Jojo Rabbit Review

Following on from his adventures in the Marvel Cinematic Universal New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi makes a smaller and more divisive film with Jojo Rabbit.

Johannas “Jojo” Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis) is a 10-year-old boy living in Germany during the tail end of the Second World War. Like many boys at the time, he’s a member of the Hitler Youth where he gets to partake in fun activities like camping, war games, and book burning. Jojo also has an imaginary friend in the form of the Führer (Waititi).

Despite Jojo being committed to the regime, his mother (Scarlett Johansson) campaigns against the Nazis in subtle ways, and he finds out that there is a teenage, Jewish girl, Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie), has been hiding in his house.

Waititi’s directional efforts are best described as wacky films. Waititi co-directed the New Zealander horror-comedy What We Do in the Shadows and he made one of the most outrageously entertaining offerings in the MCU with Thor: Ragnarok. Waititi continues down this outlandish road with Jojo Rabbit. The humour ranges from wild jokes like Jojo accidentally blowing himself up with a grenade, dialogue between the characters and throw away jokes like a reference to clones.

Waititi seems to have been taking lessons from Wes Anderson. The cinematography and colours used in Jojo Rabbit were like many films in the Anderson catalogue and the focus on an isolated boy in a khaki uniform and a girl with anger issues gave the Waititi film air of Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom. The key to Jojo Rabbit was Jojo’s relationships with his mother and Elsa, something that Anderson would have explored.

Jojo Rabbit was a coming-of-age story of a boy growing up during a war. Jojo was indoctrinated to believe in the regime and be loyal – he aspires to be a soldier and bodyguard for Hitler. But Jojo loyalties were torn – he loves his mum and he doesn’t report Elsa to the Gespato because his mum would be arrested. Even though Jojo is seen as a fanatical Nazi an early scene establishes that the boy has a conscience because he refused to kill a rabbit. As Elsa states, Jojo isn’t a Nazi, he is just a boy who wants to dress up in a uniform and belong in a club.

As Jojo Rabbit progresses it becomes more serious. Jojo had to hide Elsa from the Gespato and there was tension when they visit the family home. Jojo suffers from hardships as Germany loses the war and the Americans and Soviets approach the city. He sees how desperate the Nazis were during the end of the war as they sent children and old men to fight in a suicidal charge.

Jojo Rabbit is certainly not for everyone – the style of humour and the subject matter has divided audiences and critics. I personally enjoyed the film as a surreal comedy that happened to have a lot of heart due to Jojo’s relationships.