Innocence vs. Indoctrination

Rating: 8/10 (20 January 2020)

Like many, when I first saw the poster for Jojo Rabbit - I took a sharp intake of breath. The sight of Taika Waititi, a director who I respect greatly, dressed as a whimsical version of Hitler, made me uneasy. Can an individual who caused misery to so many, who scarred and ended so many lives, be the centrepiece for a drama-comedy?
Indeed, particularly with the rise of neo-Nazism across the globe, there's a concern that in some way we make light of these atrocities.
It's with relief then, that writer and director Taika Waititi has managed to strike a balance between humour and a brutal teardown of the manners in which the Nazi party acted.
Set during WW2, Jojo Rabbit follows the story of Jojo Betzler (played astoundingly well by Roman Griffin Davis), a member of the Hitler Youth who iconises the Fuhrer, and strongly believes in the future of Nazi Germany. He quickly demonstrates a frightening level of nationalism, whilst revealing a fundamental lack of understanding of the concepts he is being told.
We're introduced to these elements during a Hitler Youth camp - a section heavily inspired by Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom. Indeed, for these first 20 minutes the film does struggle to find its own identity, and the audience I was with was evidence for this. We collectively were unsure about where the humour lay.
True, Sam Rockwell does a fantastic job as Captain Klenzendorf, the lackadaisical camp leader, and Rebel Wilson's brings her dry comedic chops to Fraulein Rahm as she feeds the children lies about Jewish people having horns (shockingly, a myth that was conceived in the Middle Ages and is apparently still prevalent today). But not all the jokes landed. I, for one, am also tired of campy homosexual relations being the butt of a joke.
A challenge here was that - Jojo Rabbit is clearly from the eyes of a child, demonstrating his innocence in the world. However, in this first section Waititi's needs to make this more obvious. Once we understand this then the perspective of what we are seeing changes - yes, the adults are sometimes incompetent - but do we have an unreliable narrator? This lens in which the film has been made helps make the comedy in it palatable and doesn't undermine the more unsettling and heart-rendering moments.
The act ends with Jojo being involved in an accident that leaves him scarred and disfigured. Jojo, feeling dejected, must then run simple errands around his town. Until one day he discovers that his mother (Scarlett Johansson) has been hiding a Jewish girl, Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) in their home.
As Elsa is introduced some of the shots could be directly taken out of the The Ring or The Conjuring. They are ridiculous, but they also emphasise the child's eye view that we are being fed. At this stage Jojo truly believes Jews to be devilish and something to fear. It's often said that there is a thin line between horror and comedy, and Waititi seem to have embraced this.
It is the relationships of Jojo and Elsa, and Jojo and his mother, that the film focuses on. His internal conflict, and his slow softening of heart to the "enemy within".
Similarly, Stephen Merchant's SS character, while superficially amicable and inane, manages to underline his character with a sinister tension and an uneasy sense of foreboding. Equally, Waititi's Hitler, loses his playful demeanor when Jojo starts to turn his back on him. The smiling faces slowly start to take on the visage of Stephen King's It.
The film also owes a debt to Four Lions - I've seen some criticism that the idiotic nature of many of the adult characters only serves to make light of the horrors of Nazism. However, just like Four Lions used this same inane-ness to steal the dignity away from extremist terrorists, Jojo Rabbit does the same. It mocks the rise in neo-Nazis and reduces their value.
Credit must also be given to the symbolism within the film. Some more obvious, like the use of the butterfly to represent Jojo's mother, to more subtle framing (Cinematographer: Mihai Malaimare Jr.) to emphasise the role of shoes within the film - as a symbol of maturity and freedom.
I left the cinema feeling at peace with the film that Waititi had set out to make. It tackles many difficult issues - and finds sympathy in a lot of unexpected places. However, it also pulls no punches - at its heart, while not a satire, it pulls apart the foundations of the Nazi party, and the methods used by extremists to indoctrinate the young.