j* movie reviews 2020

JoJo Rabbit (2019)

It's delightful, joyous and has wallpaper to die for.

I mean as far as creative Nazi storylines go, this is pretty good. I don't think it's as creative as Iron Sky (and #2 in particular), and it's probably in league with Overlord. But both of these are pretty different flavours of creative Nazi-ism-ing. I'd say JoJo Rabbit feels a bit like a Roald Dahl take on it, with apologies to whoever actually wrote the base-line book. So it's simultaneously light and fluffy and wild and kiddish and a bit dark.

The casting is A+. You have Rebel Wilson, Sam Rockwell, ScarJo all bringing their big games. And director Taika Waititi is pretty amazing as imaginary Hitler, bringing a whole new dance style to the man with the mo. The kid and the hidden girl are both good. The characters are wild and entertaining.

But I guess whilst it has really wild moments, and really poignant and funny things to say, there is an awful lot of talking. And they do excellent work here to at least give you extraordinary gorgeous decorations as a backdrop for all the talking heads. This film is visually sumptuous and spatially glorious.

J* gives it 4 stars, one of which is solely for wallpaper.

PS. I was actually a bit sad for imaginary Hitler in the end... or maybe the ending confused me about what his actual purpose had been in the rest of the film? I don't know - but either way something didn't sit quite right with me in that aspect of the ending.