Well, it's a new year, new decade, but most certainly not a new time where January doesn't come bereft with cold, sneezing, and general mucus-dripped unpleasantness. Nevertheless, with sinuses cleared, it's time for me to get back into the swing of things with something that's light-hearted...erm...sorta. But not really. It's as amusing as a film that takes on the charming excesses of the Nazi Reich can be--it's Jojo Rabbit.
I've touched on New Zealand's most high-profiled director since Peter Jackson before--and though I had mixed feelings on Thor Ragnarok, I still would definitely recommend some of Taika Waititi's other work, such as the vampiric-themed What We Do In The Shadows. Coincidentally, Taika himself shows up putting on the same slightly dubious Germanic accent he did in that film, playing none other than an imaginary version of Adolf Hitler himself. It's ridiculous, but in the same way Charlie Chaplin tore into history's most infamous great dictator eighty years ago, strangely fitting.
And that's sort of the best way to describe the rest of the film. Roman Davis plays young Johann, aka 'Jojo', a true believer in the Nazi regime who gets happily shuffled into the Hitler Youth--right in the twilight days of the Second World War. Ignorant to everything resembling reality, unlike show-stealer Sam Rockwell's incredibly jaded army officer Klezendorf who's training him, Jojo ends up going through some very darkly hilarious accidents that leave him with his mother (Scarlett Johansson)--and then it turns out he has to confront his beliefs in the bluntest way possible.
Jojo Rabbit ends up treating the subject material better than I was expecting--even when Gestapo end up raiding the house later on, there's enough tension interwoven between the gags, and...well, honestly, it ironically balances seriousness and laughs in a much better way I thought Thor Ragnarok ever did. There's a moment two-thirds in that's a real gut-punch, and everything else becomes a much more sardonic tone than the laughs earlier. Suffice it to say that, despite all that happens, you'll feel for young Jojo and the inhabitants of his town once reality crashes the Nazi Party.
Now, is the preceding stuff funny? Not every joke lands, but there's enough to keep you chuckling--as I mentioned, Sam Rockwell is my personal standout, as he wearily complains about having to train his cadets in for 'water combat, in case we have to fight a battle in a swimming pool'. If you've liked Taika's previous films, this one is reasonably consistent with all of that, though I'd probably put it somewhat lower than What We Do In The Shadows.. There's an awkward tone hanging over it, probably deliberate, given the subject matter--but it's well-meaning, and it doesn't shy away from eventually tearing down the happy-go-luck child's perspective. It's not the definitive tearing down of fascism that Great Dictator was, but I don't think it was as tasteless as a few have made out (certainly not considering one satisfying moment near the end).
Though slightly surreal and not entirely even, there's enough moments in there to chuckle at, and some that genuinely horrify, that make it worth a watch if you can get past the premise. It may not be unrelenting as Schindler's List, nor quite as poignant as Chaplin, but it's still it's own thing, and that interests you, give it a gander.
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