The How and Why Wonder Show of the Holocaust - Or Not

Rating: 5/10 (16 November 2019)

"Jojo Rabbit" stars good looking people, some of them doing good things, others saying bad things. One of them doesn't make it through the movie. It has a simple take and a simple lesson: "Oppression is bad."
Jojo is a young boy with a young boy's simple view of life. He admires his teachers, and they tell him to admire Hitler. So he does. But he not only admires Hitler from afar, but he interacts with Hitler right in his own room apparently as an imaginary friend/fuhrer. The director, Taika Waititi, dons a somewhat brushier mustache than the mini sported by der real Fuhrer, and plays a buffoonish version of Adolf.
The overall effect is to preach an easy lesson to the young, but like an antivirus, it weakens the power of the adversary. The real Hitler was smart, quick on the uptake, and not known for his gentle humor. And the real nazis practiced mass marches, enforced obedience by the entire population, and at the very least heavy duty beatings to any opposition no matter how slight.
This does not have enough of a grasp on its subject to reach the level of good satire. It remains at a level more like Hogan's Heros. It presents a candy-color superficial grasp of Nazi Germany which barely feels either Nazi or German. Compare this to a much greater movie, "Cabaret" which did achieve its aims.
So what is gained by mounting such lightweight stuff? Does it take much courage to fight this, or is Jojo merely overcoming social embarassment? There are several character scenes in this movie, one which is traumatic to the young hero, but its effect is blunted by only showing the victim's dangling feet. It isn't badly done, but its effect is limited because such a heavy time of death and danger is trivialized, particularly at the end with some dance moves being displayed about 2 generations ahead of their development, not to mention many anachronistic expressions and asides.
So I'd describe the movie as a live action comic book to present some 'bad stuff' that happened. This doesn't make it bad. But it is far from great.