It’s now appearing on RT’s releases for this week. 81% overall (over 100 reviews) but only 55% among top critics (20 so far). That’s a pretty hefty gap. It means the non-top folk really love this movie. It seems that the top folk think it’s a bit tame compared to what it should have been. (Maybe they should have thrown in Goebbels.)
I saw Jojo a while ago and Benigni’s film was exactly the first film that came to mind as a point of comparison. For me, that’s not such a good thing but there are those who love that film so YMMV.
I love Taika’s other features and while this is unquestionably the most ambitious, I find it the least successful and most muddled (for reasons impossible to discuss without spoilers). The best part of it is his portrayal of “Hitler” (not the man, just the icon in Jojo’s imagination).
I guess my biggest surprise was how safe he plays it. It’s a subject for some truly biting and subversive satire, but the hits are broad and obvious, and nowhere near as risky as I’d hoped. Given that we live in the shadow of rising fascism across the globe, the last thing I wanted was something warm & fuzzy but ultimately, that is how I’d characterize it.
Actually, Life is Beautiful is a fair comparison. At RT it’s 80% all critics, 56% top critics. So it makes a lot of sense that there might be a good number of such critics who won’t like either movie. (And I hated it and the terrible mugging the star did instead of acting.)
Just saw this tonight and wow it’s definitely in my top films of the year! I wasn’t really sure what to expect but damn, that was good! It’s funny and tragic and heartfelt and disturbing and hilarious.
This has been quite the excellent moviegoing weekend so far. The Lighthouse yesterday, Jojo tonight and then Parasite tomorrow.
Sigh, [jealous emoji]
Saw it. I haven’t processed it completely but I enjoyed it. I was very tired and I fell asleep at one bit and woke up when Stephen Merchant was leaving the house, so if someone could explain how he ended up there that would be great.
I fell in love with Scarlett.
I saw it a while ago and if memory serves, it was a random check of the house for Jews. They may have been targeted due to Scarlett’s character being against the Nazi party - or at least assumed that she was. I could be wrong about that part. The houseguest pretended to be Jojo’s sister and Stephen bought it and left.
Scarlett was terrific. I really loved her in this - she was absolutely charming.
…I’m not convinced it was random, I think your second assumption is correct. Spoilers for what happens after that scene, don’t open unless you’ve seen the movie:
[SPOILER]It is later that day that Jojo finds his mum. So the sequence of events would have been Deertz and the Gestapo found out that Rosie was doing something for the Resistance, caught her, and hung her. Then they went around to Rosie’s house to see what else they could find.
And its this scene that the absolute brilliance of this movie kicked in for me. Because as Captain Klenzendorf and Finkel came bursting through the door minutes after the arrival of the Gestapo, I realized that there was a whole nother movie going on in the background to Jojos’ story, one that we only got glimpses of as the movie progressed.
I imagined that Rosie was taking a bigger part in the resistance that we saw onscreen, and that the relationship between her and Klenzendorf was much deeper than they showed. Maybe he knew about her activities but kept them secret, and in this alternative movie there were countless scenes of them arguing about Nazis and the what was going on in Germany at the time. It wasn’t a romance. Just a very deep friendship.
One day Klenzendorf and Finkel are walking through town, and they discover that Rosie had been executed by the Gestapo. Realizing that the next stop would be Rosie’s house, and that Jojo was in trouble, they sprint through the town and burst through the door…into both a succession of Heil Hitler’s and into Jojo’s story again for a brief cameo appearance.[/SPOILER]
Well that’s what I imagined anyway 
I loved how their entrance didn’t get an explanation. This was a movie from Jojo’s perspective and I loved how Taika never felt the need to explain why they turned up. Also Roman Griffin Davis was phenomenal, and Taika is one of the best in the world at not only casting young actors but getting the best out of them as well.
I love this explanation. There was obviously a lot going on with Captain K offscreen. And then his appearance at the end in the outlandish costume.
Question: When U.S. troops captured a German City was it routine for the captured defenders to be executed? It was implied that Jojo and Joki were headed for the firing squad.
Speaking of which, I thought the kid playing Joki was even better. Amazing performance. I wanted more of him.
Did anyone catch what was written on the slips of paper that Scarlett was distributing?
That was the Soviets.
I don’t recall seeing any Soviets in the final scenes.
What city was it supposed to be?
I don’t recall the city being named. The soldiers in the yard, where Rockwell saves JoJo by calling him a Jew, were Soviet.