Some funny moments, some sad moments, overall an okay movie

Rating: 6/10 (2 February 2020)

"Jojo Rabbit" is a new American 2019 movie and one of the big players this awards season. First of all, I want to say that it is quite ironic that this film came out pretty much the same time here like a film based on a famous German book about a pink rabbit, but international readers have most likely no clue what I am talking about, so I won't go any further into detail about that. Instead, let's elaborate on these slightly over 105 minutes we have here. Director Waititi is a big star in Hollywood now already obviously as he also gave us his take on the Marvel universe, but this film here is the one that means even more breakthrough for him. He is also credited as the one and only writer who adapted the novel into the screenplay. If it wasn't for Peter Jackson, you could also say that he is the biggest filmmaker from New Zealand ever already, even if he missed out on the Academy Award nomination for Best Director, but he was probably close. The only acting nomination for the Oscars went to Scarlett Johansson and it seems the Academy wants to make it up this year for her by giving her two nominations even after ignoring her for so long. This one here is also her better shot at the win, even if both are very unlikely. Lead actor Roman Griffin Davis, who plays the title character, was nominated for a Golden Globe despite his young age. I am not too mad about that. He was pretty good for sure and especially in the second half, he almost carried the film solely on his shoulders with Johansson and Waititi out of the picture. Yes, Waititi also acts in here. You can see on the poster which character he plays. I am not sure I can write the name and my review will get through. Then again, he does not really play the character, he just plays how a young boy perceives said character if he was his best friend. Sadly, while Waititi was incredibly funny and gave a great performance and also I think had he had more screen time, then he could have been nominated for a supporting Oscar too, I struggled with the way they included him. The things he said frequently felt just written and for the sake of it and not what a boy would make out of them, if he was really a figment of his imagination. This applies especially to the Churchill scene you can also see in the trailer, but also the last appearance from said character when the boy almost banned him out of his mind felt out of place. By then, clearly all his sympathies were gone, so they simply should not have had him return, even if the way he got kicked through the window was pretty epic and funny (like Tarantino blowing himself up in "Django Unchained"). Don't get me wrong, I think the character added a great deal of entertainment and Waititi gave a really good performance, but in the overall picture it did not feel right to me beyond entertainment.
The cast includes other familiar faces too: Sam Rockwell is doing fine as always and his two acts of kindness stay in the mind. He did not have too much screen time, but when he was on, he was really commanding and you can see why he is an Oscar winner now. I still think he looks way younger than he is. By the way, he was gay in this movie, wasn't he? So he had his own tragic story too that we did not find out too much about. Rebel Wilson is just in it for some funny punchlines and that is alright. She is easy to recognize in every film she is in, but great range she has not, especially not when it goes beyond comedy. But the audience in my showing clearly loved her and I can't deny Waititi wrote her as good as it gets. At the end, we find out that, unlike Rockwell's character, there is really no hope for her soul. Proud Nazi until the very end. Now I already said RDG was pretty good in the lead, but the one I liked even more was Archie Yates. I am not yet sure if it was his performance or just his material, but this kid was a riot honestly. Every scene with him was a winner and I hope I can see him in other projects soon. In general, they did a great job with the casting here. Nobody feels that they could not work the part and I also include Thomasin McKenzie with that. She gets more screen time the longer the film goes and while her story is definitely the most dramatic from all characters involved, she has lighter moments like everybody else. I just wondered why she really believed these letters came from her boyfriend and how she really knew towards the end that he was dead if she did not even know who won the war. Oh well, minor script flaws, but this one still has a shot to win an Oscar there. Script and maybe costumes are the only shots the film has really. Still more than most others. I do think the script would not be undeserving. This film peaks especially with the dialogue writing (there are so many examples, not just Waititi's character), but also those moments when the girl towards the end steps out into the light and can leave the house again without having to fear death. Or the many excellent ways in which Waititi breathed life into the clash between innocent childhood and the cruel world around them. How the boy says near the end that the Germans won and that she must stay was just one example. It had nothing to do with him being evil, just with him being afraid of losing her. Or when he attacks her with the knife and the wound is almost non-existent. All this shows he is a good boy, also because of the way he was raised. He loves his mother dearly and does not see her as an opponent (except the "rat" moment maybe), even if he is not happy about her not telling him about the hidden girl. We see him cry so hard when the mother is dead. There are serious moments for sure, but still I think young people can and should watch this film. So does Johansson's character early on when she shows him these people who were murdered for not supporting the Nazis. This is one from a handful scary scenes. Rockwell's final moment. How they turn poor children into soldiers... Another would be right at the very start, the scene with the rabbit, the one that gives Johannes the nickname we see in the film's title. Again this scene shows that he is not evil or cold-blooded and his only reason for being with the Nazis is that he wants to belong somewhere. He basically just repeats what he hears, the best example is all about the Jews really that he also wrote in his book. It shows that he is curious and wants to make up his mind himself when asking the girl about her kind. He does no longer want to just blindly accept what other people say.
Speaking of the girl, this scene with Merchant's character (seeing him first in the trailer I thought it was Lars Eidinger) is among the most memorable from this film. Of course, it is incredibly tense and scary, but it is also over the top (in an entertaining way) and really funny near the end when we see what Jojo wrote and painted about Nathan, the girl's boyfriend. The butterfly scene from before that also stays in the mind. Or the chubby kid's words (for example "not a good time to be a Nazi" he was really good in making the simplest statements about really complicated aspects and they still felt real). So yes, this film definitely has far more positive to offer than negative. There were scenes and moments that did not feel too authentic and realistic to me, like some quotes by Jojo felt more from a grown-up and written than actually from a boy his age, which is maybe my biggest criticism. Or how he finds the girl I struggled a bit with. Yes he is a curious boy, but that was really too much effort if you ask me. Or the physical conflict between the two when the girl shows him her strength and that the Germans/Nazis are not really superior in terms of strength. It's not a perfect film, but one that is highly entertaining and stays very memorable too. And even with the sad aspects like Johansson's character dying, it is not a depressing film. The boy lost his mother, but remember he is not an orphan. His dad is still out there somewhere and he can probably return eventually. Or that he basically, one way or the other, has a sister again with what the two went through together that will always unite them. So it is also an uplifting film. This also has to do for sure with what Waititi had in mind about people all ages that should see the film. He certainly succeeded and he would not have, had he turned this into a super depressing political or (anti-) war movie without light moments whatsoever. Instead it is these light moments that dominate the film. Sometimes it had a touch of Wes Anderson to me. And don't be distracted by everybody speaking English here despite the film being set in Germany. This was just a decision because they did not want to cast German actors all along and I don't mind or care at all. You can still watch the German dub if that is a problem for you. For me, it was probably only something that slightly confused me for five minutes or so. Okay I guess this would be all then. I think the rating here on imdb is a bit too high and I can see why some critics did not like it too much, but I personally felt it worked really well as a satire, so no hesitation for me in giving this one a thumbs-up and a positive recommendation. It may not be among the best films of 2019, but it certainly is a good achievement and I would say instead, it is among the most different films of the year and truly a unique achievement that oozes creativity and deserves to be checked out for that reason alone. Finally, I want to add as a little closing statement that I watched the film from the perspective of somebody who has not read the book it is based on. I don't think it is necessary at all to do so in order to enjoy the movie, so I cannot talk about differences and parallels between this film and the base material, but I doubt the book is bad or anything if it results into such an interesting film. Certainly closer for me to 4 stars out of 5 (maybe on a rewatch), but for now I will just go with 3.