Alfie Allen | Screenlife Reviews

As one of the year’s most controversial releases, Jojo Rabbit might not immediately seem to sit well as a feature during the Christmas break. The latest film from director Taika Waititi (Hunt for the Wilderpeople & Thor: Ragnarok) became infamous earlier this year when plot details and trailers were released. Jojo Rabbit is, at least in part, a comedy set against the backdrop of all that came with World War II – featuring a ton of Nazi references, a bumbling Adolf Hitler and some dark humour that succeeds largely on shock value alone. However just below the surface is the real heart of the film, a coming-of-age drama about family, love, how we judge others and ultimately how we view ourselves. It’s a truly odd mix that somehow comes together to create one of the most charming and unconventional films of the year, right as 2019 draws to a close.

Johannes “Jojo” Betzler (Roman Griffin-Davis) is a 10-year-old boy living in a small, Nazi controlled town during the last drawn-out weeks of World War II. Somewhat of an outcast, the desperately lonely Jojo finds belonging as a member of the local “Hitler Youth” group – a junior Nazi training camp where kids are essentially moulded into communist fanatics. Jojo swears complete loyalty to the party even if to just be accepted by those around him, and he is constantly spurred on by his imaginary friend Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi himself). The boy’s idea of the fuhrer is skewed a bit by Jojo’s age – creating an immature, zany and over-the-top version of the Nazi leader that begins the film as a voice of reason, before becoming a measure of Jojo’s maturity as time moves on. Following the recent loss of his older sister Inge, and with his father off on the front lines, Jojo lives only with his aloof and often absent mother Rosie (Scarlet Johansson). Rosie is strong-willed and fiercely protective of her son, however it’s quickly apparent that she doesn’t share her son’s love for the Nazi regime. All of this tension comes to a head in the early moments of the film, when Jojo discovers a Jewish girl named Elsa Korr (Thomasin McKenzie) hiding in the walls of his home.

This is all set up quite early in order to focus the film on its young lead, exploring how easily he’s conflicted by the adults around him. By revealing the stowaway, Jojo would be pleasing his ‘inner Adolf’ and winning him points with the party he dreams to be in. Yet doing so will no doubt bring heavy suspicion down on his mother – as well as a definite and grim end for Elsa. Each of the three core characters convey this struggle beautifully, with Griffin-Davis in particular proving to be another immensely talented child actor in a time where Stranger Things and the It films have raised the bar. McKenzie is also perfect for her role as a young girl who has lost everything she’s known, and must now hide for her life within the walls of a home decorated in Nazi paraphernalia. Both her character and Jojo share most of the deeper moments on screen, aside from the limited yet strong scenes featuring Johansson’s Rosie. Her character fights most of her battles off screen, however she makes herself known when she is around and it’s quite clear that Jojo remains everything to her – despite their differences.

Where these three characters shine, it’s Waititi’s spin on the fuhrer that is most likely to draw a mixed reception. While belittling or tearing shreds off of the real life tyrant has been accepted in cinema for a while, Hitler has never quite been portrayed as he is here. Using the character’s existence as an imaginary friend to his advantage, many of the fuhrer’s jokes land purely based on how outlandish and bizarre he is compared to the man on which he’s based. This humour works for the most part and his appearances are few and far between, however it’s worth noting that the character will likely polarise some viewers. On that note, Jojo Rabbit also doesn’t pull back too much when laying out the dark reality of what it was to live through the time of Nazi rule in Germany. There’s a fair amount of violence, fear and death running through the film’s key moments, and dark humour is often used to take the edge off of the story’s more grim and sombre areas. There are a few characters that walk this fine line during the course of the film as well, including Rebel Wilson’s Fraulein Rahm and Stephen Merchant’s Captain Deertz. Both Nazi familiars, the two are good examples of how the tale of Jojo Rabbit plays out overall – at times goofy and laughable, but at others sinister and downright evil.

Yet for every Fraulein Rahm and Captain Deertz, there are characters such as Captain Klenzendorf (another great turn by Sam Rockwell) and his subordinate Finkel (Game of Thrones‘ Alfie Allen). Both characters also rank within Hitler’s army, however they’re made more complex and deep compared to the usual ‘evil Nazi’ caricature. Rockwell’s character in particular gets a strong character arc, seeming to take joy in subverting the audience’s expectations wherever possible. Jojo’s only friend Yorki (Archie Yates) is also a great addition; another boy aiming to join the ranks as a soldier for the Third Reich. With an infallibly carefree attitude and endless positivity, Yorki is often the comedic relief when on screen – seeming to only be involved in an adult’s war because there was nothing else to do. It’s interesting that Jojo Rabbit features characters such as these, as it creates areas of grey where many other films built on the backdrop of World War II tend to deal in solely in black and white. Given director Taika Waititi’s Jewish background, the story could have easily taken a different route – however, to the film’s credit, he went and crafted something bigger here.

While Jojo Rabbit is a well scripted, sharp-tongued poke at the Nazis of World War II alongside some catchy 80’s German music, it’s not afraid to shy away from the evil of it all where it needs to. At the same time, some characters twist the expectation of who they’re often presumed to be, and the film tends to blend a number of themes together at once. This can understandably be too much for some audiences, and the humour may not be on taste for everyone, however Jojo Rabbit has a lot more heart than it initially leads you to believe. It’s a story designed to run you through a range of emotions, yet its ultimate aim seems to be one that makes us consider how we look at ourselves and, more importantly, those around us. It’s certainly not conventional and rarely pretty, but Jojo Rabbit has enough emotional weight and wholesome themes to end a year of quality films on a high.

Jojo Rabbit stars Roman Griffin-Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Scarlett Johansson, Taika Waititi, Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, Stephen Merchant, Archie Yates and Alfie Allen – In cinemas now.

John Wick is for Keanu Reeves what Taken was for Liam Neeson. At a time when Reeves was churning out sub-par dramas and straight-to-DVD atrocities, this was a breath of fresh air and resurgence for Reeves to shoot back into the public consciousness. The revival is well earned too, John Wick is a demonstration of a perfectly crafted revenge film, with copious amounts of blood, intense hand-to-hand combat and one seriously cute dog that sparks a night of complete carnage.

If you haven’t seen John Wick – which is unlikely given that it is one of the most popular action flicks in recent memory, and the third film in the franchise is set to hit cinema screens soon – it revolves around Reeves as the titular “reformed” assassin. I use quotation marks here because in this world no one really ever gets out of the hitman game, and while John may think he has found peace with his new wife, her untimely death rattles him to his core. Add to that the fact that Russian mobsters have recently murdered his newly befriended puppy – the last gift his dying wife gave him – and you have one seriously pissed-off Keanu Reeves on the loose. One of the best weapons in the film’s arsenal is the build-up to Wick unleashing his inner-assassin. We spend the first 40 minutes of the film building the character of John as a man coming to grips with the loss of his wife and transferring that love and affection to his new pet, and watching other people react to the news that Iosef (Alfie Allen), the son of Russian mob boss Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist), has killed Wick’s beloved beagle. To say John has a reputation is an understatement, and after all this build-up it’s immensely satisfying to watch his skills in action after we’ve heard so much about them. You’re always rooting for Wick because we have that emotional investment, and it’s a good thing too, because John does some pretty horrifying stuff to some people.

In a genre flooded with mediocrity and boring, repetitive action, it was a stroke of genius to hire long-time stunt coordinator Chad Stahelski to make his directing debut here. Stahelski clearly has a grip on how to film a convincing fight scene and all the action is shot beautifully. There is clearly a focus on practical stunts here and the cinematography benefits from this greatly. We get plenty of long shots that don’t cut away like most conventional action scenes and this allows us to see the brilliant work of the stunt performers. It also means the viewer is never lost in a fight scene and always has a sense of the geography and where the major players are. John Wick was also a major proponent of the “Gun-Fu” fighting style which had mostly been confined to Hong Kong action films previously. This involves Kung-Fu style action sequences using guns instead of more traditional weapons and it is absolutely breathtaking to watch. The fact that it really is Keanu Reeves in most of these action scenes is a testament to his craft in particular. A great example comes through a midnight siege on a busy night club; the way the lighting, music and action all mix together is so engaging – easily making it the best club fight scene in action movie history.

The story also takes a deep dive into world-building, providing a fair amount of lore, which is expanded upon in the sequels. Once he decides upon revenge, John operates out of a hotel which acts as an assassin headquarters of sorts, where every service necessary to perform a hit is offered; from gaining access to kill contracts to accessing the services of a clean-up crew to tidy up a vicious murder scene. It all serves to immerse you in the world, as well as serving as a story device, and it shows that writer Derek Kolstad has put that little bit of extra care into the script rather than serving up another paint-by-numbers Taken knock-off. What also helps to deepen the world and the lore is the characters that populate John Wick. From the Hotel Manager (Lance Reddick) who explains the hotels rules and offers their multitude of services, to Adrianne Palicki as rival assassin Ms. Perkins. They all flesh out the film and have their own unique personalities and traits, making it so much more enjoyable than just watching John cut through a room full of goons.

I mentioned that this was a film instrumental in Reeves’ comeback and it’s because he delivers some of his finest acting work here, in addition to the action previously touched on. While it may not require some of the dialogue heavy scenes of some of his earlier work, the amount of emotion and intensity conveyed through looks and body language is astonishing. John Wick barely speaks in the first 30 minutes and we’re so invested in his story and understand his loving relationship with his wife and dog perfectly. Other standouts in the film include Ian McShane who plays hotel owner Winston with the perfect mixture of snark and warmness, and Alfie Allen, who – fresh off his work as Theon Greyjoy in Game of Thrones at the time – really gets to play with the role, making Iosev Tarasov a disgusting, spoilt character that we are actively cheering on Wick to deal with. Michael Nyqvist plays the arch-villain of the film with a little more over-the-top dramatic flair – providing memorable so-bad-they’re-good lines such as “He’s not the Boogeyman. He’s the one you send to kill the Boogeyman”. It comes across as almost a tribute to the ridiculous action film villains of the 80’s, albeit toned down to fit with the rest of the film, and it really is good fun to watch him chew the scenery as he reacts to Wick murdering his way though the mob.

While it may be easy to just accept the John Wick franchise as the beast that it has become today, the first film came seemingly out of nowhere at the time and injected some much needed energy and Gun-Fu into a stale action genre. The importance of the film on the genre as it stands today cannot be understated. John Wick is a master-class in action cinema, combining quality performances from an all-star cast led by a resurgent Keanu Reeves with intense, vicious action that places it among the very best of modern action movies.

John Wick stars Keanu Reeves, Willem Dafoe, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Ian McShane and Adrianne Palicki and is available to view on streaming and home entertainment now.