Hitler's Not Funny

Rating: 6/10 (7 January 2020)

If you're going to do a comedy with Hitler and Nazis in it, at least make it funny - like Mel Brooks' The Producers.
There's enough of a potentially good farce here with Jojo as the Nazi Youth who's mother, Scarlett Johansson, who is sheltering a Jewish friend (Thomasin McKenzie) of her deceased daughter. Jojo goes about his daily routine of dressing up in uniform and keeping a diary of hateful propaganda he's digested, going to Nazi boy camp with his best mate - Archie Yates, who is far funnier - to be schooled by Sam Rockwell, as a reckless master who's all but lost the will to live, and Rebel Wilson, as an instructor all too willing to die for what she believes in.
These are all fine, but it's Taika Waititi's Hitler who stands out as an annoying and redundant pest: he steals the scenes he's in by being boring and juvenile, slowing the pace down so he can gurn his way through whatever attention he can grab. Why is he in it at all if he does nothing to advance the story? It all seems a bit too much of an over-extended and unnecessary cameo by a director who's lost the run of himself after some delightfully human stories and finely weighted cameos.
It's shot in that sub-Wes Anderson way, bright pastels and saturated primaries, but with none of the compositional precision, intricate dialogue and editing, nor any second viewing wit.
Obviously, from the trailer, no one is expecting to watch a childhood war film along the lines of 'Come and See', but this isn't anywhere near as funny or controversial as it would like to think it is and for the most part simply fails to deliver on its potential to be either.
A pity.