The Oscars’ nominations were announced the other day and it went down pretty much as I expected. Yeah, I have my gripes like everyone else does, but as I said I wasn’t the least bit surprised. But that is a topic for another day.
I have been catching up on all of the movies I needed to see so I can make an insightful Oscars Predictions post for you all to enjoy and one of my missions was to knock off any Best Animated and Best Picture nominations that I had missed. Along with some bonus noms because I’m a glutton for punishment, though Two Popes was actually not that bad.
Anyway, Jojo Rabbit was the last Best Picture nom that I hadn’t seen, which was especially annoying for me as I am huge fan of Taika Waititi’s previous works and I have been eagerly wanting to watch this movie since early 2019. Now that I have seen Jojo Rabbit it’s as great as I expected and more. So yeah, it’s a very special movie.
This is Nazi Propaganda: The Movie as we follow some young boys, including our lead character, who are raised to idolise Adolf Hitler and to fight in his armies and be a general pain to anyone else who doesn’t share their beliefs. Like Waititi’s other works the film does a great job at making the Nazi stuff really funny without losing the fact that these people are really despicable monsters. This also translates well with Jojo’s imaginary friend Adolf Hitler who is brilliantly played by Waititi.
The highlight of the movie is surprisingly the main kid and the slow progression he goes through with this young Jewish girl. There are plenty of great actors and actresses who were wrongly snubbed this year and this child is one of them. His performance is up there with Adam Driver from Marriage Story as one of my favourites of the year and it’s especially shocking because he’s a child making his acting debut! He has a heavy role to play and this child actor pulled it off amazingly well. His relationship with the young girl is very sweet. Scarlet Johansson was equally fantastic as the mum and definitely deserves her Best Supporting Actress nom.
It’s a well-crafted movie, especially towards the end which I was completely unprepared for. It reminded me of another movie that I’m currently reviewing where most of the movie is a fun time until these waves of emotional beats which leave you in utter shock and devastation at what you have just seen.
Bottom line is Jojo Rabbit is definitely worth your time and it well deserves the nominations it has received. I’m giving it a 9 to 10 out of 10. There are some aspects I’m not sure on, but I’ll confirm that with another watch. Stay tuned for the Oscars predictions post as that will be coming very soon and in the meantime that 2019 list has changed drastically since last week thanks to Two Popes and I guess this movie too. I have been The Blog Complainer, signing out.
