Post Marvel success, Taika Waititi seems to have entered mainstream consciousness, because a friend of mine mentioned him while raving about Jojo rabbit just a few months ago. I don't know why I chose to watch this or a review, perhaps I was just interested in seeing Taika's work, or maybe I do want someone to read my posts after all, but that doesn't matter now. Before we get into it, I will make a disclaimer right now that I have not seen any Nazi satire before this outside of an out of context video of "Springtime for Hitler" from The Producers. I did think of doing a double feature of Jojo rabbit with The Great Dictator but I eventually decided against it. Outside of superficial elements, those 2 movies are quite different and more selfishly, I also don't want my first Chaplin to be a talkie. With that out of the way I shall begin.
Despite not having seen most of them, I do know that Nazi revenge/satire films have had a long history in film, starting from Chaplin's comedic indictment of dictatorship and prejudice way back when World war 2 was still raging in Europe, and Jojo rabbit is just the latest in a long held tradition. The film follows Johannes (Roman Griffin Davis), a soft hearted 10 year old boy who sees the world through a Wes Anderson-esque storybook filter and wants to join the Hitler Youth. We watch him attend a training camp with his best friend Yorki (Archi Yates), and it is here we are introduced to 3 other characters, Rahm (Rebel Wilson), a rotund lady who claims to have given the motherland 18 babies, Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell) and Freddy Finkel (Alfie Allen), his second in command. Johannes and Yorki but they are soon separated when Johannes is unable to kill a rabbit on command and blows himself up on a grenade, releasing him from military training, which lead other members of the training camp to label him with the unfortunate nickname of "Jojo rabbit".
With time on his hands, young Jojo bounces between errands and talking to his imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi), who is played as an insecure manchild that endears until you realise Waititi has nothing else to add. Luckily for us, Imaginary Hitler's appearances grow more infrequent when Jojo discovers that there is a Jew living behind his walls in what is a surprisingly effective mock thriller sequence. Here is where the meat of the story shows itself; the blossoming friendship between Jojo and Elsa, the 16 year old Jew girl who is being quietly sheltered by Jojo's mother (Scarlett Johansson). From here, the film develops into a rather conventional coming of age story where Jojo, with the help of his mother, learns that, surprise surprise, Jews are not the hellish monsters that they are depicted as in school and slowly overcomes his prejudices. The relationship between Elsa and Jojo is handled with appropriate delicacy, but what I love even more is the contrast in direction between scenes involving Jojo and scenes where Elsa and Jojo's mother converse. The drastic change in lighting, depth of field and framing lend a dramatic credibility to those scenes and make them standout from the comedic tone the rest of the film takes. Other elements I liked include the performances by Roman Griffin Davis, who is able to deliver a multitude of complex emotions as Jojo in a key sequence later on, and Sam Rockwell, who subtly hints at a budding gay attraction for his second in command.
There are occasional moments of horror (Like when Jojo's mom bring him out to see public executions), but for the most part film plays out in a sweet, almost jolly tone until the Gestapo arrives at Jojo's house. From here on events escalate until they end with a foreshadowed gut punch that truly forces Jojo's new moral compass into question. You can imagine at this point that after an hour of fluff and inane one liners poking fun at Nazi stereotypes that everyone already knows, I was excited to experience some real bite. You can also imagine my mounting disappointment when I realized Waititi never intended to tackle the thornier side of his subject matter, and ends it all on a sickeningly sweet dance that smacks more of Mary Poppins than a film about Nazi rule.
Herein lies the root of my disappointment: The film's overwhelming desire to be inoffensive. Nazi's in the film are only played as caricatures, Anti semitism is reduced to playground insults, systemic racial cleansing borne out of ideological pseudoscience fades into background noise, and in its place a naive idea that the holocaust happened because the Germans simply didn't "understand" the Jews. The definition of a satire is using humour to expose an uncomfortable truth. That doesn't happen in this film. If anything, Jojo rabbit seems as though it was tailor made for audiences to flatter themselves by having just enough edge and requisite quirkiness to seem like a daring endeavour, while simultaneously not having enough for any insights. Case in point, there is a scene toward the end where Jojo says "fuck you" to Imaginary Hitler and kicks him in the groin, which falls just short of outright asking the audience to start clapping at the "audacity" of the film.
Before you say it, no, being a "kids" film, or the film being shot from the perspective of a 10 year old does not excuse this. Someone like Miyazaki, or even American studios like Pixar are able to weave in insightful social commentary without alienating a younger audience. In fact, there are moments in Jojo rabbit hints at the horrors of Nazism. But these moments are few and far between, and are never played out to their true potential. In the second half of the film, Director Taika Waititi has an opportunity to deepen the film together with its protagonist, and he doesn't. Even the scenes of children going into war somehow feel too bright and sanitised. Everything this movie does is in deference to that cloying worldview, from its insipid moral lesson to its tone deaf ending.
Since the film outright ignores it, I will take the opportunity to say this: Nazism isn't a ridiculous dreamland ideology, and Nazi's aren't just bumbling fools. Adolf Hitler certainly didn't become supreme chancellor by chance; he took advantage of post war misery and political systems for many years to install himself and the Nazi party into power. For many in Germany at the time, Hitler was a greatly admired figure who restored the Motherland's former glory. Nazism appealed and still appeals to many people, yet the film finds it so difficult to bring even basic historical nuance. Instead, we get a portrayal of Nazism that distracts from its real world implications and glosses over a great historical tragedy.
I would buy Jojo rabbit if it was simply a comedy or a coming of age story, but it isn't. It has loftier ambitions, seeing that it claims to be humanist satire of Nazism. In light of that, Director Taika Waititi has failed, because he made the mistake of thinking that simply by not taking Nazis seriously, we can somehow diminish their power and expose the emptiness of their beliefs.
★★ (out of five)
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