Movie Review: Jojo Rabbit pt. 2

Here's part 2 for the Jojo Rabbit review!

The scenes of Jojo ‘interviewing’ Elsa about Jews were also very important, key scenes, I predict. In these scenes, Elsa pranks Jojo by telling him absurd fairy tales about the Jewish, where Jojo takes this all very seriously and writes it all down in his book about recognizing Jews. This shows how childish, imaginary, and rather idiotic the hate of Jews was from the Nazis. It says no to discrimination loud and clearly.

The last scene was also a wonderful way to finish. Jojo’s mother explained the wonders of dancing to Jojo, which he didn’t understand at the time. She said that dancing is for people who are free, and that it’s an escape from all of the chaos around us. And in the very last scene, once the Jews are free, Elsa dances, followed by Jojo. It shows in an artful way that the Jews were actually free, and by the way Jojo, who refused to dance, saying it was for people without jobs, follows her, I felt Jojo’s mother’s presence one more time, and more deeply, could see that Jojo really did grow up.

In the end though, I think the director meant to show what war really meant. I think that, after losing people from both sides of the war, Jojo, who had been obsessed with the Nazis winning, finally understood why his mother was so happy that the war was ending soon. If this is true, the movie succeeded in making its point. Someone like me, who had no interest whatsoever about war, was able to feel achingly how painful and horrible war is, and why it should happen.

What made this movie so great was a lot of things. Of course the storyline, the comedy, and the interesting topic are obvious parts. But I think that this movie exceeded in making the audience jump into the movie. I felt like I was actually with Jojo in the movie, and by the end, I felt like he was a good friend of mine. And with no doubt, this movie made me cry so much. I’m not much of a crier when it comes to movies, but once the tears came, I couldn’t stop. I’m not sure what it was that made such magic happen, maybe the actors’ and actresses’ magnificent acting, or maybe the sound or visual effects. (I think the makers of the movie took the original score very seriously. I was truly disappointed when it didn’t make it on any of the award nominations.) But whatever it was, I realized, thanks to this movie, how important it is to make the audience feel that they are part of the movie.

This was my first movie review. Tune in for more!