Pupule rating: 3.8 (out of 4)
Consolidated Kahala
The first minute of “Jojo Rabbit” is pure satire, and though much of the audience laughed at the sight of kids in Nazi youth uniforms at summer camp, or as we see intermittently, a comedic version of Hitler himself. It’s actually writer/director Taika Waititi, who delivers possibly the most entertaining version of the once-most powerful man in Europe.
For me, the laughter was uncomfortable for a good 15 or 20 minutes. The sets, the architecture — this was filmed in the Czech Republic — and wardrobes were given the full treatment.
Despite the underlying reality in a German town near the end of WWII, Waititi delivers a setting and landscape that allow us the time to invest emotionally into the 10-year-old boy who is at odds with his desires to be a true Hitler youth, and his natural instinct to love. He is a reflection of his single mother, played with finesse and charm by Scarlett Johannson.
For a good two-thirds of the way, Waititi expertly sets us up. Until that point the story is told with a blend of Wonderful World of Disney meets Anne Frank Diaries with a heavy dash of Wes Anderson snark — without the paper mache intensity. When Waititi pulls the rug out from us all, it is a sledgehammer. It is ruthless. At my showing, a lot of viewers audibly gasped.
This may be the most subtle and comedic treatment of a tragedy ever penned and filmed, at least about WWII Germany. By the final chapter, there is still a good helping of perfectly timed one-liners, particularly from the boy’s best and only pal, Yorkie. All of this is so economical, every line, every nuance. Waititi may not be the best filmmaker on Earth, but he handles explosive scenarios with grandeur, yet without making a big deal of it. It’s not the volume that he has mastered. It is the pauses. The silence between those knockout-level utterances as the world goes kaah-blooey around these people we come to like.
It’s enough to make me want to see everything he has made so far. #jojorabbit #pickledmangohawaii
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