Review: Jojo Rabbit

Directed by Taika Waititi

Starring: Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Scarlett Johansson, Taika Waititi

The plot follows Jojo Betzler, a Hitler Youth member who finds out his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their attic.

Yes, I am back. After two months of what I would call a 'meditating' experience to clear my head and take a break from social media as a whole, I am finally back doing what I love the most, watching films and writing reviews. A little background with Taika, out of his films I have only seen Thor Ragnarok. I never heard of him before, but I was expecting disappointment with Ragnarok, and how wrong was I. I was initially supposed to post this back before I took the break, but anyhow, here is my review of Academy Award winner Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit.

The plot follows Jojo Betzler, Who's obsessed with all things Nazi. Eventually he finds out his mother has been hiding a Jewish girl in the attic, all the while he starts doubting his loyalty to the Nazi regime while talking to his imaginary depiction of Adolf Hitler. For quite a controversial film, with quite a controversial character/person, The film does well to maintain a tone that is both family-friendly and serious. The film gradually turns from a pure satirical comedy to a film that has an emotional message to tell. Taika's humor is apparent and does hit occasionally well, at least to me personally. Talking about Taika, although he was barely in the film per say, he was great whenever he showed up. The young actors were great, and I cannot wait to see the future projects that involve do involve them. Rockwell, Johansson, Merchant, and the rest of the cast were also great. For me, I personally didn't feel much of the emotional impact that the film wanted me to feel. I felt it lacked, and it could have been done better.

Visually, I liked the film's look. It had a beautiful production design resembling that of any Wes Anderson project, mostly Moonrise Kingdom. The same could be said for the costume design. The sound design was good, and so was the score, including the great use of English songs covered in German.

In conclusion, although it is slightly flawed and controversially debatable, I still recommend those who haven't seen it, to give it a go. I cannot deny that this film has a lot of heart, and I for one absolutely respect and praise the message that the film and Waititi wanted to convey.

My rating: 7.5/10

#FilmReview #2020