Jojo Rabbit
Cast: Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Taika Waititi, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, Alfie Allen, Stephen Merchant
Director: Taika Waititi
Rating: 

A coming-of-age comedy about Nazis from the 'Thor: Ragnarok' director Taika Waititi was unexpected surely…but it's an intriguing one nevertheless. Given the fact that some of the major nations of the world are professing a hyper-nationalistic fervour for their patriots, this World War II satire that follows a hyper-nationalistic German boy while his world turns upside down ( in the course of the film) is also quite topical.

Waititi adapts Christine Leunens' novel Caging Skies by turning it into a coming-of-age story that just happens to be set in Germany during the period when the allies were gaining ground towards the end of World War II. It's a stirring set-up no doubt and the possibilities seem endless. We meet Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis), a sweet 10 year old German boy headed off to Nazi camp, where young men learn to throw grenades and young women learn the importance of having Aryan babies. This eager-be-be-Hail-Hitler-beaver is obviously trying to overcompensate for humiliating talk regarding his father's desertion by modelling himself as the ideal Nazi. But he is obviously too young to understand the implications of his actions. What we see from hereon is a satirical up-take of the consequences thereof.