Jojo Rabbit

One director that has managed to earn himself more popularity with each passing project is Taika Waititi. Being a relative newcomer to making and directing movies, Taika Waititi managed to grow his fan-base with each consecutive hit earning praise from both critics and eventually public viewers. With more obscure hits like Hunt for the Wilder People and Boy, to more publicly beloved projects like What We Do in the Shadows, and Thor Ragnarök, he managed to hook audiences and critics with his unique form of storytelling, character work and especially comedy, with the 2019 film, Jojo Rabbit, being one of his biggest successes to date and even managed to get him an Oscar win for Best Adapted Screenplay. Despite looking very similar to the rest of his work in terms of tone, pacing and visuals, this film was the one that got the ball rolling for him in the big leagues. During the collapse of Nazi Germany in the city of Falkenheim, a young boy named Jojo (played by Rowan Griffin Davis) is a Hitler Youth member who is fanatically dedicated to the Nazi cause, so much so that his imaginary friend is Hitler himself (played by Taika Waititi). This overwhelming faith is challenged when he is injured and kicked off the Hitler Youth team, and to make matters more complicated, a Jewish girl named Elsa (played by Thomasin McKenzie) is being kept in his house by his rebel-supporting mother, Rosie (played by Scarlett Johansson). As the two get to know each other, Jojo finds that she isn’t as bad as he was taught Jews would be and eventually starts to dismiss the regime he was once so obsessed with. But with the war coming to an end, Nazi supporters still looking for Jews everywhere, and Jojo’s imaginary Hitler slowly starting to show his true colors, he has to find a way to save the girl he was once trained to kill before the system he had so much faith in, takes him down as well. Based on the Christine Leunen book, Caging Skies, from 2008, the film was very well received upon release, earned a sizable amount at the box office which is surprising given its specific tone and subject matter, and propelled Waititi from niche to mainstream. Jojo Rabbit may carry with it a few choice problems, but it feigns away from being afraid of showing something controversial in a ‘’less than subtle’’ light, being wildly uncomfortable but in the best way possible.

The amount of tightrope walking this premise would’ve needed to do could’ve have made the production process easy, but despite Waititi viewing this as a ”challenge”, it isn’t as much of a risk as you’d expect. While the idea of portraying war and even Nazism in a goofier light definitely doesn’t sound pleasant, there have been multiple examples of animated properties portraying something that nowadays would be viewed as offensive or hurtful in a totally ambivalent manner due to the time period (even Donald Duck has a notorious cartoon centred around Nazi which is very hilarious taken out of context). The point is that this would only be an issue if handled without the right amount of care, but Waititi seems to be aware of this and despite being a filmmaker who can be pretty ridiculous, he also knows how to balance dualling tones together to make something truly seamless. Unlike its book counterpart (which takes things pretty seriously all throughout), Jojo Rabbit is a mostly goofy experience with a very childish portrayal of several Nazi components (even Hitler himself) and a surprisingly bright and cheerful energy that comes through in the writing, acting and visual style. This manages to work as well as it does mainly due to positioning the story through the eyes of an impressionable child who has been brainwashed into believing this regime is truly a great thing, and through this childish viewpoint, it allows the situations to be graphic yet comical, the people intense yet quirky, and the story a seesaw between being uplifting one minute and horrifying the next. If anything, the brighter moments elevate the contrast with how uncomfortable the darker moments are, like an anvil of reality dropping down of this kid as each piece of childhood is stripped away in this horrible time of war. It results in the experience being much more unique and unexpected than any other war story about the time period, and the screenplay by Waititi manages to be off-the-walls and quirky yet doesn’t lose focus and still retains a sense of heart and warmth at the centre.  It features very familiar tropes and expected scenes just with a goofier touch, but they prove to be equally as intense in the right moments. It captures that accurate sense of warfare without being in your face obvious about it and manages it without being overwhelming harsh and unforgiving. It does have a good pace to it and even though there are parts that can either feel repetitive or slow-moving (mainly during the middle where it does start to have scenes that feel repetitive of each other), it does all comes together by the end in a nice, twisted package.

The cast feel like they were perfect choices for this kind of movie and are directed in a way that feels like Waititi knew how he was going to utilize them, with an onslaught of both new and old talent being given the chance to show off their comedic chops. You get a vibe that is very similar to other filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, Edgar Wright and even Wes Anderson; directors who are fairly good at casting their movies and create situations where you’d want to see these actors interacting in these situations, and given the subject matter of this film, each actor was certainly thrilled to try it out. While the adult actors certainly do well, it’s the fresh talent that shine the strongest, being very effective and managing to handle the comedic and the serious stuff very nicely. Roman Griffin Davis in particular is placed with a lot of pressure on his shoulders having to lead this fairly complicated role (especially given that he’s meant to be a Hitler Youth obsessed with Hitler), but he succeeds very well, with great comedic timing, a believable delivery that is undoubted hard to pull off given what he has to say and believe in, and gives the movie a nice element of heart that really comes through in the serious moments. Waititi was apparently told that if he was going to make this movie, he was going to have to play his version of Hitler or else Searchlight (a production company who helped distribute the film) would not back the film, and while strange, it oddly feels perfect. While his accent is truly awful, it just fits with this environment, this set-up, and this tone. He starts off overly goofy to the point of almost coming across as ‘’adorable’’ (which is a term that should never be associated with the real man), but as the movie goes along, the real Hitler starts to show and even that is pretty well handled. The rest of the cast is a treat and do a very good job leaving the mark. Scarlett Johansson brings a aery yet firmly honest nature to the role of the mother, Sam Rockwell is pretty entertaining as a slightly closeted trainer, Rebel Wilson as the Hitler Youth instructor could be irritating yet her delivery and timing honestly feel perfect for Waititi’s style so she fits right in, Thomasin McKenzie is effectively cool and mysterious as the Jewish girl,  and even Archie Yates as Jojo’s best friend in the camp never feels like a one-note comic relief and delivers the jokes very nicely. It’s an all-around great cast and they really help bring the material to new levels.

The movie’s tone was arguably the most important thing to figure out before producing the movie as it needed to be finalized so that they could figure out how to handle the characters, the story, and the humor in general. If it were too serious, it would come off as pretty generic and by the numbers for a World War II story centred around Nazi Germany, but if it were too goofy, all credibility would be lost and the true meaning of highlighting the horrific nature through the lens of a blissful unaware child would not register. Thankfully, the results were about as perfect as you could get for this movie. The structure of the humor is so flawlessly presented that it can take something that should be serious and makes it almost gob-smackingly funny. This works even better for later on when similar actions are being shown, but with the cheery mask removed and the harsh reality of the situation sets in. There’s a lot of great jokes throughout that comes through the great writing, the quicker pace of the film, and the chemistry between the actors.  The way the movie is structured allows it to have subtle depth to some of its symbolism but also be beyond obvious with some its commentary the next. It’s a movie that doesn’t rely on its themes or its contextual images, but because the script is pretty tight, the premise is honestly pretty great and hasn’t really been tackled anyway else, and the directing smarter than it honestly deserves to be, that it just makes the experience all the more entertaining and engrossing. (the rabbits could be a metaphor for vulnerable people being bullied by the stronger race but managing to outwit the prey with brains and not brawn, or it could just be a cute little gimmick for the movie, either one works with what it’s doing). The look of the film is also top notch and brings so much life and personality to what could’ve easily been a washed out bleak looking picture. The production design by Ra Vincent, costume design by Mayes. C. Rubeo, and cinematography by Mihai Malaimare Jr. are also elements that function in both an obvious and subtle manner, shifting tone and viewpoint as the film continues with necessarily ever changing. The movie is shot in an almost artistic way with great angles and dramatic framing, yet this goes from showing the energetic fun of war to the hauntingly uncomfortable side of war. The colors are almost overwhelming in this environment to a surrealist level but come the movie’s end where a lot of the color has been removed, you notice the difference and what was originally a bold visual design choice suddenly becomes a sign that there’s no more pretence regarding this situation.

Jojo Rabbit required a lot of effort in order to work, and there is no possible way that this idea and said portrayal could’ve been handled by someone without a good sense of humor, and even though Taika Waititi can let his wackiness get the best of him sometimes, he clearly knew what he was doing here. He’s good at handling the off-the-walls, blatant, sometimes uncomfortable style of humor, but the child-like energy he infuses into his writing and actors allows the audience to embrace every aspect of it with an uncomfortable smile of their face. This movie displays a lot of those positives through a pretty straightforward, yet well-told story, very enjoyable characters with great actors attached, a lot of great jokes and visuals, and a delivery that is smarter than it looks and dumber than it looks at the same time. It may not work for everybody as it could be an acquired taste, but for those willing to laugh at one of the darkest periods in human history, enjoy watching this charmingly bizarre movie. Hop on in and decide for yourself if this ‘’Hitler’’ is one you’re willing to stomach.