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New Nazi black comedy: JoJo Rabbit by Taika Waititi


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One of the reasons I really enjoyed Jojo was that I do know people who were of that age towards the end of the war and we have talked, at times, about what it was like. I have studied, both in school and on my own, what was going on in Germany prior to WWI up through WWII. I think if you know history it helps to enjoy Jojo.

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, sidis said:

rented last night.  excellent.

stephen merchant and the gestapo going through jojo's exposition on jews book was amazing.  good film making to only show the shoes in the hanging discovery scene.

"these are all copyrighted."

I think brilliant part with the shoes is the way Waititi esablished the shoes, calling attention to them in clever, non-obvious ways leading up to that scene.

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The wife and I watched last night and absolutely loved it.

The shoe scene referenced certainly was a gut punch, but just a great, great film.  All of the child actors were fantastic, ScarJo and Rockwell were also great and loved Stephen Merchant in his one scene.

There were so many hilarious one-liners I'll have to watch again to catch them all.

Loved the one from his friend at the end: "Apparently it's not a great time to be a Nazi..."

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Watched it last night. Loved it! The public has it at 95% on rotten yet some critics gave it a 1 out of 5, just ridiculous. I always look at both ratings. Some hard to understand nuanced movies that are excellent sometime will get low scores by the public but high by the critics. Sometimes the critics just have it wrong. I do not trust public ratings on animated movies or those directed at a purely a teenage audience. Those two audiences are gullible and easily entertained. I consider marvel to fall in the prior two categories.

 

P.S. Watched most of the nominated movies for best picture and this is my favorite by far. Maybe 1917 will be better. Little women I am skipping.

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19 hours ago, DanTheHorn said:

Watched it last night. Loved it! The public has it at 95% on rotten yet some critics gave it a 1 out of 5, just ridiculous. I always look at both ratings. Some hard to understand nuanced movies that are excellent sometime will get low scores by the public but high by the critics. Sometimes the critics just have it wrong. I do not trust public ratings on animated movies or those directed at a purely a teenage audience. Those two audiences are gullible and easily entertained. I consider marvel to fall in the prior two categories.

 

P.S. Watched most of the nominated movies for best picture and this is my favorite by far. Maybe 1917 will be better. Little women I am skipping.

Wait.... the critics didn't like it?  I feel like I remember seeing tons of nominations when I was watching the Golden Globes and Oscars.... 

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1 hour ago, oSuJeff97 said:

Wait.... the critics didn't like it?  I feel like I remember seeing tons of nominations when I was watching the Golden Globes and Oscars.... 

it got 80% on rotten tomatoes, but you have grouchy reviews like:

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The tonal shifts in Jojo Rabbit don't work because they're not seriously intended, the intention here being instead to remain consistently cute.

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A staggeringly ill-conceived satire that completely fails to explore its own premise.

Quote

Jojo Rabbit isn't nearly as funny or smart as it thinks it is. Despite of all it's good intentions this is an unpleasant, manipulative and downright dangerous satyre.

i mean, seriously, these people just sit around and smell their own farts. this movie was fantastic.

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Well I do think what Rotton Tomatoes considers "critics" can be kind of bullshitty.

It seems like it's a mishmash of reputable national critics, local newspapers and blogs.

If I want to see the reputable critical consensus, I'll check Variety, L.A. Times, NY Times, maybe EW and leave it at that.

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6 hours ago, oSuJeff97 said:

Wait.... the critics didn't like it?  I feel like I remember seeing tons of nominations when I was watching the Golden Globes and Oscars.... 

 

Yes, there's still a lot of Jews, and non Jews, who get all pissy about moustache man.  Many of the critic snubs are from people not ready to enjoy a movie like this.

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I think black comedy is fine assuming the below is an accurate definition.

black comedy
[black comedy]
NOUN
black comedies (plural noun)
  1. a film, play, or other work that deals with tragic or distressing subject matter in a humorous way.
    "a cynical black comedy with political overtones"
    • a type of comedy in which tragic or distressing subject matter is dealt with in a humorous way
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On 2/25/2020 at 3:57 PM, PRONG HORN said:

I think it's a drama.  If you laugh a few too many times while watching a drama, people like to call it a dark comedy.  As though the laughing isn't allowed in a "real" drama.  

Its totally a black comedy.  The whole movie has a joking tone with bits of drama sprinkled in, not the other way around. 

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It's a fake black comedy.  

Quote

a film, play, or other work that deals with tragic or distressing subject matter in a humorous way.

The Nazis were the funny ones but they weren't the subject matter.  Jojo, his mom, and the girl weren't really involved in much if any overt humor.   

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  • 2 weeks later...

Late to this thread, but watched this yesterday.  Twice in a row.  Absolutely loved it.  One of my favorite movies in a while. 

One of my favorite scenes is between Jo Jo and Sam Rockwell’s character toward the end when they were detained by the Americans, watching him comfort the child before doing what he had to do to get him out of the detainment.  An incredibly touching moment in a movie filled with so much absurdity that gave me constant belly laughs. 

And the German version of David Bowie’s Heroes with the quote from Rainer Maria Rilke just before closing credits was a perfect way to end the film.

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Watched last night, loved it. Did not see the shoe scene coming, probably should have, but goddamn, I haven’t audibly gasped at a movie moment, maybe ever, nor have I teared up, just a powerful thing all around. It’ll stick with me for a while how that made me feel, because I’m an emotional zombie most of my life.

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not sure if it's been mentioned, but they read for over 1000 kids to find jojo, and ended up with a kid whose dad is part of the marvel cinematic universe.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1023204/?ref_=fn_al_nm_2

i saw this back in december with taika doing a q&a afterwards.  he talks about the casting, among other things.  dude is hilarious.

 

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i didn't like marriage story overall but laura dern springboarded her role in big little lies into a perfect characterization of divorce attorney.  she did it perfectly.  they were both absolutely excellent in their roles.  couldn't go wrong either way imo.

however, the movie jojo rabbit was a 100x better than the movie marriage story.  whoever above said 2019 killed it on the movie front was absolutely correct.  fantastic lineup. 

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I finally saw this film.  Wow.  One of the best i have seen in several years.   Laugh out loud funny and then crushing.  It's rare that I see a film and don't wish that something were different or the casting was better or whatever.  I don't have even a nit here.  It was beautiful to watch.  Each scene was a piece of art and the acting was spot on.  I loved the mix of crazy hyperbole and subtlety.  I need to see it again.

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I finally saw this film.  Wow.  One of the best i have seen in several years.   Laugh out loud funny and then crushing.  It's rare that I see a film and don't wish that something were different or the casting was better or whatever.  I don't have even a nit here.  It was beautiful to watch.  Each scene was a piece of art and the acting was spot on.  I loved the mix of crazy hyperbole and subtlety.  I need to see it again.

If you liked Taika you ought to watch “What We Do in the Shadows”. Think Flight of the Conchords meets Jojo Rabbit with vampires.
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Watched it last night with the wife.  Best movie I saw in the last few years easy.  Haven't seen Parasite but I find it hard to believe it was better than this.  I guess some people must have a hard time with the whole Hitler/Nazi comedy aspect of it.

I liked JoJo much better. Parasite was a great South Korean movie. I think it loses a bit in translation and I didn’t care for the final act (great set-up). Parasite does stay with you however.
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/21/2020 at 9:31 AM, DDD Dad said:


If you liked Taika you ought to watch “What We Do in the Shadows”. Think Flight of the Conchords meets Jojo Rabbit with vampires.

Shameless plug that Season 2 of What We Do in the Shadows TV show, which might actually be better than the movie, premieres this Wednesday on FXX. They're running all of Season 1 leading up to Wednesday night. Taika Waititi is my new favorite person in film/TV.

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I didn't really know anything about this movie except from a vague memory of the trailer that a little boy was at some camp talking to Hitler.  I've heard so many people rave about it, so I watched it on HBO Max last night.  Wow.  I was not expecting it to be so great or make me feel so many feelings. Every actor was perfectly cast and did amazing.  I almost turned it off 5 minutes in because it felt like some quirky Wes Anderson-esque rip-off (unpopular opinion, but I dislike his movies).  I'm so glad I didn't. 

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