JoJo Rabbit (2019), directed by Taika Waititi

In Germany 1945, 10-year-old Johannes has been indoctrinated by Hitler Youth despite his moderate family. Adolf Hitler is his imaginary best friend and he strives to be what his friend expects. His obsession starts to unravel when he discovers his mother has been sheltering a Jewish girl and he has to decide what to do. The opening music is the Beatles singing in German over historical footage of crowds of Hitler fans demonstrating the mass hysteria of teenage girls. The tone is absurd rather than comic, eliciting the occasional smile, rather than laughs. And then every now and again Waititi smacks the audience in the face with a scene that shows the reality of Hitler’s Germany and the true horror of war. The accents are all over the place, which is a bit distracting in the early part of the film before the story really gets going. Roman Griffin Davis does well as JoJo and Scarlett Johansen is very good as JoJo’s loving mother. Thomasin McKenzie, Sam Rockwell and Alfie Allen provide good support. Casting comic actors Rebel Wilson and Steven Merchant as Nazi extremists was an interesting choice that adds to the sense of the absurd but little else. The closing music is David Bowie’s Heroes, which provides a nice counterpoint to the start.