REEL NEWS

NEW & SOON-TO-BE-RELEASED DVDS REVIEWED BY GEORGE OXFORD MILLER

Jojo Rabbit (Director Taika Waititi. Starring Roman Griffin Davis, Scarlett Johansson, Thomasin McKenzi, Taika Waititi.) This sublime satire isn’t about a cartoonish rabbit, but a cartoonish take on the evil-incarnate Hitler and his program to brainwash kids to hate Jews. Highlighting historical realities that are understandably too painful for many to see treated lightly makes this a love-it or hate-it film. Writer and director Waitiki creates both serious, sobbing scenes of the heartbreaking tragedies of bigotry gone extreme, and goofy Nazi spoofs, like the kooky Hitler (Waititi) that ten-year-old Jojo (Davis) imagines as his father figure. His buffoon Hitler espouses absurd myths and anti-Jewish propaganda to young Jojo, who enlists in the Nazi youth corps. While Jojo is shouting Heil Hitler! and creating a picture book of Jewish monsters, his mother Rose (Johansson) passes out anti-war leaflets and harbors a teenage Jewish girl in the attic. Jojo’s inculcated universe begins to shatter when he finds Elsa (McKenzie) and discovers she is not a bat monster who hangs from the rafters. His heroic coming of age embraces a new paradigm without bigotry, is forged by the horrors of street-to-street combat, tragic loss, and finally, the realization that he can create a new life with trust and love. Davis is astounding as Jojo, and Johansson and McKenzi provide an unexpected pathos that grounds the satire in reality. Somehow Waititi manages to create a feel-good movie about the worst of human nature. (Rated PG-13) HHHHH

1917 (Director Sam Mendes. Starring George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman.) Inspired by an actual incident that was told to director Sam Mendes by his grandfather, this harrowing tale follows the footsteps of two British soldiers, Schofield (MacKay) and Blake (Chapman), on a death-defying odyssey. With no radio communication and the telegraph lines cut, they must cross many miles of German-controlled territory in order to stop a British battalion from advancing into an ambush. If they fail, 1,600 men, including Blake’s brother, face inescapable slaughter. Mendes uses long takes and tight editing—with no obvious cuts or fades—to create the intimate feeling of actually being at the men’s side. So off we go in real-time through a labyrinth of trenches and booby-trapped tun

nels, across decimated fields and farms, and into burning villages. The tension builds with every narrow escape, and the stakes increase as time runs out before the inevitably doomed attack. With a personal reason to risk his all, Blake is determined, while reluctant Schofield questions every step that could be their last. Yet in the heat of battle, he becomes the unassuming hero and delivers the critical message. Mendes, as usual, artfully alternates heart-pounding action with catch-your-breath downtime, but by the last near-death experience, the tally of World War I horrors almost reaches hairy-dog status. Regardless, this is one of the best crafted, most memorable war movies ever. (R) HHHH

Little Women (Director Greta Gerwig. Starring Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern, Meryl Streep.) The life sagas of the four March sisters, their struggles, heartbreaks, and successes, have been told numerous times since Louisa May Alcott penned her timeless novel in 1868. Timeless because the underlying civil issues and cultural prejudices that challenged women then, not to mention the verities of

human nature, still dominate our male-centric society. In her refreshing rendition, Gerwig weaves present and future timelines, so we know what becomes of each woman, and can better appreciate how they overcome or don’t, the obstacles they confront. The story vividly brings to life the personalities and aspirations of the girls, the strength of their tightknit, harmonious family, and the attitudes and unexpected circumstances that threaten their dreams. Fiercely independent Jo (Ronan)is determined to write realistic novels with female protagonists that defy traditional expectations. Meg (Watson) gives up her dream of acting to marry a schoolteacher and raise a family. Beth (Scanlen) is a natural at the piano, and Amy (Pugh) moves to Paris with wealthy Aunt Marsh (Streep) to study painting. The arc of the plot follows each from childhood, through tempestuous adolescence and coming of age, to womanhood. By halfway through the narrative, I felt like the girls were my sisters, Marmee (Dern) was my mother, and aged Aunt March was issuing her sage advice to me. (PG) HHHHH n