Jojo Rabbit Analysis

Jojo Rabbit

Screenplay-Direction : Taika Watiti

Nominated for 6 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay

Based on a book by: Christine Leunens

Jojo Rabbit is a light-hearted satire on Nazis and war exploring themes like love and compassion. It's not easy, being able to pull off a comedy set in war and the Holocaust. The comedy is generated by the gap, the characters and the world they are in have. The characters are, a 10-year old Johannes "Jojo" Betzler as the protagonist and his second best friend Yorki. They are like kids next door, who are thrown in Nazi Germany and they try to fit in and want to impress Hitler, which is what generates fun. There is quirk and some Coen-brothers' style of comedy in some scenes, especially the repetitive Heil-Hitler joke and that scene where Yorki accidentally launches a missile.

The core conflict of the film is, Jojo discovering a Jewish girl Elsa in his house who is hid by his mother played by an outstanding Scarlett Johhanson. Her performance has been so fluid this year, in Marriage Story and in this film. It felt so effortless, the way she portrays these characters. The dynamics between Elsa and Jojo is so layered and interesting, at the beginning it is funnily that of a ghost and a victim, Jojo thinks that he is in control of the scene but adorably he isn't because he isn't that cruel. It slowly turns into a zone between an elder sister and a friend but Jojo falls in love with her. His performance in the scene where he tells her that Germany won the war, is brilliant. We see a sense of transformation in him, when he tells Hitler that she doesn't seem like a bad person. This moment is the heart of the film.

The storytelling is entirely from Jojo's perspective. I haven't watched the DOP Mihai Malaimare Jr.'s other films but this film is shot beautifully with vibrant colors in spite of it being set in war because it is from Jojo's perspective, it still has hope. Jojo isn't that Nazi he's trying to become yet. The editing is done in a certain way, where the tone suddenly changes from light to dark. They don't give us time for the transition, we see Jojo is talking to his mother and it has a light tone and they stop and we see some dead bodies hanging by their necks on the road. It punches us in the gut. This film eventually grew in me, I thought it was a good film when I watched it but when some scenes were flashing in my mind later I loved the film more.