Ever heard of an imaginary friend? Do you have one? An imaginary friend is a “pretend friend” we make up in our imaginations. Most often children have imaginary friends, it can be a character from a movie, their favourite soft toy or doll or a superhero. Imaginary friends can be of any size or shape because it is after all the result of a person’s imagination. Also in some cases, they can be someone who listens to you, who supports your ideology, who plays with you and most importantly they don’t judge you. But, what if your imaginary friend has a bad influence on you? Think about it.

This is the story of a kid living in an absurd society filled with enormity of violence, foolishness and “Hile Hitler-ing”. He has an imaginary friend who has a special place in the history as a man of power, evil and hatred, but for the ten-year-old kid in his imagination, he is someone who eats unicorn for his dinner. Yes, we are talking about Jojo and his imaginary friend Adolf from the film Jojo Rabbit, directed by a Taika Waititi.

Satirical Screenplay of Waititi:

Screenplay begins at the backdrop of World war-2 in Germany. Jojo(Roman Griffin Davis) a ten-year-old innocent kid greatly motivated by the chauvinistic ideology of Nazi has an imaginary friend Adolf(Taika Waititi), a friendly and goofball version of Adolf Hitler. One day Jojo finds Elsa(Thomasin McKenzie), a teenage girl living in their attic who is a Jew. He is petrified and scared of the thought about- What happens if Hitler men get to know about a Jew living in his house? Do they punish him and his mother(Scarlett Johansson) for letting her stay with them? 
Meanwhile, Adolf plants ideas in the little kid’s brain like “Burn the house down and blame Winston Churchill”. Jojo starts to write a book on Jews to impress his superiors, so he starts asking questions to Elsa. She gets amused but also upset by the creed that Jojo believes in. He gets mad at his mother for letting Elsa live with them and for not believing in Nazis. Though Jojo has an imaginary friend, he also has a real best friend Yorkie(Archie Yates) who is very adorable and has meaningful dialogues which get balanced by his cuteness and fun-loving nature. The rest of the film covers about- How Jojo’s perception towards the world changes? What happens with Elsa?
Waititi made sure he drew a thin line between satire and facts with his every three-dimensional character having a different version of the storyline.

Mesmerizing Direction:
 
Waititi is surely a brilliant director, no one can balance the controversial storyline with such ease as Waititi did. Seriously, who can bring joker out of a monster like Hitler?!
Instead of making a villain stronger, disgusting and ruthless he made him stupid, buffoon and useless. Though a group of the audience may feel their buttons being pushed, still, the film is done so artfully that you relish the experience.

Star cast:

A perfect cast is definitely a rich fodder for the film. You will surely fall in love with Jojo played by Roman Griffin Davis. Scarlett Johansson was nominated for Best supporting actress at the 92nd Academy Awards. Taika Waititi not only impressed us with his directorial talent, he also grabbed our attention with his outstanding performance. Thomasin McKenzie played her role seamlessly with maturity.

Character Arcs:

Jojo:
From the kid who was motivated by the doctrine of Nazi and the ideas of his imaginary friend Adolf, to a kid who started to see the reality of the world. In a scene, he is seen kicking Adolf out of the window showing his renouncement of the Nazi system.

Elsa:
The scared Jew teen living in the attic who made Jojo think out of the box and made him see the real world. She ended up becoming a good friend to Jojo.

The film ends with a beautiful poem written by Rainer Maria Rilke which gave this film a perfect and beautiful ending.

“Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final.”

This beautiful and inspiring poem will comfort the audience in a very peaceful way giving a message that- “we feel defeated and lost at times, but nothing is permanent. Just keep moving”. Isn’t it beautiful? 

This film was nominated in various categories at the 92nd Academy Awards and won Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Final Verdict:
Satirically blended between the treacherous terrain of fact and fiction.