Photo courtesy of IMDb.
One of my favorite television shows of all time is It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The show, in the broadest of strokes, follows a group of narcissistic people acting selfishly, always trying to pull off some elaborate scheme or get what they want while running a bar in South Philadelphia. Over the years, Sunny has depicted its central characters doing some of the most selfish, ignorant, hateful and depraved acts on TV. The show has routinely depicted topics as controversial as abortion, gun ownership, abuse, and cancer. And that’s just the first season. While Sunny will still spark an occasional controversy, it has mostly avoided getting into real trouble. This is especially interesting considering that we’re living during a time in which comedy seems to be under more and more scrutiny about what can and cannot be joked about. This is where the concept of “lens” comes into the picture.
The humor of the show is not pulled from the shocking topics written above, but from the manner in which the idiotic main characters fumble with them. The reason that It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia seems to get a pass from critics is that their depiction of what is being shown on screen, or the show’s “lens,” demonstrates that the characters and their actions are stupid, oblivious, and most certainly not to be replicated. Considering how there’s wide number of reviewers who have noted this, it’s a testament to how well the show has mastered this concept.
Ever since the first trailer for Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit hit the internet, varying degrees of controversy have surrounded the film. The very first trailer depicts a young boy growing up in Nazi Germany, who has not only been indoctinated into the Hitler youth, but has an imaginary friend in the form of Der Führer himself. However, the cardinal sin for those most offended by the trailer (and ultimately the movie as well) was the comedic manner in which the subject matter was handled.
Given the premise of this movie, it’s not a shock that some people found the trailer to be upsetting. Stevie Wonder could have seen this coming. However, I was surprised that, even after this movie has been released, some people who have actually watched the movie still don’t seem to be able to look past the topic. Before and since its release, I have heard people accuse it of being hateful, and for diminishing its serious source material. To me, Jojo Rabbit is incredibly warm, funny, perceptive, and heartfelt. It is the very antithesis of what it is being accused of.
Now, before I continue, I should address an idea that walks hand in hand with the concept of “lens,” and that is how concepts are dealt with tonally. A scene’s tone can affect how an audience interprets it. The concept of someone getting shot in a movie may come across as a jarring concept that could only be tragic. However, depending on the tone of the movie or scene, it could be sad (“Quick! The thicket!”from Bambi, 1942), triumphant (“Dodge this” from The Matrix, 1999) or even funny (“You’ve got to have an opinion”from Pulp Fiction, 1994). For example, if I asked a group of people if they’d enjoy a television show where the main character is a father who consistently drinks too much, and is known to choke his ten year old son, they’d likely be appalled. However, The Simpsons has been one of TV’s most iconic and popular shows for over 30 years. Comedic depictions of terrible things can make them tolerable. They can depict more complex ideas, or, like The Simpsons, situations that aren’t meant to be taken seriously at all. On the flip side of this, there are people who don’t like certain things in their entertainment at all, regardless of its tonal or contextual depiction. For example, if someone had an irrational fear of blood, it wouldn’t matter if the scene involving blood was sad, funny, or any other tone. That person does not want to see blood, period, end of sentence. The tonal contrast between the opening to Saving Private Ryan (1998) and the Black Knight scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) are as stark as they get, but regardless, a person with hemophobia wouldn’t want to see either.
My point is this: If you don’t want to watch a movie with Nazis in it, regardless of the “lens” or the tone of the movie used to depict them, I completely understand. I mean, they’re Nazis for God’s sake. However, if you are interested in how Jojo Rabbit handles this sensitive topic, it integrates comedy into a topic that is so unbearably awful that the movie lands on the right side of filmmaking and history.
As stated earlier, Jojo Rabbit takes place near the end of World War II, and follows Jojo, a ten year old boy in the Hitler Youth, who discovers that his mother (wonderfully played by Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a young Jewish girl in their attic. Jojo must navigate among his Nazi superiors, his mother, the new girl in the attic, and his imaginary friend, Adolph Hitler, while gradually learning that the roots of his fanaticism and prejudice may not be right.
I have almost nothing bad to say about this movie. Waititi’s direction strikes notes that feel similar to Wes Anderson at times, but he still manages to engrave his own sense of comedic style into the film, and a lot of effective serious and emotional beats within the story. The performances across the board are stellar. Scarlett Johansson as Jojo’s mother and Thomasin Mackenzie as Elsa (the girl in the attic) are the notable standouts, but smaller performances by Sam Rockwell and Waititi(as imaginary Hitler) get moments to shine comedically and dramatically. Special props should be given to Roman Griffin Davis, who, in his film debut, plays the titular Jojo. This is a hard role for anyone, let alone someone so young, but he did a great job. The writing is pitch perfect, balancing dark and not so dark comedy, with some very endearing, as well as haunting emotional moments. I thought the film did a good job of balancing some comedy without downplaying how horrible the Nazis really were. On a technical level, the cinematography, editing, production and costume design are each consistently strong as well. Lastly, it has a delightfully unique soundtrack of German renditions of popular American songs.
As I said earlier, Jojo Rabbit is the very opposite of what its harshest criticisms claimed. If anything, I’d suspect that people would find this movie to be too safe and cheesy, rather than too controversial. Claiming that Jojo Rabbit condones Nazism is like claiming Blazing Saddles (1974) likes racism. This movie mocks the ideas of Nazism and its very appeal from it’s exceptionally clever montage, title sequence to its very last scene. Jojo Rabbit is full of love, clever satire, plenty of laughs, and even had me close to tearing up at points. This is my personal favorite movie of the year, and if it sounds like something you think you’d like, I really can’t recommend it enough. •
