Film Review: Jojo Rabbit

Sexuality/Nudity Acceptable
Violence Mature
Vulgarity Mature
Anti-Catholic Philosophy Acceptable


Jojo Rabbit is a movie that continuously congratulates itself on being so very clever.  And if it was half as clever as it thinks it is, then this movie would actually be great.  Instead we get a boring story, whose emotional core is buried under a dozen layers of irony.

The movie is about Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis), a young German boy in the final days of World War II.  Like all children he is a member of the Hitler Youth.  He is a shy and sensitive boy who lives alone with his mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) and has only one friend, the bespeckled and rotund Yorki (Archie Yates).  To help build his confidence, he confides in his imaginary friend: Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi, who also directs the movie).  As a result, Jojo swallows all of Hitler's propaganda as if it was Gospel.  He believes in the glorious destiny of the Aryan race and the monstrous inhumanity of the Jews.  His world is turned upside-down when one day he discovers that mother is hiding a teenage Jewish girl named Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) in their walls.

Using Nazis and Hitler for comedic effect is not necessarily a deal-breaker when it comes to enjoying a movie.  Over 20 years ago, Roberto Benigni made Life is Beautiful, a heart-felt comedy set in a German concentration camp.  And I maintain that Benigni's film is a legitimate masterpiece.  But whereas Benigni made a movie with sincerity and heart, Waititi made a movie of cynicism and irony.

The movie is filmed in the style of quirky Wes Anderson coming of age film.  We are supposed to be be impressed and shocked by the setting.  Hitler says horrid things that Jojo repeats and we are meant to guffaw at the casual awfulness.  But once you strip away the window dressing, there isn't much there.  The script feels like it was written by a teenager.  It is filled with shallow shocks that are meant to be unfathomable depths.

The film also lacks any real sense of nuance.  When Jojo discovers Elsa, Waititi films her like a horror movie monster.  And throughout the movie, she plays into Jojo's fear of Jews by spinning wild stories about her and her people being literal monsters.  But there is no tension here because we know that all of these lies will evaporate in their ever-growing bond.  It makes their interviews with each other feel tedious.

I am tempted to say that this film is a political allegory, but I don't want to accuse it of being anything that shallow.  I will leave that to you, dear reader, to decide for yourself.  The space for the emotional connection is there, but we never get to the movie's heart.  It is too busy trying to be coy and cool.  Instead of baring itself to us with its vulnerable heartbreak, the movie puts on its sunglasses and flips up its collar as it rides around on its motorcycle, showing off.  See how cool that movie is?  But coolness implies an aloofness that creates emotional distance.  If Waititi had to decided to be vulnerable and scrub the irony from the movie, we might have something really special.  Irony feels like emotional armor to prevent the vulnerability that comes with sincerity.  Kevin Smith tried to be emotionally vulnerable with Jersey Girl, but he was so lambasted by fans and critics that he retreated into complete an total irony.

Almost none of the jokes worked (except for one about German shepherds).  This may be more of a compatibility thing, since humor is subjective.  Take Tina Fey: when I see her work, I understand the humor and I get the wit that is involved, but she doesn't make me laugh.  That's how I felt about all of the comedy in Jojo Rabbit.  But this applies not just to the funny moments, but also the sad ones.

There is a scene in the third act of the film that should be the biggest emotional wallop of the movie.  It is perfectly set up and then the hammer falls.  It is crafted with perfect timing with a visual cue that hits at the exact right time.  It should be a moment of utter and total devastation.  But my emotional reaction instead was, "Oh... so THAT happened."  I understood the emotion that they were trying to inspire, but I couldn't find any real feeling in it.  I was too emotionally distant.

The movie's saving graces are the performances.  Davis is wonderfully believable and McKenzie has enough charisma to make both of them compelling in their scenes.  Johansson does a good job of a mother trying to compartmentalize her emotions in order to give her son as normal a childhood as possible.  But the best is Yates as Yorki.  Not only does he have the best lines in the movie, but I would watch an entire film if it was centered around him.  Perhaps he only works best in small doses, but those are the only times where the film really comes to life.

The movie's message about seeing humanity in everyone is a good one.  But it is so on the nose as to lack any kind of subtle.  Of course, a comedy about an imaginary Hitler is beyond thematic subtlety.

In the end, Jojo Rabbit is a movie that is as loud and bold as it is hollow.  There is no depth down this rabbit hole.