An anti-hate satire. A tagline that seeks to alleviate the
potential backlash before it ever starts, a strategy that’s only been slightly
successful in the lead up to its release. The concerns are certainly valid, as
in the wrong hands, Jojo Rabbit could go south very fast. Fortunately,
Taika Waititi is at the helm. And a Taika Waititi helmed satire is a must see,
but a Taika Waititi satire that makes fun of Nazis just might be the thing that
2019 needs.
Set during World War Two, an awkward young German boy (Roman Griffin Davis) whose only ally is his imaginary friend Hitler (Taika Waititi)
has his naĂ¯ve patriotism tested when he meets a young girl (Thomasin McKenzie)
who upends his world views.
How Taika Waititi manages to pull this high wire act of a film
off is a mystery in and of itself. The entire film, almost start to finish,
plays jump rope with its tone. One moment can be laugh out loud funny and the
next could be a tension filled encounter, or a heartfelt moment, or even in one
instance, emotionally devastating. And yet, it all works as a cohesive film
that accomplishes its mission statement of being an anti-hate satire.

Mocking Hitler is great and all, but it doesn’t provide the
heart and emotion that Waititi’s filmography is known for by now. Those elements
instead come from the trio of Scarlett Johansson, Roman Griffin Davis, and
Thomasin McKenzie.
If it weren’t for Johansson having a ton of buzz for Marriage
Story later this year, Jojo Rabbit may just have been her ticket
into the Oscar conversation. Her motherly love and tenderness shine above the
hatred happening all around her and her son Jojo, even if her quirkiness and
joy is all a facade that Johansson lets slip in slight moments. And then there
are the combination of McKenzie and Davis.

Jojo Rabbit is sort of an odd duck. It’s a World War
II film that seems completely uninterested in delving into anything related to
the actual war. There are lines here or there about the Germans losing, or
Jojo’s young friend Yorki, played wonderfully by Archie Yates, being asked to
fight in the Nazi’s dying, desperate days. For all intents and purposes, the
film is far more concerned with looking at belief and indoctrination stemming
from the desire to belong, and it’s where its importance to 2019 comes through.
Jojo doesn’t view the Nazis as the evil humans they are,
because he doesn’t know any better. Instead, he looks up to them like a soccer
team that he happens to be a fan of. He sports the uniform, has posters on his
wall, and knows all the team chants, ready to impress the real Hitler should
the time come. He was born into a violence, taught by his surroundings to hate
and revile human beings based on lies, and desperate to belong to something.
All of that sounds just about as relevant to 2019 as anything unfortunately.
Jojo Rabbit is a delicate balancing act of tone
performed by Taika Waititi. It sets out to be a satire, tearing down the
hateful individuals by portraying them as the fools that they are, but it also
winds up having something to say about today as well. The cast is phenomenal
from top to bottom, with Roman Griffin Davis emerging a new young talent and
Thomasin McKenzie proving that she is, in fact, the real deal. Misplaced
backlash aside, it’s hard to not fall in love with what Waititi has crafted
here: a tearing down of evil and a lesson in how children learn to hate.
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