Mr. Movie: ‘Jojo Rabbit’ may be the best movie of the year

“Jojo Rabbit” is a not-so-serious movie about a very serious subject. Nazis. And it involves a kid, a Jewish stowaway and the end of World War II.

The Jojo in the mix is a 10-year old who wants to be the perfect Nazi. Jojo has wallpapered his bedroom with Nazi posters, and prances and preaches and postures, and — in secret — talks propaganda with an imaginary Adolf Hitler.

In reality, Jojo is still more boy than adolescent and he’s a lousy soldier. Hitler’s goons are training children to resist and defend the Reich. Jojo blows it during training, sets off a grenade, permanently harms himself and his trainer, Sam Rockwell’s, Captain Klenzendorf.

So Jojo is demoted to posting propaganda around town for Kenzendorf who has also been demoted.

One day he discovers that his mother — done with perfect positivity by Scarlett Johansson — is hiding a Jewish girl in a crawlspace in a bedroom upstairs. He can’t tell anyone because that means mom will die.

That sets up the conflict and Jojo’s education into what is really important in life. It helps him discover that following a demon like Hitler isn’t exactly the best direction to go.

By the way, “Jojo Rabbit” is — ironically — as funny as it is horrifying.

Roman Griffin Davis plays Jojo. He’s one of a very short line of good kid actors given a shot at a part that’s deeper than the dumb Disney-like comedies most get stuck doing. Davis makes the most of the opportunity and has a blast debating love, life and philosophy — positive and negative — with Thomasin McKenzie’s (“Leave No Trace”) Elsa. Their give and take is rapid-fire-funny in places and deadly serious in others.

So is the boy’s relationship with writer/director Taika Waititi who has a blast playing the imaginary Hitler. All three are very, very good and get near perfect support from Johansson, Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, Alfie Allen and Archie Yates.

The real star of the movie — however — is Waititi. When it comes to movies exploring the deep but very odd things that make us human, no one is better. Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok, Hunt for the Wilderpeople”) centers his story on the approaching adolescence of a boy. He’s been told one thing all of his life but slowly discovers it might not be true after all. What he thought was good and right and true is actually dark and ugly and evil. As with all of us, sometimes it just takes awhile to get to that realization.

“Jojo Rabbit” paints a picture of one of the most horrifying times in human history. It is an exploration of humanity at its darkest. But when we — humans — are at our worst, we are often at our best.

And when it comes to “Jojo Rabbit,” best is defined as the best movie of the year so far.

▪ Rated PG-13 for mature themes, language and violence. It’s playing at the Fairchild Cinemas Queensgate 12.

▪ Rating: 5 out of 5

This story was originally published November 14, 2019 at 6:22 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie: ‘Jojo Rabbit’ may be the best movie of the year."