So, when I saw the trailer for this back when it came out, I pretty much wrote it off as “oh God, here we go again more lame bullshit that will get hot because everyone is a nazi these days”. I’m also a mite tired of the ‘when all else fails, shit on the Germans’ hollywood trope. Ugh. And the commercials looked SO much like all that rolled into one movie.
Well, this popped up on Amazon Prime a while back and I was bored one evening so I said, alright…just ONCE for lulz, since I was in the mood to risk rolling my eyes out of their sockets that day.
I gotta admit…I was actually somewhat pleasantly surprised to find out that the ads lied. I still see it kinda as a ‘one time watch’ as I wasn’t totally enthralled, but they did a lot better and more nuanced job of covering things during that timeframe than I thought they would. There’s still some tropish moments, but oddly enough they more or less land within the context of what I think the movie POV was going for.
In short, the movie covers end-of-war daily-life Germany through the child-like interpretation of Jojo, a random kid who is kind of a pathetic ‘mamma’s boy’. His only real friend among the other Hitler Youth is “Yorki”, also kind of an odd-kid-out (and who pretty much steals the whole movie, seriously, he’s hilarious).
Despite being fairly pathetic at everything, Jojo wants to become one of Hitler’s personal bodyguards, and convinces himself in typical kid-logic fashion that if he can catch a Jew, he’s a shoe in.
Then he finds out his mom is hiding one in a closet…
Overall I’d say a B, just for the interesting take on the subject matter.
And Yorki…
I may check this out, then. The previews turned me off completely. It’s like there are some topics that are so bad, humor seems “wrong.” But then again, maybe this is more along the line of The Producers. Every so often I will break out in song…spring time, with Hitler, in Germany!
I saw this like last year. I too thought it was gonna be more “everybody is a Nazi. You’re all Nazis. Nazis in my closet”. But no. It was bloody brilliant.
Captain K is definitely my spirit animal. And unlike Schindler’s List it doesn’t beat you over the head that “oh no woe is the world”. It ends on a high note that leaves you optimistic.
I mean it’s like Calvin and Hobbes but with Hobbes as Hitler and Hitler is played by IG-11.
There’s so much that shouldn’t work but it does.
I’ve gotten into as many fights over Jojo Rabbit as I did with Suckerpunch but IDGAF I liked both.
I think this movie worked out better than expected because it really wasn’t all that funny. Like, there are humorous moments, but the movie is not quite as comedic-satire as it seemed. There’s a couple moments here and there were it gets a bit more ‘real’ than you’d expect from it.
Heh, yeah, the C&H comparison is pretty good.
See, now Sucker Punch…I really wasn’t sold on. Had some interesting potential ideas but… somehow just doesn’t tie itself together all that well.
Although, I’d watch a full movie for an expanded ‘steampunk trench war’ part. That was dope. The rest was weird. I get where they wanted to go with it, but…meh.
