JoJo Beltzer is a ten-year-old boy in the Hitler Youth during the tail end of World War II. Entranced and surrounded by Nazi propaganda, his imaginary friend is Adolph Hitler. He gets hurt at a training camp for kids and at home, he discovers that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl.
A remarkable movie in every measure, I’m not sure how many filmmakers could pull this story off. Writer/Director Taika Waititi fuses comedy and dramatics into a brilliant mix to tell the story of a boy coming to the realization that when you look past the hate you are told, we’re all the same–people who want to be happy and live free.
First and foremost, this is a hilarious satire that skewers the Nazi movement while focusing on a small family during this insane time. There is a mountain of physical gags and brilliant one-liners throughout the whole movie that also offer commentary on the entire stupid Nazi ethos.
“I said to draw where Jews live. This is just a stupid picture of my head.” “Yeah, that’s where we live.”
The script quickly navigates from silly to serious like a dance that’s really impressive to watch. When Jojo finds Elsa hiding in a crawlspace upstairs, he’s shocked and terrified of her. With all the stories he’s been told about Jews being literal monsters, he’s afraid for his and his mother’s safety. Elisa rolls with this, at first scaring him into not telling his mother or anyone else. It’s a tough balancing act for Jojo to walk on, wanting to protect his mother from the authorities from finding out she’s a Jewish sympathizer while his inner Adolph keeps showing up to remind him of his duties to protect Nazi Germany. As the days go by, he talks to her more and more and Elisa indulges Jojo by embellishing all of the rediculous tales (Jews sleep upsidedown like bats, they have horns, tails and scales, can read minds…the list goes on) to the point where he writes it all down for a book on Jews (Yoohoo Jews). Over time they talk about real things and get to know each other. This begins to change Jojo’s world view.
Jojo has been told that his father is off fighting for Nazi Germany, so it’s only him and his mother. She’s a gentle and loving person who doesn’t think twice about helping Elsa but must hide as much as she can from Jojo to keep them both safe. While her young son follows the song of Nazi propaganda, she knows that’s not her son’s true nature and tempers his outbursts every chance she can. Elsa picks up on Jojo’s nature too at one point telling him “You’re not a Nazi, Jojo. You’re a ten-year-old kid who likes dressing up in a funny uniform and wants to be part of a club.”
Along with this terrific script is the amazing cast. The three main leads, Roman Griffin Davis as Jojo, Thomasin McKenzie as Elsa, and Scarlett Johansson as Jojo’s mother Rosie, are all brilliant. Roman is a ridiculously good actor for his age and he lights up every single scene he’s in. As the main character the entire movie rides on him, so give this kid some awards, please. Thomasin brings incredible courage and warmth to Elsa and this might be my favorite role I’ve seen Scarlett play. I really believed her as Jojo’s mother and her path through the movie was incredibly touching.
This movie looked great from the trailers and it exceeded my expectations. It went in directions I didn’t expect, made me laugh out loud and stole my heart. An absolute winner of a film in my book.