Jojo Rabbit

Year of Release:  2019

Director:  Taika Waititi

Screenplay:  Taika Waititi, based on the novel Caging Skies by Christine Leunens

Starring:  Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Taika Waititi, Scarlett Johansson, Rebel Wilson, Sam Rockwell, Alfie Allen, Stephen Merchant

Running Time:  108 minutes

Genre:  Comedy-drama, war

Nazi Germany:  Johannes "Jojo" Betzler (Davis) is an innocent ten year old boy who is nevertheless heavily indoctrinated with Nazi ideology, and is an enthusiastic member of the Hitler Youth.  His best friend is an imaginary Adolf Hitler (Waititi).  Jojo discovers that his mother, Rosie (Johansson), is hiding a young Jewish girl, Elsa (McKenzie).  Jojo is scared to turn her in, and he and Elsa begin a tentative friendship.  

In the wrong hands this film could be in hugely bad taste, however it is by turns hilariously funny and absolutely heartbreaking.  The film is anchored by young actors Roman Griffin Davis and Thomasin McKenzie  who move from mutual fear and loathing to a kind of genuine friendship.  To Jojo, fascism is basically adventure, friendship and acceptance.  He has swallowed the lies hook, line and sinker, but he remains at his core, an essentially good hearted little boy, who just believes what he's been told.  When he meets Elsa he begins to slowly realise that Jewish people are not the demonic, supernatural monsters that he has been told they are.  Thomasin McKenzie is intensely moving as Elsa, whose safety depends on trusting people who she has every reason  not to.  She is a survivor, in constant danger, but she is also a normal teenage girl.  The familiar faces in supporting roles are all very good, with writer-director Taika Waititi as an idiotic imaginary Hitler, who moves from childlike best friend, to an increasingly threatening presence, as Jojo becomes increasingly disillusioned with Nazism.  Scarlett Johansson is hugely impressive as Rosie, Jojo's mother, torn between her duty to fight the evil that she sees around her, and her duty to care for her child.  The film has a child's eye view of it's events, moving from childlike adventure and flights of imagination to fear and danger.  The use of German versions of anachronistic songs by The Beatles and David Bowie adds an additional fantasy element.  The subject matter of the film places it in very difficult territory, but it navigates it with barely a misstep.  It is among the best and most moving films of the past few years.

Taika Waititi and Roman Griffin Davis in Jojo Rabbit
 

    

The Predator

Year of Release:  2018
Director:  Shane Black
Screenplay:  Fred Dekker and Shane Black, based on characters created by Jim Thomas and John Thomas
Starring:  Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay, Keegan-Michael Key, Olivia Munn, Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen, Sterling K. Brown
Running Time:  107 minutes
Genre:  Science-fiction, action

An alien spaceship crash-lands in Mexico.  The "Predator" creature inside attacks US Army Ranger sniper Quinn McKenna (Holbrook) and his team, killing them all but McKenna, who succeeds in incapacitating the creature.  So he can prove it's existence, McKenna takes the alien's facemask and wrist gauntlets and mails them off to the US.  A Special Forces team retrieve the unconscious creature and ship it off to a secret research base in the USA.  In order to discredit McKenna and cover-up the existence of the creature, he is sentenced to indefinite imprisonment.  The alien mask and gauntlet are delivered to the home of McKenna's estranged wife (Yvonne Strahovski) and their young, autistic son Rory (Tremblay), who manages to activate the mask.  In the research institute, the alien revives and, after messily breaking out, sets out on a violent search for it's missing property.  It also becomes apparent that there is more than one alien on the hunt.

This is the fourth film in the Predator franchise (sixth if you count the Alien vs. Predator films), and is probably the worst of the lot.  While the original Predator was a stripped down action film, this film has a convoluted story that feels more like a grab-bag of ideas.  The actors do their best with what they're given but large cast of characters are mostly defined by just one character trait or quirk, which means that they never really register, and are largely unlikable particularly the boorish, bullying McKenna.  The action frequently grinds to a halt for attempts at humour and winking references to the first two films, although personally I didn't laugh once.  Shane Black, who worked on the script to the first Predator (1987) and has a brief acting role in that film, has done much better as both a director and a writer.  Almost all of the characters can apparently work out alien technology after a few seconds of fiddling about with it, and is saddled with a ludicrous ending, which sets up sequels.  In the film's defense, some of the action is well-staged, particularly in the later part of the film,  and, aside from some ropey CGI, the special effects are fine.      

Meet The Predator