Isabelle Schindler (Staff Writer)
Jojo Rabbit looks at the life of a young, impressionable, German boy who believes his true calling is to fight for the Nazis and his best friend is Adolf Hitler. Taika Waititi’s most recent film was able to create a sense of humor around an otherwise gut-wrenching topic. The movie made me laugh; I felt guilty for laughing at first because it’s about Nazi’s training children to kill and a young Jewish girl hiding in an attic, but one can’t help but laugh. It was so wrong, it was right. The comedy comes from over-the-top exaggeration and poking fun at the Nazi party during WWII. From having 10-year-old use grenades to showing Hitler as a clueless imbicile, you learn to see a different perspective on Nazi propaganda.
The almost-love story between Jojo and the young girl in his attic, Elsa, starts when he begins to see her as a person that is Jewish, rather than his previously corrupt image of an Evil Jew. He slowly begins to forget about his goal and starts trying to create a lifelong relationship with Elsa. With a star-studded cast including Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Rebel Wilson, and Taika Waititi himself, the film is a slice of historical satire we didn’t know we needed. Rockwell’s and Johansson’s characters show the softer side of war through their personal actions, which of course were always taken with a hint of comedy.
In the end, without giving any spoilers, Jojo discovers the true heartache of war through having to grow up fast and learning things the hard way at such a young age. He loses people he loves, witnesses sacrifice first hand, and learns that love is the only thing worth fighting for.
