Director Report Card: Taika Waititi (2019)

6. Jojo Rabbit

One assumes that Taika Waititi didn't have especially large budgets at his disposal in the early years of his career. Even after gaining a following, you'd think he had to restrained his ideas in order to attract financiers. After hooking his wagon to the Marvel machine, and directing what's regarded as one of the best of the recent glut of superhero flicks, it seems Taika Waititi can get whatever crazy idea he wants into a movie. And the movie he wanted to make was an adaptation of the novel “Caging Skies” by Christine Leunens. In which the director himself would play a boy's imaginary best friend: Adolf Hitler. The Jewish Waititi would get in front of the predictable controversy by declaring “Jojo Rabbit” an “anti-hate satire” from the beginning. Surprisingly, the film would attract rave reviews, picking up multiple award seasons nominations and wins. And now it's up for Best Picture, among other Oscars. That's pretty far from “Eagle Vs. Shark.”

The year is 1944 and Jojo Betzler is a ten year old boy living in western Germany. Even though the war effort is collapsing and the allies are closing in, Jojo is a fervent supporter of the Nazi Party. In fact, he often imagines Adolf Hitler as his best friend. While at Hitler Youth camp, Jojo enthusiastically throws a grenade and ends up badly blasting his own face. Retreating into his own home, he lives with his loving mother – who doesn't understand his enthusiasm for National Socialism – and has few friends. This is when he discovers a secret: Mom is hiding a Jewish girl in the upstairs crawlspace. At first repulsed, Jojo soon becomes fascinated with her. And slowly, his views of the world change.

First and foremost – and this should really go without saying but – “Jojo Rabbit” is mocking Nazi Germany and everything it was built upon. From the beginning, Naziism is presented as loosing ground. The Hitler Youth camps are a pathetic charade, commanding officers showing off to easily impressed children. Said officer himself is a failure, who suffers one pathetic humiliation after another. The Nazis are shown as obsessed with the Jews, who they have demonized in the most cartoonish way. It's a salient point that the only people in the film who seem to take Nazi philosophies very seriously are children, thoroughly indoctrinated and too young, too naive to question the obvious flaws. In fact, the film presents the most sincere Nazis as nothing but bullies. Jojo gains his nickname when he refuses to kill a rabbit, who is then brutally slain by the older kids.

Which brings us to Jojo and his relationship with Hitler. Or rather “Hitler,” a childish imagining of what the dictator might be like. Hitler gives Jojo pep talks, building him up when he's feeling down. He goes on playful adventures with the boy, running through the woods with him. He's everything the kid admires, who eats unicorns and stands up for what he believes in. It's obvious what Waititi's goal is here. He's not just comparing the hero worship Nazis had for Hitler with a boy's childish admiration for his imaginary friend. Jojo is a boy without a father, vulnerable, sad, lonely. Extreme ideologies like Nazisms prey on people just like that, those that need something within them fulfilled.

Yet “Jojo Rabbit” isn't just about making fun of Nazism and everyone that believes in it. It's also a film about the boundlessness of boyhood energy. Jojo is a typical ten year old. He's bursting with life. He plays cute games with his best friend, the portly Yorki. Though having his face scarred puts him down, it doesn't take him out, as the kid remains as peppy as ever. Waititi's visual sense often matches this energy. When he goes racing off to grab the hand grenade, the camera races along with him. Often, where the boy's eyes look are paired with zippy crash-zooms.

Considering the cult movie appeal of his previous films, it might be surprising that Taika Waititi's latest has picked up so many awards and nominations. Truthfully, it's only when compared to the likes of “Boy,” “Eagle vs. Shark,” and “What We Do in the Shadows” that “Jojo Rabbit” seems especially mainstream. This is still a quirky indie comedy. There are surreal touches throughout the film. One extended sequence has Jojo, dressed as a robot, walking around Germany and spreading Nazi pamphlets. Captain Klenzendorf designs a cartoonish battle outfit... Which he later actually wears into combat. The style of eccentric, goofy, and intentionally artificial dialogue found throughout Taika's earlier films remains present here.

Waititi's personal themes are continuing to grow and evolve as well. Throughout his first five features – yes, even in “Thor: Ragnorok” – he touches upon the premise of boys becoming men and man-boys becoming man-men. “Jojo Rabbit” returns to the coming-of-age stylings of “Boy” and “Hunt for the Wilderpeople.” Jojo will begin the movie as one person and ends it as another. In a way that especially recalls Waititi's fifth film, he's even put through the emotional wringer and eventually has to fend for himself. This is a film of a boy dealing with loss and love and it transforming him, in a way perhaps more blatant than what Boy or Ricky Baker went through.

That lack of subtly is a flaw of sorts in “Jojo Rabbit.” This is ultimately a film about the transformative power of love. And that romance is something that has rubbed “Jojo Rabbit's” detractors the wrong way. Jojo and Elsa, the Jewish girl up-stairs, begin hating each other, as you'd expect an anti-Semite and and a Jew to. However, the two misfits begin to bond through letters Jojo has forged from Elsa's deployed boyfriend. Personal taste varies but I personally found this courtship adorable. Though their relationship begins with knives drawn, Jojo soon comes to admire Elsa's creativity and Elsa becomes attached to Jojo's capacity for sweetness. By the end, they are making the most adorable advances towards each other. This is a romance characterized by furtive glances and awkward shuffling of feet. It's super cute.

What makes this romance even more believable and touching is the young leads. Roman Griffin Davis, in his debut role, impresses as Jojo. He shows an incredible nuance, acting with his face without overdoing it, suggesting the feelings the boy is having with just a raise of an eyebrow or a rabbit-like twitch of his nose. He's hilarious, in his line delivery, but also poignant, when breaking down into tears. He also has excellent chemistry with Thomasin McKenzie, also fantastic in “Leave No Trace,” as Elsa. McKenzie shows a similar grace and determination, knowing when Elsa needs to be a little spit-fire and when she needs to be a quick-thinker with a fighting spirit.

Among the film's supporting cast, Scarlett Johnansson as Jojo's mom has gotten most of the praise. And not without good reason. Johansson plays an idealized movie mom. During an especially touching moment, she role-plays as both Jojo's mom and his father. It's such a sweet sequence and just one example of the lovable power, based in understanding and sympathy, Johansson brings to the role. As Jojo's other parental figures, Waititi himself is naturally hilarious as Hitler, luxuriating in the absurdity of the role of Hitler: Dad Figure. Another stand-out part is Archie Yates, as Yorki, who gets some of the film's funniest roles as the dim-witted but utterly sincere kid.

However, some of the performances in the film are not so balanced. Sam Rockwell, playing another “lovable racist,” maybe goes too broad, too quirky as Captain Klenzsendorf. Rebel Wilson, meanwhile, is definitely too far on the broad and aggressively wacky side. This represents another flaw in “Jojo Rabbit.” During a key sequence, Jojo gets a first-hand look at the war he's been praising up to this point. While most of the actual horrors, the real bloodshed, of combat are kept off-screen, it's clear the boy is unprepared for what he sees. Weirdly, during this serious moment, Waititi exposes his wacky and quirky side again. It's a strange mixture, the film veering towards goofy and serious at the same time. As if it's a little too afraid to actually confront the ugliness the film is about.

In fact, it's fair to say “Jojo Rabbit” might be too cute. The film's haters have lobbed this criticism at it, that it's far too flippant to grapple with such serious topics. What's most frustrating about this is that it didn't have to be this way. There's a moment in “Jojo Rabbit” that is truly intimidating, a fair depiction of the horrors of Nazi Germany. At one point, a team of black-suited officers – led by an unusually intimidating Stephen Merchant – searches Jojo's home. Elsa is nearly captured and it's a sequence of sustained tension, a real suspense reaching out of this cutesy comedy. (It's also a scene that suggest Waititi could make a decent thriller, if he ever wants to.)

How much “Jojo Rabbit” works for you seems dependent on how much you can handle this disconnect. I find myself agreeing, for the most part, that “Jojo Rabbit” maybe is too light-hearted for its chosen subject. It successfully rips down Nazism without interrogating the real horrors of what the regime wrought too much. Yet I was also successfully charmed by its cast, its visual approach, and its soundtrack. Waititi has already ridden the film's success, as his next two projects are lined up and ready to go. Whether the Academy will be able to put aside the movie's issues and embrace its pluses like me remains to be seen. [Grade: B]