SPECIAL SCREENING: PRESIDENTS & POTENTATES

JOJO RABBIT 2019 109 minutes

Jojo Rabbit follows in the tradition of Moe Howard and Mel Brooks by depicting the Nazis as absurdist buffoons, but New Zealand-born director Taika Cohen Waititi makes a point to include the lethality along with the bombast. Waititi goes so far as to play Hitler in the form of an imaginary friend to a little boy named Johannes. With few friends and often bullied by ferocious peers in the Hitler Youth, Johannes is determined to measure up to the expectations of his Fuhrer. All of this terrifies Johannes’ mother (played by Scarlett Johansson), who fears he will inform on her if he finds out she is hiding a Jewish teenager in their apartment.

For a film that opens with the Beatles singing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in German while adoring multitudes scream with joy upon glimpsing Hitler, the satirical silliness comes with hard consequences, especially for Johannes, who learns firsthand about the tyranny behind his indoctrination.

BE ADVISED–– This film is surprisingly rated PG-13, with smoking, drinking, profanity, anti-Semitism, violence involving children, violence involving state repression, and street combat (which is why we’re showing this at night).

PLEASE NOTE that this film will be screened in the Weston Public Library’s Community Room instead of the Film Club’s regular venue at the Art & Innovation Center.