JOJO RABBIT

Roman Griffin Davis    Taika Waititi    Thomasin McKenzie          Scarlett Johansson     Sam Rockwell     

Rebel Wilson     Archie Yates     Stephen Merchant     Alfie Allen

     What an ingenious anti-war film!  Taika Waititi has invested all of his creative energies into putting viewers into the mind of a child to take the journey from hope and hero worship on to despair and disillusionment, then full circle to hope, in a most unusual coming-of-age story set in Germany during the end of WWII.

     It begins (significantly, with a Beatles song “I want to Hold Your Hand” in German) with Jojo (incredibly portrayed by Davis in his first film), a gung-ho young German attending a youth camp for Nazi training.  He’s so into it, he has his [imaginary] friend Adolph Hitler (Waititi) by his side, bolstering him up when he’s discouraged and urging him on to a promising future as the bravest of Nazis.  There are signs, however, that Jojo might be too tenderhearted, and that’s how he gets his nickname, Jojo Rabbit.  (Jeers on all sides from his trainers and fellow recruits—except for one Captain “K” (Rockwell) who, uncharacteristically among Nazi soldiers, seems to have some empathy for him.)

     Jojo’s kooky-on-the-outside mother (Johansson) has a way of supporting her son while at the same time glossing over his stated fears.  In a way, she entertains him out of these concerns, but always with an underlying steadfastness that proves her worth.  She’s a mysterious character who appears to have important things going on, but Jojo doesn’t really know where she is when she’s gone from home.

     Which, because he is alone, is how he discovers an extra person in the house, “Elsa” (McKenzie) named, for purposes of subterfuge, after his dead sister, a young Jewish girl Jojo’s mother is hiding.  Jojo’s and Elsa’s interactions provide a context for Jojo to spout out all that he has heard of Jews (having never met one) and a framework for Waititi to illustrate how stereotypes vanish when actual people meet actual people, the distance shrinking as they become friends.

     Seldom have anti-war movies covered the scope of Jojo Rabbit.  It portrays the internal experiences of a young Nazi in training ushering us on through his figuring out “Jews”, his encountering primal fears of home searches, his observing people he trusts of glossing over facts for humanitarian concerns, and his discovery of who important people in his life really are, including his mother and his ever loyal friend, Yoki (Yates).  But beyond all of that, it has its comedic moments, e.g., reverse psychology is rephrased as “backwards mind power”, and the name of Jojo’s “book” about Jews he is writing is entitled, “Yoo-hoo, Jews”).

     I thoroughly enjoyed Jojo Rabbit, and hope that viewers will grasp all the underlying messages in it about children and about war.  It’s a satirical spoof, a heart-warming drama, a comedy, and horrifying picture of the costs of war.

Jojo Rabbit is not to be taken lightly, although it is a comedy, along with being a satirical spoof and heart-warming drama.

Grade:  A                                    By Donna R. Copeland

LOGAN

Hugh Jackman     Patrick Stewart     Dafne Keen     Boyd Holbrook     Stephen Merchant     Richard E. Grant

     Wolverine (Jackman) looks older and has become a grumpier version of his earlier gruff persona.  He has a persistent cough, but refuses to talk about it or any of the other troubling aspects of his life.  His whole intention at this point is to keep his beloved Charles Xavier (Stewart as Professor X) functioning and get enough money for them to sail away from everyone and live on a boat in the high seas.  The mutant Caliban (Merchant) serves as a houseman for Charles and Wolverine in their temporary bunker-like quarters, and complains about the fact that they are likely to leave him behind. 

     Charles has apparently become demented and has visions of mutants.  Logan dismisses these, and just wants Charles to take his medicine that controls seizures that are strong enough to make all the surrounding area around him shake like an earthquake.  But there are those who are tracking Wolverine and appear out of nowhere asking/begging for his help, whom he impatiently and brusquely dismisses.

     The first person to approach is a Donald Pierce (Holbrook) who represents an illegal bio-engineering company in Mexico named Transegen, which is trying to round up as many mutants as they can find, particularly some recent escapees who were being trained to be soldiers.  Wolverine definitely wants no part of this.  Then there is a Mexican woman with a young daughter desperately seeking his help, but he feels no responsibility and walks away.  You sense his complete weariness and burning desire to get away. 

     When he does acquire the money for the boat he arrives home only to find a young mutant girl there, warmly greeted by Charles.  “She’s the one I’ve been telling you about”, he says to Logan proudly.  Logan will soon find out more than he wants to know about the girl, Laura (Keen), and why she has turned up at his house.  He will also discover that the Transegen Company is determined to capture as many mutants as they can, no matter what it takes to do it.  They are enraged about the soldiers they’ve “grown” in their facility refusing to fight.

     Director James Mangold’s Logan is in the tradition of fine X-Men films with suspense, intrigue, action, and fully developed characters, still with a little humor sprinkled in.  Dramatic elements are more apparent this time; for instance, Charles’ pleas for Wolverine to enjoy himself more as a normal human being are touching.  There is a melancholy feel to this one, the third of the Wolverine series, because Jackman says it is the last Wolverine film he will make.  Apparently, he put his heart and soul into every scene and is pleased that everything about the film that was important to him has been included. 

     Fight scenes are choreographed artfully; but as in many action movies, I find my sense of logic and reality tested, as when a group of mutant children with special powers are being chased by Transegen’s men, they’re able to use their powers at some times but not others. 

     Jackman and Patrick Stewart have a lot of chemistry in Logan, showing the older man trying to counsel the younger, only to get a curt comeback. Yet, it’s clear that the two characters have deep affection and loyalty to one another.  Dafne Keen’s Laura becomes a central figure in the film, and she carries it off beautifully, exquisitely portraying herself as a mutant with a penetrating, knowing stare, ferocious countenance, and immeasurable fighting skills.  She very likely has a bright future ahead of her.  Boyd Holbrook and Richard E. Grant deftly portray sinister characters, one with brute force and the other with a chilling demonstration of a researcher gone rogue.

An intriguing and fitting end to the third and last of the Wolverine series.

Grade:  B+                                    By Donna R. Copeland

TABLE 19

Anna Kendrick   Lisa Kudrow   Margo Martindale   Craig Robinson  

Tony Revolori   June Squibb   Stephen Merchant   Wyatt Russell

     This is a strange movie that doesn’t quite get off the ground.  It’s rather formulaic, as in quick alterations between humor, anger/meanness, tenderness, and love.  It tries to be funny by being shocking, but the jokes often fall flat, or are even embarrassing—as when a young man asks a girl he’s never met to go out with him and marry him…and, by the way, he has a big penis.  Stumbling, pratfalls, and bumping into things and wrecking things are likewise inserted to be funny.  There must be at least five or six people who fall down, and we’re supposed to laugh.  And the fighting between couples; this gets very tiresome. 

     The film takes place at a wedding, and opens with Eloise (Kendrick) vacillating between accepting or declining the invitation.  This is actually one of the more clever scenes showing real anguish and ambivalence; Kendrick can be very funny.  She is right to be torn because she’s bound to run into her ex-boyfriend Teddy (Russell), the brother of the bride with a new girlfriend.  She wants to go because she is a long-term friend of the bride, and was even helping with wedding plans when she and Teddy broke up.  Of course, in the end she decides to go, and is seated at Table 19.  We’re informed ahead of time that this is a table of misfits.

     The colorful make-up of the guests at Table 19 is a great set-up for a comedy.  Along with Eloise, there is the former nanny of the bride and her brother, Jo (Squibb); unhappily married owners of a diner (Kudrow and Robinson); an ex-con (Merchant) who is the uncle of the bride, and a young man (Revolori) desperately wanting to score, inappropriately egged on by his helicopter mother (Martindale) whom we only hear over the telephone.  This table is supposed to form the essence of the comedy, and some of their routines are as madcap as they’re supposed to be, but the filmmakers (writers Jay and Mark Duplass and director Jeffrey Blitz) never quite succeed in their aim to make this an all-out screwball comedy.  Which is a shame, since the cast is filled with talented actors. 

     Table 19 succeeds when it illuminates the back-stories of the characters, and we feel compassion for what they’ve gone through.  This is especially true of the ex-con when we hear what he did wrong, which is both funny and extremely touching at the same time.  Merchant pulls this off like the pro that he is.  Revolori (a hit in The Grand Budapest Hotel) plays his part extremely well, but the lines he’s given, which are supposed to be funny, simply aren’t.  Kudrow and Robinson are fine actors, but there is no chemistry between them, and it’s puzzling how the two characters could have gotten into a marriage.  Kendrick also does well, but it’s a role she has done many times before in playing characters that I suspect are very similar to her as a person.  I would like to see her pick up the challenge of roles that will be out of character for her, proving her great acting abilities.

Table 19 is mildly entertaining, but doesn’t achieve the sidesplitting screwball comedy to which it aspires.

Grade:  C-                                    By Donna R. Copeland