Jojo Rabbit Review (Patreon)

Sublime. A funny, beautiful, and deceptively insightful film that squeezes every last idea out of its impossible premise. It meticulously hits the right beats on "a comedy about Nazis," touching on what's mockable about fascism without ever denigrating its victims, takes a number of surprising turns, and winds up as thoughtful as it is consistently amusing. A victory for Taiki Waiti and everyone involved.

There's a lot to be said for how Jojo Rabbit makes a comedy about Nazism work. Spinning a whole movie out of the force behind the architects of the biggest genocide in history is bound to be tasteless at best and horrifically offensive at worst. Jojo dodges this problem by emphasizing the ludicrousness of the Nazis while taking care to dedicate as much time to the fear and trauma of their victims. Jojo's imaginary friend Hitler is just that: a 10-year-old German boy's fallacious idea of what Hitler might be like. It certainly helps that Jojo says "fuck off, Hitler" before kicking Taika Waititi out the window in the exact cinematic moment the world needs in 2019.

That's some real savvy to framing Nazi Germany through the eyes of a child, too: it both removes the danger of sympathizing too much with a real Nazi and provides a look into the indoctrination of childhood. Elsa's existence as a real person with desires and traumas provides a gateway into real human suffering as opposed to a didactic tour for Jojo. As one of the sharpest comic writers of his generation, Waititi is able to not just get the laughs but say something about the world while at it. 

And he's very good at both. This is the funny and beautiful anti-fascist comedy we needed in 2019, and I'm floored it got released by a major studio. By far my favorite movie of the year, and a direly needed cry of hope for creative and political films in an industry more and more dominated by corporate hegemony and exhausting franchises. See this one the moment you can.