What did the two movies I watched this weekend have in common? More than I would have expected! At a very high level anyways.
First up was Jojo Rabbit, which I have been looking forward to seeing for quite some time, and it was everything and nothing like I expected it to be. The film centers on ten year old, Jojo, a Nazi enthusiast whose imaginary friend is a satirical version of Adolf Hitler. What’s even more ridiculous about that sentence, is that Hitler was played by the film’s Australian director, Taika Waikiki. He brought the right amount of humor to the role and I loved his bits on screen.
Either way, after getting injured at a soldier training camp, Jojo discovers that his mother has hidden a Jewish girl, Elsa, in the walls of their home. Conflicted about what to do, he eventually befriends the girl. Sadly, further along in the tale, Jojo looses his mother for harboring the girl, and is essentially left an orphan in his war-torn city.
The thing the film manages to do is really pull at me internally. On one hand, the film is about a boy, but then on the other hand, the story is about Nazism and the gruesome parts of war that everyone was subjected to. The more gruesome parts of the story really got me, and when they happened I thought to myself, “isn’t this a kid’s movie?” But it wasn’t and had very adult themes to back that up. Supported by a truly phenomenal cast (here’s looking at the duo of Sam Rockwell and Alfie Allen), the film rested in Jojo’s hands, so bravo to Roman Griffin Davis for anchoring it.
I finished up the weekend by watching another movie where I had to constantly remind myself that the targeted audience wasn’t children, Little Monsters. I suppose I only thought it was a children’s movie because there were so many of them in it! And they were a major focus of the film, if only peripherally. At the start, we meet loser, David, who after finally breaking up with his girlfriend, moves in with his sister and nephew, Felix.
After meeting Felix’s attractive teacher Miss Caroline, he volunteers to chaperone on a field trip to a local farm. This farm however, is located right next to a military facility that has an accidental zombie outbreak. This farm is huge, and almost everyone is transformed into a zombie, except for the class, who manages to stow themselves away in the souvenir shop along with children’s television personality, Teddy McGiggles. Faced with their impending doom, McGiggles is not that kid-friendly after all.
While some of the effects were cool, and I’m a sucker for an Aussie accent, I found this film a little boring. It also just seemed like they tried to challenge Josh Gad on how many times he could drop the f-bomb. Lupita Nyong’o was the real charmer in this film, but I’m also wondering why in the hell she was even in it! Either way, this film wasn’t a total waste of my time, but I don’t know that I’d recommend spending yours on it. There are SO MANY other good zombie flicks that you could entertain yourself with, I promise!