The maestro would not approve: 'My Name is Alfred Hitchcock'

Cohen Media Group's film, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock is for Hitchcock (1899-1980) connoisseurs only. Unless moviegoers like looking at the maestro’s face in the same photograph repeatedly which consumes about a third of the film. 

It's as if writer/producer Mark Cousins couldn't think of anything or anybody else to fill the space.

Alistair McGowan does an excellent job mimicking Hitchcock's voice. Film credits let viewers know the monologue is not Hitchcock speaking although you'd swear the voice was Hitch's.

 

The film is too long and could be shortened probably by a third (eliminating his face), however it lacks adequate biographical information about Hitch and his wife, Alma (1899-1982) with whom he appeared to have a  close relationship. 

Reading Hitch's bio on Wikipedia, it seems I Am Alfred Hitchcock did not give Alma enough credit for contributions to her husband's success.  (Calling Zelda Fitzgerald!) 

What happened to their daughter, Patricia (1928-2021)?

Notwithstanding (!), there are few movies like this which make me want to “take action” and see every film the subject ever made, many which are clipped here and screened for only a few seconds, to whet my appetite.  It reminds me of holding a piece of steak in front of a German Shepherd and not letting him or her eat. 

All the big stars are here:  Paul Newman, Janet Leigh, Cary Grant, James Mason, Peter Lorre, Albert Einstein (!), and many more.

Half of the movie titles were new ones for me. Please, take me to the Hitchcock Festival.  I wouldn't be surprised to find a cruise for Hitchcock lovers.  Please, take me to it.

Reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes gave I Am a 93% but since there were fewer than 50 reviews submitted by members of the audience, the "people's rating" (the one that is more important) is absent.  The few reviews by "the people" may be explained by its British origination, however, it was released in 2022 but only released in the U.S. in October. 

The music by Donna McKevitt far exceeds the quality of the film.

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

'It Ends with Us,' schmaltzy but good

Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively in Sony Pictures' It Ends With Us

It's bombed with the critics yet soars with the public which means it's a hit!

Yessiree moviegoers, over at Rotten Tomatoes the critics give it a 57% favorability rating and the people, 92% which is why I went to see it since the public is always right. (I'm guessing it didn't have enough biting edge for the know-it-alls. My friend, Chris, couldn't stand it:  "Too syrupy," she said.)

Remember Bohemian Rhapsody? (60%; 85%) and although I'd label It Ends With Us a chick flick, when I went to see it, half the audience was male (maybe there to catch the sex scenes which are many and good! Thank you, Justin Baldoni, the director, for omitting the obligatory breasts [I'm not sure that was his decision] which all look alike anyway and do nothing for the presupposed mostly females watching).

When I discovered Baldoni was also one of the leads, I wondered how successful he'd be at either job, and he excels.

In this film, he's a playboy neurosurgeon pursuing an unhitched damsel (Blake Lively) who also is chased by an old flame (Brandon Sklenar), and gurrls...how divine to be chased by two men the likes of them! A fairy tale come true! (This ignores the chief message of the movie - how to escape domestic violence - but still, these menfolk are all right to look at.)

He's too good to be true, right? (Which one? Gurls: Whenever you feel like this, trust your instincts and run fast because your instincts are always right.)

I read that the Academy Awards will bestow its first Oscar for casting next April, and surely, the End's Kristy Carlson will be nominated for her finding the incredible Isabela Ferrer and Alex Neustaedter who play the high schoolers, pheneomenal in their likenesses to Lively and Baldoni, and they deliver admirable performances, to boot!

But the absolute best acting is by Jenny Slate who plays the best friend and sister. (She reminded me of Gilda Radner. Maybe Slate will be nominated for Best Supporting Actress in End.) Her husband here is Hasan Minhaj, an unbelievable (another "too good to be true") partner with his mouth constantly open wide.

The music by Duncan Blickenstaff and Rob Simonsen is good; nothing to write home about, but costumer Eric Daman forgot to change the styles from teen years to today.

Hats off to Lively's hair stylists Anne Carroll and Robert Lugo.

The film is a bit slow taking off, but hold on, it's coming as the plot thickens and becomes more intense. Other "hot button" issues (sexism, abortion, parental relationships) are included in subtle ways for the most part, but don't let them deter you from going if you favor skipping depressing, in-your-face, realistic movies like I do.  We get enough of real life in real life.

Please, let me escape for a while!

There's a lot of online controversy about a filming conflict between Lively and Baldoni which builds traffic, doncha know? 

The movie is based on the novel by the same name by Colleen Hoover who serves as one of seven (! I lost count) executive producers, her books, not my genre to read (sniff), but in the theatre restroom, I heard a woman say the movie was better than the book.

Now, when was the last time you heard that?

And that's all she wrote and all you need to know to enjoy a couple of hours of escape, worth your money and time.

Patricialesli@gmail.com

A certain Oscar nominee: 'Turn Every Page'

Robert Caro, left, and Robert Gottlieb in Turn Every Page/Sony Pictures Classics

A pencil!  That's all they needed for a work session at the publisher's office, but alas, the staff had only a mechanical pencil, and it's doubtful the office youngsters had ever held a pencil, much less had one to lend.

This is just one of the humorous scenes in Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb who delight audiences with their relationship stretching 50 years.

Every Page is charming, it’s hilarious, enlightening and informative. 

It's the story of the two sages who've worked together for decades, writing (Caro, 87) and editing (Gottlieb, 91).   

As the world awaits Caro's last and final volume on LBJ, the film's editor, Lizzie Gottlieb, says confidently: “I have total faith it will get done,” but she did not ask him about a completion date.

“I know he’s working very hard to finish it,” Ms. Gottlieb said last week at the National Press Club after a screening.

It will be Caro's last volume, the fifth, in what was originally planned for three.

Lizzie Gottlieb at the National Press Club, Jan. 10, 2023/By Patricia Leslie

Lizzie Gottlieb at the National Press Club, Jan. 10, 2023/By Patricia Leslie

At the Press Club, Ms. Gottlieb sat with Bradley Graham, the co-owner of Politics and Prose bookstore, to talk about the production of her third film. 

She's Gottlieb's daughter, but her love of her dad does not skew the show.

Years ago she said she realized “I have to capture this while it’s happening now.”

 

Both stars initially objected to the movie. Ms. Gottlieb had some convincing to do but she succeeded. 

It's got great back and forth with the subjects, their wives, and others like Bill Clinton whom she interviewed on the morning of the January 6. 

Also appearing is another Caro fan, Conan O’Brien, who shows up in several places, interviewing the author.  

In rhythm Mr. Caro and Mr. Gottlieb talk separately, about the "process." They argue over semi-colons, “loom” and words, refusing to be filmed together.

Over the years they’ve become somewhat distant friends but it was not always so.  Mainly, it's been an adverse relationship, like boxers in a ring.

 

Answering a question from the audience in the Q and A, Ms. Gottlieb said the hardest part of the film was its structure, and the easiest: “capturing my dad.”

 

On the front row a woman exclaimed: “It's the most perfect film I have ever seen.” 

It took Ms. Gottlieb seven years to make it, the same time it takes Robert Caro to write a book, Ms. Gottlieb said.

She’s made two other documentaries and is a self-taught filmmaker, aided along the way by mentors. 

Writers, editors, journalists, newsmakers, librarians, publishers, researchers, broadcasters, readers, all wordy people will love it! 

The film opens Jan. 20 at E Street .

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

Film review: National Geographic's 'Rescue,' highly recommended.

You know the ending, but do you know how they got there?

It's a chilling and scary story, told in an excellent National Geographic documentary, The Rescue, about the 2018 saga of 12 boys and their assistant soccer coach who scurried inside a Northern Thailand cave which flooded, trapping them for more than two weeks.

Cave divers from around the world joined members of the Royal Thai Navy Seals and the U.S. Air Force Special Tactics in attempts to save the team.

Manmade forces juggled with Mother Nature and certain forecast monsoon rains in the breathtaking rescue race.

Experts on the ground doubted the know-how of two "old men" in flip flops and shorts, skilled underwater astronauts, who began to doubt their own abilities to rescue the team.

Forced by persistence and beliefs of the Thai people who believed the boys could be saved, 10,000 persons ultimately aided in the recovery efforts. 

The rescuers contacted a doctor friend in Australia to request that he consider administering sedatives to the boys to get them out, but the doctor resisted. He couldn't do it; the possibility was crazy.

But like the Thai people who would not give up believing in miracles, the cave divers would not give up asking the doctor until he agreed and journeyed to Thailand.

Cave divers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen from The Rescue/National Geographic

Splices of tape show the 24/7 actions underwater which become a horror show, ultimately ending in death.

Each of the star rescuers is interviewed at length; they describe their backgrounds growing up, when some were bullied, and many were loners, like the nerds at my high school who became the biggest achievers.

What is missing in this tale is why and how the boys went into the cave, why they went so far and why their coach led them.

Since Netflix retained rights to the boys' stories, no first-person accounts by any of them are included in the National Geographic film, an unnoticed absence, save the reasons for their entering the cave in the first place.

That the boys and their coach survived underground for up to 17 days is astonishing and shows what can happen if you "believe" and do not give up.

The film fulfills National Geographic's goals: To "support a diverse, international community of changemakers ...who use the power of science, exploration, education, and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world."

Take a hanky (or more than one). I figured I'd cry in the show. I did.

Husband and wife team, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, directed and produced the film with producers John Battsek, PJ van Sandwijk, Bob Eisenhardt (also, editor).

Daniel Pemberton's music is out of this world.

patricialesli@gmail.com

Movie review: 'Lost Leonardo,' highly recommended

Is it or is it not The Lost Leonardo?/Sony Pictures Classics

That The Lost Leonardo received a 100% audience rating at Rotten Tomatoes (and 95% by the critics) on the day I looked at RT tells you it's got to be good, right? * 

It is. Good.

From The Lost Leonardo/Sony Pictures Classics

It's a documentary, sure; my favorite kind, laid out in chronological style beginning with the discovery in a New Orleans art house of the so-called Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci and following its trail to the present owner who is...?

And where is it now?

On a boat, you say?

Before the Lost (the Last?) sold at a public auction at Christie's in 2017 for the most ever paid for a painting ($450.3 million), it was part of a Leonardo exhibition in 2011-12 at London's National Gallery, yet was pulled at the last moment from a Louvre showing in 2019 when, according to rumors, the present owner demanded it be placed adjacent to the Mona Lisa. Also, a Louvre publication about Salvator was removed from its shops and publication, denied.

Huh? What's up?

Find out at the show!

Andreas Koefoed, the director, performs a marvelous feat, bringing it all home in this balanced portrayal. How he and the producers coaxed the consultants, the "experts," the critics, the sleuths, the government officials and more to settle for his camera is a story in itself, but he did, and they are all happy to share their opinions.

Their names and identifications (titles) are listed in the bottom left corner of the screen, an indispensable aid for those of us who do not circulate in their worlds and must profess ignorance of most of them.

Who had an ax to grind?

Is it an original da Vinci?

I must admit I was skeptical going in...and coming away, I was skeptical. But, how about you?

For art lovers, the curious, curators, critics, collectors, dealers, lenders, tycoons, art historians, artists, "sleeper hunters" (?), this is a fast film you cannot miss!

That a world-known criminal is involved is revolting and maybe, that's what his subjects will do...one of these day.

Mr. Koefoed co-wrote the story with Duska Zagorac, Andreas Dalsgaard, Mark Monroe, and Christian Kirk Muff. Hats off to you!  Music by Sveinung Nygaard is excellent.

For more reading, Wikipedia has a lengthy accounting of the painting's provenance.

*Now, the audience gives it 93% and the critics, 95%.


patricialesli@gmail.com

Huge hit! 'Riders of Justice' via 'Fargo'

Rough day? From left: Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Lars Brygmann and Mads Mikkelsen in Riders of Justice

It must be my starvation for action which drove me to Riders of Justice and captured me from the start.

I liked Wrath of Man, too, but Riders has a far better script, better acting and credibility which spells solid entertainment.  

A joy ride through slash and burn hell, but with purpose. Just my kind of film.

Riders is a fantastic thriller, a dark, subtle comedy (of sorts) accompanied by terrific music (by Jeppe Kaas) to complement the austere Danish landscapes of horizontal lines and muted tones where the sun doesn't shine, nobody smiles,  and color (save blood and Christmas sweaters) is absent. 

Anders Thomas Jensen, the director/writer, presents a striking film, sure to excite even the sleeping.  (Wake up, Christine!)

The star (Mads Mikkelsen), is angry, very angry, a man whose rage is palpable, perceived by an audience on edge (we know this is not going to be easy), so close to a man of steel, we are, without patience.

Markus's wife has died in a train accident which injured his teen daughter, now forced to live with her unreasonable, estranged father. 

Was it an accident?  New friends arrive to paint a different picture, and away we go!

The cast includes a nerdy statistician,  

Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas); a comedic hacker, Lennart (Lars Brygmann), and the fellow who reminded me of Newman from Seinfeld, Emmenthaler (Nicolas Bro), a tech pro and subtle humorist. 

These guys look like your colleagues, everyday persons you see on the street, with whom you might mingle in a tech warehouse, certainly not the artificial breeds from GQ. Applause to casting director, Djamila Hansen. 

I found only one scene which needed more editing, and that was when the "psychologist" counsels Mathilde (Andrea Heick Gadeberg). The "lineup" at the end was a bit too contrived, too.

The irony of this film is its supposed setting, Denmark, ranked by Global Peace Index as the fifth most peaceful country in the world in 2020. (Iceland was #1 and - surprise! - the U.S. doesn't show up in 21 countries listed.) 

Denmark has a low rate of gun deaths, too, as detailed by GunPolicy.org. From 1998 to 2011, Denmark's rate of death by gun was fewer than two people killed for every 100,000 Danish citizens, and by comparison, the United States' rate was just over 10 gun deaths per every 100,000 citizens in 2013. (It might be about double that by now.)

Riders is a great movie for those who are immune to movie violence, like I find myself becoming. 

And Carla, I think Thor will like Riders and if you liked Pulp Fiction and Fargo, you may like it, too, but you've been warned. Adult language, for certain, with English subtitles.

This is the only time I can recall when the critics at Rotten Tomatoes beat the audience (94% to 91%) and got it right.

patricialesli@gmail.com

'Wrath of Man' explodes on the screen

Dear Carla,

A movie for Thor! But, maybe not for you.

Sigh: It's hard to please everyone all of the time.

Because the Wrath of Man had a Rotten Tomatoes audience rating of 91% and a critics' rating of 67%, I knew it was likely to be good since the critics get them wrong about 98% of the time.

It was either this or Billy Crystal's new film, Here Today (audience rating, 93%; critics, 46%) which looked so predictable (old man meets younger woman, you know the score, ho hum, yawn) so I opted for Wrath and I am glad I did!

Jason Statham (left) and Josh Hartnett in Guy Ritchie's Wrath of Man

Yowsers, Christine!  (You won't like it; stay home)

When I entered the theatre, I wondered if I would have to leave midway through the show since the future is not known, I'm not a big fan of violence, but I do like the motion more than what you get from rocking chairs, especially after wasting time and money on the dull and lifeless (no puns intended) No Man's Land and Holy Moly.

 
I was the only woman in the moviehouse.  Which turned out to be OK. 

Ladies, this is not for the squeamish. This is a guy flick; not chick lit.

From the get-go, it was heave ho! And away we go. No time to catch a breath or doze a spell (see above). It was great to see a 21st century flick, guns ablazing, without... (hold your breath), female nudity. 

Thank you, producers and director!

And no sex (to speak of). Not, the porno kind.  Which just goes to show you, gratuitous sex is unnecessary for a really good show!

Plenty of bad words though, not sprinkled in the show, but flooding throughout, natch, which I was able to quickly ignore once I set my gears on "speed."

A "taut thriller" whose rage is transferred to the moviegoer.  You can almost feel the walls vibrate with his anger.  Something's up. 

It takes eight minutes for the SWAT team to arrive?

The time sequences go back and forth a bit too much, out of order, but that doesn't slow things down. Who needs time when your heart is beating nonstop?

The music by Christopher Benstead was initially terrific before it quickly became monotonous, the same repetitive sequences with the boom! boom! boom of the bass and drums. (No need to take your hearing aids. Matter of fact, you may need some after the show.)

The Washington Post reviewer suggested Ritchie and the star, Jason Statham (shades of Bruce Willis) were a mite too old, almost "has-beens," to be bringing all this mad action to the screen, to which I retort: Bring it on, fellows! I'll have some more of that (this).

Although the acting by most of the cast was not as sharp as I think it could have been, who cares when the story line was far better than most of the ones I've seen this year?


You don't need a description, do you? Let's just say, I'll never glance at money trucks the same way again.

This was my first Ritchie/Statham  film, and should I be embarrassed that I liked it? Violence and all? Moviegoers, it is solid entertainment! That's all we want at the movie house, right?

Now, who is the bad guy(s)? Give 'em H!

Some of the guys in Guy Ritchie's Wrath of Man

patricialesli@gmail.com

'Mole Agent' is dull...dull...s n o r e ....

Moviegoers, Mole Agent ranks near the bottom of my "Worst Movies I Have Ever Seen" list along with the dreadful Nomadland and the famed cat movie. 

I should have known from the title.

Save your time!  And your money!  

The only action here are the fluttering clothes on the line and the flowers waving in the breeze.

An old man becomes a resident at a nursing home, ostensibly as an undercover agent to find out whether the nursing home is as bad as some suspect.

Compared to the nursing homes I have visited, this place is the Taj Mahal (and not as lively as the marble and stones you find there). 

This is the inside of a grave.  

Let's go!

This is billed as a "drama/documentary," but I call it a drama for those who need a doc. 

Yes, yes, yes!  Actual residents are many of the "actors."  Does that make it any better?

Nyet!

Why did I go see it?  Good question.

#1. I was starved for a movie, any movie (and any movie is what I got).

#2. The audience rating at Rotten Tomatoes was an 84 (compared to the critics' 95) which was a big hint about the "action" to come because if you think about it (after I had seen it) the only members of the audience who'd pay to see this thing and rate it are those not interested in action!  

Get it?  Now, I do!  

And the critics!  The critics!  Why they'd give Nomadland a 94!  

I tell you:  A sleeping mole in a hole has more action than this. 

Ho hum, I suppose this has a market in the 15,600 nursing homes found in the U.S., and, as for the rest of the world, don't they care for their elderly besides stashing them in these horrible places?  

Whatever. 

Dear Carla, this is not a movie for Thor. 

patricialesli@gmail.com

'Courier' is worth admission price

 

Yay!  The movies are back!

It's not the greatest spy movie I've ever seen but it will do in these days of entertainment starvation.  Especially after wasting time and money on the austere, the horrible, the boring Nomadland.

At the same movie house on a Saturday night at the same show time, the audience had swelled to about 25 from the poor audience showing for Nomadland.  

Carla, I think Thor will like The Courier. It's based on a true-life tale of a British spy ring working to obtain Soviet Union  nuclear secrets which preceded the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Merab Ninidze, left, is Soviet spy, Oleg Penkovsky, who transmits secrets to The Courier, Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch, right).

Dickie Franks (Angus Wright) and Emily Donovan (Rachel Brosnahan) are wooden and robotic government agents who recruit the where-am-I? salesman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) to transmit secrets from the Soviet Union. 

Starting the action is information supplied by Soviet double-agent, Oleg Penkovsky, portrayed by Merab Ninidze who steals the show. Besides Mr. Cumberbatch, he's the only one who legitimately conveys his character with aplomb, however, Vladimir Olegovich Chuprikov does a good job as Nikita Krushchev.  The rest of the cast is generally lifeless.

In another time and place, The Courier likely would not gain as many nods as it is receiving now, but this is now, and not then or when.

 patricialesli@gmail.com

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Best Picture! 'Parasite' and more for 'Ford v. Ferrari'

Oh my gaaawwwwdddddddd....

Not that I've seen them all, but this is without question, "the best" this year.

It's not for the squeamish or those who want an easy flowing plot.  

It's for lovers of The Shape of Water. 

At the beginning, it's like a nicely winding stream, meandering along its path when yikers! Danger knocks and like a mammoth rock which separates the water in two, a geyser erupts and venom spews. 

Don't open the door!  (But, what's a movie without fear and trembling? And opportunity knocks, does it not?)

I must open the door! Which door?

Parasite is a screaming roller coaster ride which climbs and zooms 'til you reach zowee clouds and then you hurtle down the curves, rushing, rushing to the next scene. lurching, twisting and covering your eyes, afraid to look and ….oh, my   g o o d n e s s....

Hang on! You may need blinders.  Just ask Christine. She used her hands.

It's got a bit of humor, too: "Do I have to do the Miranda thing again?"

Outstanding music (by Jaeil Jung), acting, cinematography, and plot make Parasite the "best." 


Congratulations to writer/director Bong Joon-ho for bringing this to the U.S.

Parasite has been nominated for six Academy Awards, the first time a Korean film has been nominated for any Oscar.  The actors deserved nomination, too, but were overlooked by the Academy for, according to modern talk, racist reasons.

It's in Korean with English sub-titles and, to make a comparison, makes Knives Out (I know; not nominated) look like plastic forks. 
  
Others I wish had won nominations and Oscars are Christian Bale for Best Actor and Tracy Letts, Best Supporting Actor in Ford v. Ferrari, a winner for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Casting. No doubts!
 
patricialesli@gmail.com

Movie review: Knives in for 'Knives Out'

 The cast of Rian Johnson's Knives Out. Who dunnit?

I thought it would make this year's Ten Best Oscar list since it seems like voters usually stretch that a bit to come up with "Ten Best" movies, but it didn't make.  In more ways than one.

It's a lot like the game Clue which, in many respects, is more entertaining. 

One of the worst things about Knives Out is the silly, affected, fake Southern accent put on by Daniel Craig, a Brit, who stars as the chief detective.  How boring, darling. I suppose casting director Mary Vernieu has that anti-Southern attitude and could not venture South and find a real Southern accent.

The show is billed as a comedy/crime/drama, but the funny parts are mostly missing.

The story line is pretty good, and director/writer Rian Johnson was rewarded with an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. 

About mid-way through, though, when I began thinking the movie was nothing special, it veered off the beaten track and better action finally got going. Up until then, effective flashbacks carried us to the scene of the crime, most of it committed in an old mansion. (If you can figure it out, I hope you, too, are writing screenplays.)

Overall acting is pretty atrocious.  All of them (save Chris Evans, who's one of the victim's sons, and K Callan, who plays the mother of the 90-something victim; yeah, right) are stilted and artificial, like what you might see on stage when the actors are tired and need a break, like more rehearsals.  

Including, yes, the performance by Jamie Lee Curtis, whose spouse (the dull Don Johnson) goes a'wandering which is no wonder faced with the same boring clothes she wears day in and day out (costumer Jenny Eagan didn't do the show any favors), quite the great-grandmother with that weed hanging out of her mouth to add to her allure.  

Was that baseball star heartthrob Jayson Werth up on the screen or Michael Shannon? (Compare and see what you think.)

It's amazing but Christopher Plummer (The Sound of Music) is still alive and well after all these years, now aged 156 or so (just kidding, Mr. Plummer!) based on the number of movies he's been in. (I tried counting them all up but the Wikipedia pages ran too long.)

While it's true that he was supine most of the time on a sofa, and almost unreal and preserved like a mummy or dummy (and those were the alive parts), ain't it grand that a nonagenarian is still in demand? 

Well, honey, Ms. Callan's performance (did she say anything?) stands out, and she's no spring chick (84 last week).  Ain't it great that an octogenarian (and a female at that) is still in demand?  Rock on!

Speaking of, the overall show did not match the excellent score by native-born Washingtonian Nathan Johnson whose cello and extreme range heightened the experience.

Knives has little visual sex, but bad words, yes, of course. Rather de rigueur, aren't they?

patricialesli@gmail.com


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Movie review: 'Jojo Rabbit' is a sleeper hit!

It's one of the Year's Top 10!
 
The audience rates Jojo Rabbit at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and the critics, 79% (ho hum), so you know it's got to be good since the audience is always right.

"Adolph" (Taika Waititi, the director) is the imaginary friend of "Jojo" (Roman Griffith Davis) in Jojo Rabbit

Easy prediction:  Jojo will make the Top 10 Oscar "Best Movies" list of 2019, practically assured by its inclusion in the Golden Globe nominations.

But Best Actor for a 12-year-old (Roman Griffith Davis)? Naaawwww....just call me ageist. 

What's required for admittance to Jojo is an open mind and tolerance since this is billed as a "black comedy," and that it is, folks. (Parent's warning: It's okay for mature tweens, but the story will be hard to follow for younger children.)

My Jewish friends may find the World War II Nazi Germany setting intolerable, but the negativity gradually collapses to opposition in Jojo, with its underlying theme which strengthens as the show progresses without becoming overbearing.
 
Jojo Rabbit has a horrid rabbit exchange, but this is a satire, and I know PETA would not let anything happen to a silly rabbit.  

Writer, director, "Polynesian Jew" Taika Waititi (who based Jojo on a story by Christine Leunens) has placed himself in a major role (an imaginary Adolph Hitler) who befriends "Jojo" (Master Davis), a member of Hitler's Youth Army. The lad is a bit uncertain what it all means, but there's a surprise in his attic which grows on him and becomes a life lesson.

In this blend of light sci-fi with a fabulous score (by Michael Giacchino), I can assure you no one will be bored.

Jojo has a ton of great actors but none better than Stephen Merchant as the despised straight-up German officer who, I hope, earns a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Just one look and a few wordless seconds with this awful person are all that are necessary for his persona as Mr. Evil to emerge.

A Best Supporting Actress nod will likely go to Tomasin McKenzie (who's only 19 years old herself, but never mind). The casting crew deserves a nomination for choosing the other knockouts who include Scarlett Johansson, Rebel Wilson, Sam Rockwell, and Archie Yates (a darling boy), among many.

With hate crimes on the rise, exacerbated by world leaders' ignorance, narcissism, self-righteousness, and ethnocentrism, the movie's message subtly undergirds the content which I hope leaves viewers with heightened sensitivities to better acceptance of those who may be different from you and from me. 

patricialesli@gmail.com