Certainly a tricky film concept that could’ve very easily misfired, and I’m sure many will find it in poor taste, but I found Taika Watiti pulls it off pretty well. While I found some wish fulfilment aspects to be somewhat distracting, the film for the most part, has a great balance of the absurd and comedic with the tragic and heartwarming. The film looks great, sounds great, and all the performances are apt for this kind of film. It’s also a pretty good satire of nationalism, the Other and state driven fanaticism through the lens of a ten year old boy. I’ve seen some criticism of the film’s failure to adequately satirise Nazism as an ideology and the party itself, but I find that a rather disingenuous critique as it’s not really what the film is trying to do. That the ideology is repugnant is a given, the film explores its (and others) effects on young people when these views conflict with reality. I also appreciated  the fairly nuanced depiction of German society.