Victoria ✧’s review published on Letterboxd:
🐰Just keep going🐰
Taika Waititi surprises viewers with a film that verges on the irreverent from the innocent gaze of a child who has fun in times of terror playing with the monster that should terrify him... and he does it with a remarkable sense of humor and excellent sensitivity.
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Jojo Rabbit is the curious story of Betzler or Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis), a German boy who belongs to the Hitler Youth during World War II. His life changes completely when he discovers that his mother, Rosie (Scarlett Johansson), hides a Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) in the attic of her house. The plot twist of the film is that the little boy has Hitler as an imaginary friend.
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Personally, I think that this film is not for all tastes, because it's a satire of Nazi ideology, their leader Adolf Hitler and the things that they committed. It's a film where we see how a child wants to be a Nazi and where little by little he begins to realise the reality of being part of Nazism. I also think it has several similarities to "Life is Beautiful" only on the opposite side, because it manages to achieve that atmosphere of innocence, of maturing and finding oneself. Taika is extremely good at trying to get that childlike touch, which remains you when you're little, plus mixing it with the pains and horrors of war, doing it in a casual way. What fascinated me so much about Jojo Rabbit, is that we see a lost child trying to belong and feel comfortable in a group. We see a normal person, someone who wants attention, who wants recognition, rather than a potential Nazi. That's what fascinated me about Jojo Rabbit, that you even have some empathy with the bad guys of the story.
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On a technical level, it's a film that has great light photography, spectacular visual effects, a great soundtrack that accompanies the most emotional and dramatic scenes, and wonderful colours, I was really amazed. On the acting level, I would like to highlight the role of the young actor Roman Griffin Davis and a Scarlett Johansson who plays the role of a very brave woman and mother. The rest of the cast, including Waititi, accompany the action of a film that could have remained a parody but that, thanks to its many virtues, is destined to become a classic.
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A subject that I love to touch on in my reviews is costumes. The costume design is by Mayes Rubeo, the same designer who made Thor Ragnarok's costume design. I have to applaud Mayes too much, because all the costumes were beautiful, especially I have to emphasize Rosie Betzler's clothes played by Scarlett Johansson and Elsa Korr's played by Thomasin McKenzie. All that Jojo color is not a war celebration, from one of the darkest periods of our history. It's not a document, it's not meant to recreate exactly what the time of World War II was like, but Jojo's feeling for his mother, how he saw his mother. Mayes said in an interview: All of that was vital in forming Rosie's character, the colors were given by the way a son sees his mother at that age and the memories that remain of her. They are never dark, they are higher in color, much more saturated with love and color.
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In conclusion, this is one of the best films of 2019, which tells us a very dramatic and moving story that hits the viewer and makes him or her cry in more than one scene, with an ending from my point of view. It was a great surprise.
