The honest poster for Jojo Rabbit is absolutely right! A few days ago, we were bursting with enthusiasm over everything we enjoyed about Uncut Gems. Today, we have to confront the other side of this treacherous, leaky passageway that culture can sometimes be: Jojo Rabbit. With respect to what virtues does someone have the authority to say that a multi-million dollar effort that has pleased many people (and even has Oscar nominations) is, deep down, not really worth watching? Herein lies the fundamental dilemma of any exercise in opinion/criticism/analysis.
criticism of JoJo Rabbit
How a film so aimed at children managed to sneak onto the 2020 Oscar nominations list is another one of those uncomfortable and difficult-to-answer questions. In fact, we have a handful: what exactly does Jojo Rabbit intend to contribute to the genre of Nazi critique/satire? Why does everything in Jojo Rabbit (Moonrise Kingdom: Berlin Days) feel hackneyed ( The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Life Is Beautiful, Inglourious Basterds ), while what isn't ( Taika Waititi playing Hitler) feels tiresome?
At what point does irony become an insufficient justification for what many might consider a blatant distortion of reality? A few days ago, I think it was on La Sexta, I saw a reporter asking a group of young people about the meaning of a sheet of paper that had the word Auschwitz printed on it.
None knew what that was.
Jojo Rabbit 's greatest contribution to cinema is the study of how its director managed to fit the capture of Berlin into a children's film that only lacked the Führer farting.
What is that I feel? Have I become an offended? Me?
A good summary of Jojo Rabbit in one image
A somewhat tired Hitler
In 2000, maybe. But in 2020 we've more than swallowed Tarantino's Hitler; we've all read (or seen) Look Who's Back , and even Rick & Morty makes jokes about Nazis.
Jim Carrey's Führer in Jojo Rabbit (with grimaces in, literally, every single scene) is tiresome from his very first appearance . Hitler's appearances (played by the director) are comedic interludes; monologues that contribute nothing to the plot (a Nazi-obsessed boy discovers a Jewish girl living in his closet), but which we have no doubt will be included ad nauseam in all future summaries of mischievous historical films: Hitler jumping out of a window , Hitler speaking with blood dripping from his skull, etc. The sheer visual appeal and power of this man, who even today remains the number one personification of evil, knows no bounds.
If we remove Hitler, frankly, we're left with no film. The story of the absent-minded boy speaking like (lobotomized) children, the surviving mother (Scarlett Johansson) who collaborates and enjoys wine but not excessively, the utterly innocent Jewish girl, and the (almost) all German perpetrators has become stale. Adding the Beatles, Bowie, or Tom Waits isn't going to work miracles . The interventions of the chubby friend are practically the only lifeline Jojo Rabbit throws the viewer.
That child deserves his own movie and at Postposmo we will fight for it.
Thomasin McKenzie , the Anne Frank of Jojo Rabbit , is perhaps the biggest surprise and discovery of the film . We'll see her again this year in Top Gun.
Jojo Rabbit would be stunning... 30 years ago
We need to advance from the Monthy Python box. Gathering a bunch of gestapo members and SS soldiers to ridicule them has to stop being considered transgressive. Either that, or we leave World War II alone for a little while.
We won't give away any spoilers, but Jojo Rabbit ends exactly as you'd expect. Everything about it is naive, even the obligatory doses of moralizing at the end. It feels like only the characters of the boy, the Jewish woman, and the mother were developed. The rest are like something out of a comic book. That is, if we're talking about a film aimed at adults, of course. Otherwise, they should at least have the decency not to nominate it for any Oscars, so we at least know what we're getting ourselves into for the next two hours.
The casual viewer with little film experience might have a fun time with Jojo Rabbit as a family . For everyone else who values their time, Jojo Rabbit is a quickly forgettable film that leaves no lasting impression.
5/10