As I watched, I kept thinking, “She really reminds me of Marlene Dietrich in this movie, and I love the performance which is so odd because I don’t like Marlene Dietrich.” (I don’t hate Dietrich…but my Grandma did.) Johansson is magical, charismatic and charming, a huge presence in the film. Whether she gets nominated or not, this will surely be remembered as a highlight of her filmography.
The supporting characters truly surprised me because the trailer gave me the impression that a bunch of big names each appeared in the film for just a little bit. But it doesn’t work that way at all. Members of the supporting cast don’t give glorified cameos. They play (reasonably) well developed characters who stick around for the entire movie.
This is the best performance I’ve ever seen (or had imagined could be possible) from Rebel Wilson. I’ve gotten to the point that I no longer dislike Wilson, but still, in most of her roles, her humor doesn’t work for me about 80 percent of the time. (I’m sure that’s comic exaggeration. I’ll admit it’s not very funny, but that kind of illustrates my point.) In general, Wilson always goes bigger, bigger, bigger, aiming for total outrageousness. She does that here, too, but it works here because you cannot be too outrageous when mocking the absurdity of the Nazis’ antisemitic propaganda. Wilson’s job in this movie is to pretend to believe outlandish, offensive, ridiculous things that the audience does not believe (hopefully) and desires to see ridiculed. (I say “hopefully” because you never really know these days. Nazis seem to be crawling out of the woodwork and showing up everywhere!) My husband pointed out that we also get small doses of Wilson portioned out to us throughout the movie, which helps prevent her particular style of comedy from becoming overwhelming. This is starting to feel like a long-winded, back-handed compliment (or even outright insult). But I liked her performance here. I really did. In fact, I like her. I just don’t usually find her funny (which is inconvenient for both of us since she’s a comedian). But she’s consistently funny here and perfect for the part.
I’m always glad to see Alfie Allen. (I’ll just leave it at that and deprive everyone of my hilarious, tasteless wit.) And Stephen Merchant manages to be incredibly, chillingly creepy, yet so delightfully mockable at the same time.
Sam Rockwell is better than I ever could have dreamed and made me remember why I loved him so much in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. His final scene works so well and filled me with all the feelings. If it were up to me, he’d win an Oscar, but realistically, he probably won’t even get nominated. I mean how many years in a row can both Sam Rockwell and Willem Dafoe be nominated for Best Supporting Actor? It’s getting a little ridiculous.
The young cast is marvelous, too. Archie Yates is quite the scene stealer and nearly killed me with his late, hilarious monologue involving dogs. Both Thomasin McKenzie as the hidden Elsa and Roman Griffin Davis as Jojo himself would also make realistic Oscar nominees and very well could win some type of award for their work here. (Maybe they’ve already won something, in fact.) McKenzie seems like she’ll win an Oscar someday. She is particularly good at revealing Elsa’s complex emotions to the audience even when Jojo doesn’t see or understand them. And Davis is an unusually gifted child actor. Sometimes, we forget he’s a child. Other times, we forget he’s an actor. (What I mean is, when you remember that he is an actor, you kind of forget that he actually is a child.) His performance is perfect.
The characters (particularly Jojo, Rosie, and Elsa) are immediately sympathetic, and we care so much about them and are so drawn into their world that it’s easy to get sucked into the story and forget about things like cinematography, score, everything else. Both the cinematography and score are excellent. I always love Michael Giacchino’s music, and I have heard others raving about Mihai Malaimare’s cinematography in general, so I meant to be especially attentive to it. But no such luck. The emotional story was too engrossing. I forgot to be watching a movie and simply watched the movie. I will say that the film is always a pleasure to look at, and if they gave out Oscars for Best Foreshadowing, Jojo Rabbit would win them all.
Best Scene:
I’ll mention an early scene, when some older boys at camp ask Jojo to do something that gives him pause. What a sharp turn from comedy to…horror (maybe?)! The movie is so whimsical and humorous up to this point. Then suddenly we are filled with stomach-churning dread. It’s doubly dreadful because we remember the stakes of Jojo’s world, and we also see the degree of his innocence, how much he does not yet understand.
Best Scene Visually:
Two related moments claim this honor, and I can’t reveal what they are. They’re paired moments, and now that I’ve said they’re related, I really can’t say anything more about either. Without spoilers, I can say that I loved the look of the scene in which Jojo’s mother plays a feisty trick on him.
I also like the early scene featuring Jojo’s extended arm after he leaves camp in quite a hurry.
Best Action Sequence:
My favorite scene in the movie involves Sam Rockwell shoving Jojo.
I’m also partial to the scene when Elsa decides to do something incredibly bold. That may be more of an inaction sequence. Everybody is just standing around, but boy is she doing something!
Most Oscar Worthy Moment, Scarlett Johansson:
As I said, Johansson seems to be channeling Marlene Dietrich, and the results are just magical. I love the sequence when Jojo gets a lecture from his “father.” Her Oscar clip should probably be one of her conversations with Elsa, though. I started to worry about my own children so much as I listened to her.
The Negatives:
Some critics absolutely despise this film. I haven’t read their reviews yet because I like to write my own first, but I did notice that someone writing for a major publication gave it a zero. Clearly such a dramatic gesture is about more than the quality of the movie.
I can’t help but remember when I studied Life is Beautiful (La vita è bella) as an undergrad in a course on comedy and tragedy. I absolutely adore that film (though I’ve not seen in it years), but I well remember how mercilessly some critics excoriated it. How well the material was executed did not matter to them. They objected to the entire premise because the Holocaust is not funny, and it is morally wrong to make light of it.
I agree that the Holocaust is not funny, but I disagree that Roberto Benigni’s superb film suggests that it is. Certainly, he was not mocking the suffering of Jews in concentration camps, and I really think insisting on misreading his film and his intentions is a bit perverse. But I will acknowledge that some critics probably were genuinely offended and outraged. And in all fairness, if you’re going to be unusually sensitive about a topic, the Holocaust is one of the most justifiable I can imagine.
I’m pretty sure the same type of thing is going on with the terrible reviews of Jojo Rabbit. You don’t give something a zero because it’s bad. A zero signifies complete failure, tastelessness, offensiveness. I’m nearly positive that most of the movie’s truly negative reviews come from critics who are offended by the very idea of making a satire about a little ten-year-old Nazi-in-training whose imaginary friend is a very silly Hitler.
My husband also pointed out that some people may be turned off by the movie’s apparent goal of making us empathize with Nazis. (As one character points out, Jojo is not actually a Nazi. He is merely a child, which is an important distinction.) But I can certainly see why the idea that there are good people on both sides might not sit well with everyone at this moment. I do think that’s an uncharitable misunderstanding of the movie’s intentions, but I can’t go around controlling how others understand movies. My point is, I think these extremely low scores are coming from a place of genuine righteous indignation.
I personally don’t find the film offensive, but I can see why some people would. (Everyone has to interpret what they see for themselves, after all. I don’t get to control others’ readings of this or any material.)
I do think that Life is Beautiful is a better film than this one, and also one that gives a much greater hint at the horrors of the Holocaust and concentration camps. But Jojo Rabbit does give us a clear (and pretty pointed) justification for the existence of a comedy about such an uncomfortable topic. There’s an important moment when Jojo winces in revulsion and tries to avert his gaze from an awful sight, but his mother turns his head and tells him to look. That’s a pretty meta moment. Rosie is actually giving instructions to all of us, not just Jojo. And she is someone who should know.
Honestly, to me, Jojo Rabbit is a film more concerned with the present than the past. Yes, we should never forget the Holocaust and the horrors of Nazi Germany, but the film seems to suggest that we cannot appreciate the bad without also seeing the good. We need to see not just the crimes against humanity, but also what made the victims (and perpetrators) human. Doing this helps us to honor the dead, remembering not just how they died, but how they lived. We honor them also by learning from their experience because, yes, it can happen here. Unless you live in a great work of fiction, evil doesn’t usually begin with a declaration of intent to be evil. It often begins with becoming misinformed, misguided, confused. We live in quite an age of propaganda ourselves, and our own children are so vulnerable. We need to keep our eyes open to prevent our children from becoming victims. We need to protect them from becoming perpetrators also.
Jojo Rabbit isn’t a perfect movie. To me, the very end is a bit anticlimactic (though I suppose it must feel that way to the characters, too, and Waititi probably cultivates the feeling deliberately). Sometimes, too, I felt, “I’ve seen all of this before.” I don’t mean specific plot points. There’s just something really familiar about this movie, no matter how loudly it shouts at us that it is unique and bizarre.
The tonal shifts are often abrupt, too, but the leaps from comedy to tragedy (or perhaps comedy to horror) always propel the story forward. Jojo‘s handling of tonal shifts actually worked far better for me than the way the tonal shifts happen in Parasite. Some other viewers will no doubt have the opposite experience. I suspect that most people who see both films will strongly prefer one way of handling the tonal shifts to the other. I sometimes feel like the title of my life should be Tonal Shift: The Movie, and my real experience of the world mimics Jojo‘s more closely than Parasite‘s, probably because of Jojo Rabbit‘s relentless manic energy.
My little boy is staring into my face right now asking what I am doing. I find it impossible to explain reviewing a movie about Nazi Germany to him. Imagine if we were living there. Imagine if we were taking children away from their parents and putting them in concentration camps. How would I explain that to my son?
Whatever its small flaws, Jojo Rabbit is a pretty timely film.
Overall:
Anyone who does not like Jojo Rabbit will probably have a good, principled reason for finding it distasteful. But I think most people will like it. Making fun of others isn’t kind, and our society is moving away from mocking others as an “innocent” pastime. But we can still make fun of Hitler. He deserves it. And this movie not only encourages us to laugh at the Nazis, it also shows us that their ridiculous lies are a deadly serious matter.
Scarlett Johansson is Oscar worthy here, and the rest of the cast isn’t far behind her. Jojo Rabbit is at turns laugh-out-loud funny, sickeningly horrifying, and heart-breakingly tragic. It’s not as weird to experience as it sounds on paper. In fact, it’s exactly the type of film that wins Oscars, and I wouldn’t be stunned to see it walk away with Best Picture next February. It would be a deserving winner.