Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Roman Griffin Davis, Taika Waititi, Scarlett Johansson, Thomasin McKenzie, Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, Alfie Allen, Stephen Merchant, Archie Yates, Luke Brandon Field, Sam Haygarth, Stanislav Callas, Joe Weintraub, Brian Caspe, Gabriel Andrews, Billy Raynor.
It is a startling and sober fact of life that there will always be people that will not only toe the party line, but actively and resolutely be so brainwashed by rhetoric that they cannot see the words used for what they are, lies, insidious and deceptive, full of fire and brimstone, but hollow, meaningless, insufferably filled with hate, consumed by madness.
However, once our senses are opened to what the language of the speech-maker is trying to achieve, it is only right that we use every moment to make sure we parody the expressions, that we reject them and lampoon the speaker so that their reputation, their impression we have of them, is diminished, belittled, cheapened and shown to be nothing more than the wind of the impotent and intellectually feeble.
To lampoon is not only a right, it is essential to making sure people such as barrack room thugs such as Hitler never see the light of office again; to lampoon such evil though requires tact, skill, thoughtful perception of enlarging what is gross about the man and belittling his effect in those to whom the spell of illusion might take more of a hold on, the impressionable, the young, the those who think they see the devil when what they see is a reflection of themselves in the mirror.
Like Charlie Chaplin, Taika Waititi understands completely the point of lampooning such a man with a demonstration of cinematic symbolism in which the viewer cannot but help but see the stupidity behind the false prophet acting.
Such measure of symbolism highlighting the insanity of bureaucracy is just one moment of absolute pleasure to be taken from the film Jojo Rabbit, the way in which in the eyes of Jojo the man goes from living god to the true persona of shambling dangerous idiot is another, but it is also what happens to Jojo, his perception of the young Jewish woman his mother has hidden in their home, his shedding of the Hitler Youth uniform over time, and the understanding that his idealism of Germany is as false as the man who led the nation. It is to symbolism of creating a film that doesn’t demonise the fool, but which shows Hitler for the insane and dangerous man he was that makes the lampooning a moment for the heart to gladden.
Roman Griffin Davis as Jojo holds every single scene together as if he has been performing on screen for 30 years, his moments with Taika Waititi as Hitler are outstanding, his performances with the ever impressive Scarlett Johansson as his mother Rosie have no equal and he his relationship with Sam Rockwell, Commander, is brilliant.
However, it is the presence of Thomasin McKenzie, as the Jewish woman in hiding, to whom the film falls perfectly into place. Both young actors hold the eye spellbound as they go from terrified fugitive and dedicated follower of the Third Reich to a position of ghoul and alarmed little boy to firm friends who would do anything to protect each other. In these scenes life plays out, it shows just how much we learn when we see someone else as just a human being and not the monster others have us believe.
Jojo Rabbit is a film of absolute wealth, humour and pathos; from start to finish it is a cinematic pleasure, both teacher and observer alike.
Ian D. Hall