{"id":235441,"date":"2019-10-22T03:06:16","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T07:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=235441"},"modified":"2019-10-22T03:06:16","modified_gmt":"2019-10-22T07:06:16","slug":"taika-waititi-says-jojo-rabbit-isnt-a-challenging-take-on-the-holocaust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/10\/22\/taika-waititi-says-jojo-rabbit-isnt-a-challenging-take-on-the-holocaust\/","title":{"rendered":"Taika Waititi says ‘Jojo Rabbit’ isn’t a ‘challenging’ take on the Holocaust"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: Taika Waititi speaking at the 2019 San Diego Comic Con International, for “Thor: Love and Thunder”, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. (Photo<\/a> By Gage Skidmore\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2014 \u201cJojo Rabbit\u201d director Taika Waititi is laying flat on the floor of a hotel conference room.<\/p>\n

It’s the middle of a whirlwind press day at the recent Toronto International Film Festival and despite how uncomfortable he looks, cushioned by a thin carpet, Waititi won’t muster the energy to pull himself into a chair.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis festival is great, but man, am I rinsed,\u201d the New Zealand filmmaker mutters with a hearty exhale, and an invitation to join him on the ground. After an exhausting morning defending his latest film, Waititi would prefer to conduct this interview horizontal.<\/p>\n

\u201cJojo Rabbit,\u201d his Second World War\u2014era satire set in a cartoonish bubble of a Hitler Youth camp, rode into TIFF with cautiously optimistic buzz and was met with a divided response from critics. Some knocked the film’s light\u2014hearted portrayal of Nazi Germany and detached engagement with the Holocaust, while others praised its zany humour and heartfelt moments.<\/p>\n

The split became a conversation starter between festivalgoers who ultimately voted \u201cJojo Rabbit\u201d as this year’s TIFF People’s Choice Award winner, surprising prognosticators and instantly amplifying its prospects for awards season.<\/p>\n

It’s now considered a serious contender for a best picture Oscar nomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cJojo Rabbit,\u201d which opens Friday in Toronto and other major cities throughout November, tells the story of a German boy who discovers his mother, played by Scarlett Johansson, is hiding a Jewish teenage girl in their attic. The revelation presents him with a conflict of morality as he occasionally confides in an imaginary friend \u2014 a flamboyant version of Adolf Hitler, played by Waititi, that winks at Charlie Chaplin’s \u201cThe Great Dictator.\u201d<\/p>\n

A supporting cast of colourful Nazi characters deliver the punchlines, among them Rebel Wilson, who plays a variation of her Fat Amy role in \u201cPitch Perfect\u201d and Sam Rockwell revisiting the buffoonery of his racist police officer in \u201cThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,\u201d which won him a best supporting actor Oscar.<\/p>\n

The film carries the DNA of Waititi’s past work, including the coming\u2014of\u2014age story \u201cBoy,\u201d his absurd vampire comedy \u201cWhat We Do in the Shadows\u201d and the rebellious spirit behind Marvel’s mould\u2014shattering superhero adventure \u201cThor: Ragnarok.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waititi, 44, adapted \u201cJojo Rabbit\u201d from Christine Leunens’ novel \u201cCaging Skies,\u201d which explores the darker elements that drive its protagonist. Her book doesn’t feature an imaginary Hitler, and Waititi’s film brushes aside her more unsettling portrayal of humanity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not sure you can say this film is a challenging approach to the subject,\u201d Waititi acknowledges after flipping on his side and cradling his head in his hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s your pretty standard fare when it comes to trying to remind people that being a Nazi is not cool \u2014 like, that is the message.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waititi is bound to encounter more tough questions about \u201cJojo Rabbit\u201d as the film launches its awards campaign. Some critics have wondered why now, in the midst of a resurgence of emboldened white supremacists and dictatorships across the world, the director wanted to put his comedic flair on such a terrible period of history.<\/p>\n

The director shrugs off those questions, saying he aimed to \u201ckeep the conversation going and make something that isn’t too safe,\u201d and by those accounts he’s happy with the outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve never come into this feeling that I could be told what to do,\u201d he said of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve made a very big effort to surround myself with smart people, and I’d like to think that I’m quite a smart person. So if I get the film and understand it \u2014 and my friends and my peers get it \u2014 then that’s all I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 \u201cJojo Rabbit\u201d director Taika Waititi is laying flat on the floor of a hotel conference room. It’s the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":234597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","mauthors-david-friend","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235442,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235441\/revisions\/235442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}