Jojo Rabbit Review: 7 Ups & 2 Downs

Ups...

7. It's A Weirdly Sweet Coming-Of-Age Story

This is undeniably the most bizarre coming-of-age movie of the past year, a film which not only asks the audience to watch a young boy growing up in the war-torn remnants of WWII-era Germany, but a boy who has Hitler as his imaginary best friend and, better yet, is himself a member of the Hitler Youth.

Yet despite all these apparent dramatic roadblocks, Jojo Rabbit is at its core an uncommonly sweet tale of a youngster not only learning the full horrific extent of the Nazi campaign, but also discovering who he truly is himself while coming to understand the real meaning of family.

While it's tough to imagine many kids of Jojo's age actually watching the film or connecting with it in a major way, Waititi makes a salient point about nurture and how hateful mindsets are so often solidified in youth, yet also aren't beyond correction with a suitably loving approach.