Jojo Rabbit - A Satirical Love Story Between A Nazi Fanatic & A Jew

Rating: 10/10 (1 March 2020)

I'm sure you look at the title of my review and think - did this guy get the wrong end of the stick while watching this? I say with full confidence that this movie is a masterpiece of satire, romance and drama.
So where to begin? The characters crafted by director Taika Waititi, who both directs and stars in this feature, also know for his work with "what we do in the shadows," are truly multidimensional and have many angle to be viewed and interpreted even with some of the more minor roles having a complex background with the exception to some. This is best seen with the character of Jojo, played by Roman Davis, who is our lead and shows development throughout, he moves from avid Hitler fanatic, who imagines Hitler to be his best friend to a sympathiser of Jews who protects his new friend hiding from persecution at all costs. Other noteable examples include: Elsa, played by Thomasin McKenzie, acting perfectly and masterfully as the Jew hiding from persecution showing development as she opens up to the character Jojo and also telling him of her backstory. Scarlett Johansson's Rosie, anti-nazi mother struggling to raise her child without the state's influence, Sam Rockwell's Captain Klenzendorf who becomes dis-infatuated with his cause and spoiler: sacrifices himself to save Jojo by the end of the movie, Taika Waititi's portrayal of Cowardly Hitler desperate for the admiration of Jojo. All the characters listed have depth and do show comedic elements throughout.
Plot - the plot is simple Jojo is a member of the Hitler youth who has an imaginary friend: Hitler, he injuries himself with a grenade and is sent home. After he returns home he find that his mother is against the war and keeping a Jew in the walls of their home, he befriends the girl, Elsa, and he develops as a character.
-spoilers for remainder of plot -
The Gestapo visit his house and search it, for what we are not completely sure, Elsa comes out of hiding and poses as Jojo's sister Inga, who had died, she barely passes as his sister. Later Jojo goes out and finds that his mother has been hanged for distributing propaganda for the allies against the Germans. Jojo returns home and attempts to kill Elsa but ultimately fails. Soon thereafter the war comes to his town and the Americans and Soviets take the town. Jojo is rounded up with the other Nazis due to him earring the cap and jacket, the Captain, Klenzendorf, saves Jojo by taking the uniform from him and berating him as a Jew. As to get him kicked out of the line up where the Soviets executed Germans. He is promptly shot after this. Jojo returns home shortly after this to lie to Elsa about who won the war and after reviewing his book, "yoo-hoo Jude," he realises that he has to let her go. He confesses his love for her and walks her outside after kicking Hitler out of a window. They proceed to dance in the streets to a German rendition of Bowie's Heroes.
So the plot... Surprisingly good, when written down it seems far too complex so I had to simplify a bit but not too simple. With the characters and comedy the plot is nothing short of a masterpiece.
I must now admit the title is misleading, the satire is completely true as the nature of the comedy is that of a satire but it is a story not of love in the sense of romance unless you count Jojo's unrequited love with Elsa but rather the brotherly and sisterly love developed throughout as Jojo begins to see Jews as people and not monsters and as Elsa realises that he is not a Nazi but a brainwashed child, infatuated with a cause.
The cinematography in the movie is tremendous and the camera shots are magnificent using close-ups, establishing shots and push/pull shots with horror like scenes. The soundtrack is composed with mostly German covers of famous songs.
In conclusion, Jojo Rabbit is a masterpiece of a movie that I would recommend to fans of satire and comedy as a whole. 10/10