Jojo Rabbit

A Film of Fabulism, Fascism, and Führer Fanaticism That’s a lot of f-words. But the best use of an f-word in this film is the exclamation, “Fck off Hitler!” preceeding a tiny, ten-year-old boy kicking a very full-sized Nzi dictator out the window. From the perspective of a Jew who grew up attending a jewish elementary school, taking Hebrew classes five days a week and Judaic Studies classes four days a week, Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit is arguably the best and most accurate piece of cinema portraying the Holocaust – even if it integrates many tidbits of magical realism. And I get it, that’s a big “even if.” But that aspect of the satire is, though it may seem strange, what makes the movie such a genuine depiction of the moronic realities of zealotry produced in the second world war. Some viewers of this dark comedy have criticized this facet of Jojo Rabbit as ignorant, because they are convinced a goofy Hitler disregards the seriousness of the horrific period the film is set in. But in complete contrast to that criticism, what this joke really illuminates for the audience is how brainwashed the Germans were by the Nzi propaganda’s presentment of their abominable excuse of a leader, and the dangerously serious effects it had on children as young as Jojo. However the most brilliant aspect of this excessively comedic version of Adolph Hitler is that his pure idiocy eliminates any possibility of Jojo Rabbit’s Hitler becoming glamorized by the modern-day antisemites and Neonzi pig people. Hitler’s stupidity is Waititi’s genius. Simple as that.  There is so much to love about this movie. It captures so many aspects of cinema in the most beautiful light and you can see that if you watch someone’s face go from smiling to laughing to gasping to downright sobbing while they watch this film.  I love it.