Jojo Rabbit (2019) ✦ Member of the Month: Full-Length Watchalong Reaction
Added 2025-01-28 03:00:04 +0000 UTCHello everyone! Here is the reaction to the winner of the poll that the January MotM winner put up for us! Thanks again to everyone who voted. I knew this was a satire going in, but boy there were some serious moments going on in here! I'm looking forward to talking about this one. [Direct link here.]
Cheers,
✦ KL
Comments
I'mma definitely bawl on rewatches, that's for sure.
kaiielle
2025-01-30 03:59:45 +0000 UTCGood shit indeed.
kaiielle
2025-01-30 03:59:35 +0000 UTCEveryone was fantastic, enjoyed them all! Thanks for watching!
kaiielle
2025-01-30 03:59:28 +0000 UTCThank you Joe! I did realize, only after the fact, what day it was that I chose to watch it, so that is very fitting but definitely wasn't planned at all. When this reaction is edited, I'll make sure to note that I watched it on that day. I'm glad you enjoyed the reaction! This movie is definitely more rewatchable for people than say Schindler's List - a film that I've heard many people say they could only watch the one time and will never rewatch it again. That's great this film had such a different impact for you on a rewatch. I love love love movies like that. Thanks again for your poll!
kaiielle
2025-01-30 03:59:13 +0000 UTCI hope you enjoyed it!
kaiielle
2025-01-30 03:57:29 +0000 UTCKids develop crushes easily and hey, sometimes having some feelings for someone will end up motivating us to make changes we may not have made otherwise, you know? I don't really see it as a bad reason for motivation. But yes, I saw some of these kind of complaints as I was scrolling through the Letterboxd reviews. Valid, of course.
kaiielle
2025-01-30 03:57:22 +0000 UTCIt was a very shocking moment! And very well done though.
kaiielle
2025-01-30 03:55:33 +0000 UTCthe scene where jojo finds his mom with the shot of her shoes never fails to make me cry
Nabila Rahmani
2025-01-29 17:23:03 +0000 UTCThis movie is spectacular...and spectacular at hugging the curves of all the emotions, seemingly simultaneously. The cast is phenomenal...but Scarlett Johansson absolutely crushes it here. Good shit.
Steve Mercier
2025-01-28 11:08:14 +0000 UTCHow dare a movie make me laugh at silly humor in one scene then emotionally wreck me in the next. So many things to praise in this one but the acting was top notch. Not a bad performance anywhere. Sam Rockwell and Alfie Allen together just makes me smile. Yorki’s line delivery was perfect. Everyone was great and I could go on and on. Love this movie.
RichieRich
2025-01-28 08:26:12 +0000 UTCAlso not sure if you did this on purpose, but you posted this on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which occurs on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. It is a heavy day for many people.
Joe
2025-01-28 07:53:14 +0000 UTCYay, my pick! I am so glad/relieved you enjoyed it. Obviously WW2 and the Holocaust is a difficult topic for anyone to engage in, but specifically as a Jewish person, I find stories about this time period important but challenging to watch because of the toll it can have on you. These are the stories of your heritage, your family and loved ones of those you loved So injecting it with humor works for me, because that is often how I address challenging topics. However, if you are going to make a comedy about Nazis and Jews in WW2 Germany, you are walking such a fine line that could go horribly wrong at any moment. I think Taika, who is also Jewish, and all involved manage to thread that needle so well in this movie. I agree with you that telling it from the perspective of a 10-year-old child is key to making this work. I have not seen this movie in several years, and what struck me this time was the different perspective I had as a parent. Being a parent is tough in any time period. There is always this balance of trying to be the fun parent, yet also trying to manage the stress of navigating your own life. You have to make decisions around when you need to teach your children tough lessons and when to let them be kids. And all that when my life is relatively good. I cannot imagine trying to be a parent in times like that. Trying to be present and fun when the world is literally falling apart around you. Helping your kid dress like a nazi and go to nazi camps because that keeps him safe, when it is against everything you stand for. I don't know how parents during this time and other past and present times of such tragedy manage. Ok, I am going to go hug my children now. Thank you again for randomly picking me.
Joe
2025-01-28 06:21:10 +0000 UTCLove this movie…so unique. Both dark comedy and gut wrenching at the same time. You never see it coming and BAM! Shock and tears instantly! Ahhhh….can’t wait to watch the reaction.
boss435
2025-01-28 05:03:57 +0000 UTCI saw this in theaters several months before it opened, at a test screening. It was helpful because I got to see it before it became the subject of online discourse. Like most discourse, I think it was a little hyperbolic, but I think it's fair to question a few of the movie's choices. For instance, while it's probably realistic, I think it would be better if Jojo did not have a crush on Elsa, because I understand why some people argue it muddles the motivation for Jojo's epiphany about bigotry. I also agree that the arc of Sam Rockwell's character feels... questionable. It's one thing for Jojo to like wearing a uniform and being part of a club because he's a child, but I don't think this movie has the room or inclination to really give the proper amount of attention to a guy who apparently decides he regrets being a Nazi. Probably better if the character, even if he saw the light by the end of the story, was kept more firmly out of "charming curmudgeon" territory. Ultimately, I wish Waititi had approached the material with even more restraint. There are great moments in the movie, like the moment with the shoes, but they're almost all serious, and I think there are definitely parts of this where his approach to the humor seems to forget about the stakes of what's going on in a way I'd call ill-advised. I get that Waititi's idea is to take away power by making it silly, but I think that works best with Jojo's imaginary version of Hitler, which is a creation in his head and separate from the real world around him. In the end, I like the movie, but I also think many of the complaints are worth chewing on. (For reference, a great comedy involving these same historical villains that I love is 1942's To Be or Not to Be, which pulls off that juggling act of being funny without forgetting the stakes, by generally making the jokes about something adjacent.) For my money, Waititi's best film is The Hunt For the Wilderpeople, a great, funny adventure film that gets the blend of tones almost exactly right.
Tyler Foster
2025-01-28 03:34:02 +0000 UTCNow you've officially seen your second Thomasin Mackenzie movie! Jojo finding his mom is probably one of the most unexpected, shocking, heartbreaking twists of any movie. Not saying it's the most, just saying it's up there. So many amazing emotional moments, so many horrific emotional moments, and so much great comedy. The thing I like to think about is all those moments where imaginary Hitler was peering unapprovingly from a bush somewhere, Taika Waititi had to dress as Hitler and hide somewhere and peer out of a bush... I don't know if any random passerbys could have seen it without understanding a movie was being filmed but if anyone did, that had to have been just a funny sight to see
Nathan Jasper, the Artist Formerly Known as Primary
2025-01-28 03:30:50 +0000 UTC
