Jojo Rabbit: reviews

What the critics say average 6.7 from 15 outlets

• 10 USA TodayBrian Truitt 'Jojo Rabbit' succeeds even with a high degree of difficulty, given the sensitivities of the subject matter, the emotional undercurrent of a mother?s devotion to her son and the breaking down of artificial walls to let love in. As much as it makes you laugh, Waititi?s must-watch effort is a warm hug of a movie that just so happens to have a lot of important things to say. Read
• 9.1 Entertainment WeeklyLeah Greenblatt Waititi ... finds such strange, sweet humor in his storytelling that the movie somehow maintains its ballast, even when the tone inevitably (and it feels, necessarily) shifts. Read
• 8.8 Chicago Sun-TimesRichard Roeper In the uncomfortably funny, unapologetically insensitive, cheerfully outrageous Jojo Rabbit, writer-director Waititi delivers a timely, anti-hate fractured fairy tale AND turns in hilarious work as Adolf Hitler, imaginary friend to a 10-year-old German boy near the end of World War II. Read
• 8.8 The Washington PostAnn Hornaday Set to an anachronistic pop soundtrack and an eye-poppingly attractive production design that would be right at home in a Wes Anderson movie, this is a film that dares you not to enjoy its material pleasures, even as you wonder if you should be laughing quite so hard at the jokes. Read
• 8.5 The WrapSteve Pond A twisted piece of grandly entertaining provocation. ... This is a dark satire that finds a way to make a case for understanding. Read
• 8.0 TimeStephanie Zacharek It?s Waititi?s ability to balance unassailably goofy moments with an acknowledgment of real-life horrors that makes the movie exceptionaL. Read
• 8.0 Time OutJoshua Rothkopf Breathtakingly risky but valid under scrutiny ... Jojo Rabbit isn?t perfect; sometimes it strains to reconcile Waititi?s more relaxed beats (?Let everything happen to you,? is a line from poet Rainer Maria Rilke that gets big play) with his visual fussiness. But he?s legitimately breaking new ground. It will find an audience that gets it Read
• 6.3 Roger EbertBrian Tallerico It?s far from the disaster it could have been given the tonal tightrope it walks, but it?s also closer to a misfire than we all hoped it would be. Believe it or not, the ?Hitler Comedy? plays it too safe Read
• 6.0 VarietyOwen Gleiberman It?s like a Wes Anderson movie set during the Third Reich. ... And yet it?s not as if it?s a terrible movie; it?s actually a studiously conventional movie dressed up in the self-congratulatory ?daring? of its look!-let?s-prank-the-Nazis cachet. Read
• 6.0 Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan Erratic but engaging, going in and out of daring, the film?s mixture of black humor and unashamed sentimentality is not always as good as its best parts. Read
• 5.0 IndiewireEric Kohn Yes, Waititi?s sugary fantasy unearths an endearing quality in the most unlikely places. But in the process, it buries the awful truth. Read
• 5.0 The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthy The cartoonishness of it, while amusing at the outset, doesn?t wear well as matters deepen and progress. Read
• 4.0 Screen DailyTim Grierson Jojo Rabbit doesn?t lack for ambition or sincerity of purpose ? which only makes it more disappointing that the film proves to be so meagre. ... Rather than being bracing or dangerous, this comedy ends up feeling a little too safe, a little too scattered, and a little too inconsequential. Read
• 4.0 The GuardianBenjamin Lee It?s oddly safe, given the subject matter, and the humour is similarly sanitised. What Waititi thinks is shockingly audacious is in fact frustratingly timid, he opts for a gentle prod when maybe a punch would do. Read
• 3.3 The PlaylistCharles Bramesco Taika Waititi?s self-proclaimed ?anti-hate satire? ?Jojo Rabbit? exists in service of a single idea, a notion so desperately idealistic that it lands somewhere between naïveté and disingenuousness. Read