Jojo Rabbit

Seen 11/19/19

*SPOILER WARNING*

Here is a movie that the trailer did its job of selling me on seeing this movie. I was also pretty intrigued once I found out it was Taika Waititi who directed the movie (same director of Thor: Ragnarok). I have been curious to see what else he will do. 

This movie blew me away and honestly I’m pretty confident in calling this my favorite movie of the year. I totally did not think that a fictional story based in Nazi Germany, about a boy whose imaginary friend is Hitler would my favorite thing of the year but yet here we are.  

From the trailer this movie looked odd but funny. It definitely had its comedic moments. I laughed a lot through out this film but it was not from in your face comedy. The comedy came from lines of dialogue between characters, character interactions or just in the way a scene might have been shot or. It was funnier than I expected and in ways I didn’t expect. 

This movie made you feel for the main character of the young boy and if there is something I am all about in a movie it’s a good main character. This movie presents him as a boy who is all about serving “The Third Reich and the Fuehrer” and that anything that goes against what they say and believe is wrong. All of what he knows to be true is challenged when he find out his mother has been hiding a Jew in the crawl space in the walls of their house. Watching his character change through out the movie was just great. 

Scarlett Johansson plays the mother in this movie and she is unlike anything I have ever seen her in. She does a fantastic job in this movie. Her character is a loving mother that just wants to see her boy have a childhood. There is a scene with Johansson and the boy and they are just spending the afternoon out as mother and son and the scene is just so touching. You feel the relationship between the 2 characters, that they are the only thing each other really has. The setup of their relationship makes for one of the most gut punching scenes I have seen in a while.

We know that the mother has been hiding this Jewish girl in their house and we are given hints that she has been spreading anti-nazi “propaganda” around town. A moment comes towards the end of the movie where the son Jojo is going around town doing his nazi youth duties and see something on the ground and as he looks up he sees his mother hung for her crimes against the Nazi party. Mojo just falls to his knees, holding his mothers legs. The whole scene is just quiet creating this space for you to feel this boys pain and sadness. It ends with this touching moment of him tying his mother’s shoes after he has struggled the whole movie to tie his own.  

This was by far the most emotional moment of the movie but the rest of the movie is also filled with these great emotional beats. It makes you connect with the characters and the story that is being told. 

I highly recommend this movie to anyone. There is just so much good stuff in this movie. When I came out of this movie I just couldn’t stop smiling from what I had just watched. The ending of this movie has this emotional beat of hope and happiness and it is just a perfect fit. Come award season I hope this one gets the recognition it deserves.