‘Jojo Rabbit’ review — Nazis are dumb

Jojo Rabbit follows a misguided Nazi youth whose imaginary friend is a buffoonish version of Hitler. It's a comedy.

One-sentence review: Jojo Rabbit lacks a real hop in its step to be truly great, but director Taika Waititi's comedic sensibilities are enough to make it an enjoyable crowdpleaser.

Details: ? Taika Waititi // ⏳ 108 minutes // ? 2019

The cast: Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Taika Waititi, Rebel Wilson, Stephen Merchant, Alfie Allen, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson

Where to watch Jojo Rabbit: In theaters now.

Taika Waititi has built his career on being silly. I mean, his breakout movie was a mockumentary about mild-mannered New Zealand vampires and his fire big Hollywood blockbuster reimagined Thor as a hilarious slapstick comedy. Jojo Rabbit is his first “blank check” movie — a term used for directors that earned the right to minimal studio input on projects — which would make you think that he'd push the boundaries as far as they could go. In actuality, he stays within his borders. 

Jojo Rabbit follows Johannes “Jojo” Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis gives a massively charming performance), a ten-year-old boy living in Nazi Germany at the tail end of World War II. Like many boys his age, he's completely bought into the Nazi propaganda and national pride. His imaginary friend is even a larger-than-life version of Hitler (Taika Waititi) who he often talks to and gets misguided encouragement from. 

He gets sent to a Hitler Youth training camp led by Captain Klensendorf (Sam Rockwell), who was demoted “since Operation Screw-Up, where [he] lost a perfectly good eye in a totally preventable enemy attack.” Joining him is the equally misguided Fraulein Rahm (Rebel Wilson) and Finkel (Alfie Allen). However, after a totally preventable accident involving a hand grenade, Jojo is sent home to his loving mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) who seems to be harboring a secret. 

That secret comes in the form of Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie, who broke out in last year's Leave No Trace), a Jewish girl Rosie is hiding in the walls of the home who Jojo soon discovers. From there, he must decide whether to turn her in or go on protecting her, which goes against everything he's learned about being a Nazi. 

Like all of his films — Hunt for the Wilderpeople, in particular — Waititi mixes real character development and emotional beats with gut-busting deadpan humor and slapstick sensibilities. Here, he hones in on the ridiculousness of anti-Semitism and the perils of blind patriotism. And while it's an admirable subject, something about it lacks real bite to be truly effective. 

Much of the movie is spent between Jojo and Elsa negotiating their various positions. Hilariously, Elsa seemingly always has the upper hand. The real issue with the plot, though, is that Jojo's trajectory is obvious and Waititi doesn't really pull any punches we didn't see coming: being a Nazi is bad and blind patriotism is foolish. He could have made up for the simplicity of the message by filling out the running time spending time with the many hilarious side characters — Stephen Merchant has a too short role as a Gestapo agent and Archie Yates steals nearly every scene he's in as Jojo's best friend. 

To compare the movie to Green Book, which oversimplifies race relations in the Jim Crow-era South, is probably overstepping, but it does describe the problem with Jojo Rabbit. Thankfully, Waititi isn't feigning and self-importance like Green Book. He knows he's making a simplistic crowdpleaser, even if it isn't as satisfying one would hope. It's a crowdpleaser nonetheless.