Jojo Rabbit, written and directed by Taika Waititi, based on the novel by Christine Leunens - Nine out of 10

Jojo Rabbit, written and directed by Taika Waititi, based on the novel by Christine Leunens

Nine out of 10

This is a note on the film based on the book.

Having seen the enchanting, original Hunt for the Wilderpeople - http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/02/hunt-for-wilderpeople-based-on-book-by.html - this viewer has had the occasion to appreciate the considerable talent of Taika Waititi, writer–director Oscar nominated for another, short film, the one who has been appreciated for this motion picture, nominated for two Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild and other awards, but also criticized by outlets such as Variety:

“It’s like a Wes Anderson movie set during the Third Reich. ... And yet it’s not as if it’s a terrible movie; it’s actually a studiously conventional movie dressed up in the self-congratulatory “daring” of its look!-let’s-prank-the-Nazis cachet.”

If you consider that this may be The Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, in which you have the Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes, in just a couple of weeks, then you will be in a quandary and have to decide for yourself if the critics that have dismissed Jojo Rabbit as too conventional, ‘safe, sanitized, without daring or at the extreme

“Waititi is incapable of dealing with the twin horrors of oppression and indoctrination beyond cheap-seats sentimentality and joke-making…Slant Magazine”

This cinephile is in a mind to consider Aristotle and his Golden Mean – “The Golden Mean is a sliding scale for determining what is virtuous. Aristotle believed that being morally good meant striking a balance between two vices. You could have a vice of excess or one of deficiency. This is known as Virtue Ethics”

In other words, this is not fascinating, actually far from the outstanding, glorious film of the year, winner of the Palme d’Or at the most important cinematic gathering, The Cannes Film Festival, Parasite - http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/08/parasite-written-by-jin-won-han-and.html

At the same time, it looks equal, if not superior to Marriage Story - http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/12/marriage-story-written-and-directed-by.html - and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, two of the most talked about,

acclaimed movies of this rather feeble year in cinema, with the granted phenomenal exception of the South Korean superb film.

Jojo Rabbit aka the very promising, Golden Globe nominated, very young, about eleven years old Roman Griffin Davis lives in Nazi Germany, and we look at the days that mark the end of that horror, wherein the boy lives with his mother, Rosie aka excellent Scarlett Johansson, nominated for a Golden Globe herself, but for Marriage Story, and talks frequently with an imaginary, buffoonish, Trump-like Hitler aka Taika Waititi.

Sam Rockwell is as always fabulous in the role of Captain Klezendorf, a mostly vicious, cruel, idiotic fascist, who would be the paradigm of the monster, if not for a crucial, brief, but essential exception when he would have a pivotal role for the escape or condemnation of the hero.

Jojo has been brainwashed by the Nazi propaganda machine – on a side note, psychology studies have looked at the powerful effect that authority has, indeed, if figured prominently in Influence a quintessential work by the marvelous Robert Cialdini, from which we learn that the Principle of Authority is obeyed, even in tests which seem to put the life of participants in danger.

Therefore, the main character is shocked to find a Jewish girl, Elsa aka Thomasin McKenzie, remarkable, if so young in Leave No Trace - http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/10/leave-no-trace-written-and-directed-by.html - hiding in his house, brought there as we would learn by the mother, who would soon suffer the tragic consequences of her rebellion, subversive activities, which include distributing printing material calling for the end of the fascist repression and liberation…

The initial confrontation between Jojo and Elsa would be transformed into a love story; the girl would soon see the self-proclaimed Nazi, enemy of the Jews as a younger brother, while the boy is a bit more confused by the butterflies that he may, literally see in his stomach.

Thus, the motion picture is rather spectacular in its performances, the subject matter, treated with both humor and the needed seriousness attached to such a calamitous period.

As for its place in the history of cinema, it is far from sure that it has one, except as a footnote, but then you may have a very different opinion.