• Jojo Rabbit is part Borat, part Moonrise Kingdom and part Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful but confirms Waititi as a brand and auteur (how refreshing that a marvel film has a unique artistic stamp– this is clearly the work of the director who made Thor: Ragnarok)
  • Waititi is unquestionably a talented comedian. His vocal talents and intonations are hilarious.
  • A 58 on metacritic and that, no doubt, is because it reminds many of Benigni’s film and the mixture of comedy, Nazis, pop music, Hitler, dancing, and Swastikas.
  • Formal music cue bookends with The Beatles and David Bowie in German to open and close the film—it matches (and sets) the films tone (especially the opener with the Nazi propaganda footage).
  • It’s not Wes Anderson-level but there’s real thought in the production design like Ragnarok– there’s a great mise-en-scene production design set in the dinner room scene with Scarlett’s sweater matching the wallpaper
  • Scarlett comes off well here—she’s like a combination of the beauty and class of Marlene Dietrich and the playful comic like Giulietta Masina
  • Not all of the sketches land—but Jojo’s friend, young Archie Yates (yes of course that’s his real name) kills- I laughed at everything he said
  • Recommend but not in the top 10 of 2019