Runtime 1 Hour 48 Minutes
Capsule Review, minimal spoilers:
JoJo Rabbit is a Dark Comedy. It takes place in Germany, some time around the end of World War II. It focuses on JoJo (Roman Griffin Davis), a young boy of 10, who has just been drafted into the Hitler Youth. He’s clumsy and not a good fit, but that’s OK. He has an imaginary friend who cheers him up. Of course, it’s Adolph Hitler (Taika Waititi, the film’s director and writer), but not the Hitler you expect.
The two of them navigate through the story, which is quite interesting, but as I mentioned, this is a Dark Comedy, meaning it’s not just a comedy by any stretch of imagination. Consider the source material and the realities of what Germany represented, and you get the idea.
This film is made on the relationship between JoJo and Adolf. The strong supporting cast includes Scarlett Johansson as Elsa, his mother, and Sam Rockwell, and the city’s Hitler Youth leader, Captain Klenzendorf.
It is certainly offbeat and quirky, and a little disturbing. It is not for everyone. If you can handle that, I do recommend this film. If, however, you like your films nice and bright, this film is not for you.
Spoiler Space
Spoiler Space
Spoiler Space
Spoiler Space
Standard Review, some spoilers:
After an injury at training camp sidelines JoJo, the Captain assigns him the duty of spreading propaganda in the city. His pal Hitler helps him to believe it all, especially all the material about The Jews. After all, he’s an impressionable kid, and the only information he has to go on is the propaganda.
His mother, is a different story. She’s full of life, living for the moment, as best she can. Things are not going well for Germany, in terms of the war, and she’s convinced it’ll all be over soon. JoJo’s father is MIA, but everyone is telling him that he went AWOL instead. Of course, Elsa tells JoJo differently, so he just muddles on.
One day, JoJo is home before his mother, and he hears something that bothers him. Well, that’s when everything gets turned upside down. His pal is telling him one thing, but his curiosity is making him think not everything is as it seems.
JoJo grows as a person, which is quite surprising at the age of 10. Then again, it’s wartime, and he has to face some cold realities. It’s extremely tough to do at any age, but he’s forced to, at the worst possible time. Waititi’s script is quite clever in that it manages to maintain that child’s perspective on everything that’s happening to him, without getting too smarmy or preachy.
I also appreciated how they didn’t explain everything , but again, the storyline matched some of the events to how a 10 year old would interpret them. Consider the Captain and his behavior. Some of the things he does are just, well, odd. As adults, we know what’s going on there, but JoJo doesn’t. I found that impressive on a higher level.
This is definitely a twisted movie. I went in, expecting one thing, and was delivered something else. That unpredictability is extremely rare to pull off without it breaking the rules of the film (cheating with a deus ex machina moment, for example). It’s a really good story, and definitely impressed me. I strongly recommend it, if you can live with the source material.