*This is a weird one

IMDB Synopsis

A young boy in Hitler’s army finds out his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home.

30 for 30 voice: What if I told you there was a comedy involving a satirical version of Adolf Hitler and it was actually very funny and sweet?

I walked out of this movie with my buddy and he turned to me and simply said “that was a beautiful movie.” Now you know we’re real guys guys, major hardos, so we do not always use that word to describe movies. However, I really cannot think of another word to describe this movie, it’s just beautiful.

The plot as you can see above is very hard to describe, but basically we have a young boy who considers himself a Nazi in the making. He worships Hitler to the point of picturing him as his imaginary friend (played by Director Taika Waititi), and goes to Nazi camp helmed by characters played by Sam Rockwell and Alfie Allen (shoutout REEEKKKK). After he injures himself he does find out about a Jewish girl being hid in house and his life and perspectives start to take a shift.

When you have a Taika movie (Boy, What We Do in the Shadows, Thor Freaking Ragnarok) you know it is going to be hilarious, and you also know he is going to be in it with a hilarious role. We get both of those things in this, but what I also noticed was Taika’s growing skill behind the camera. He has some amazing tracking shots in this and really has come into his own as a prestige director.

Stock Watch

Stock Up – Taika Waititi’s stock is not only up as a Director, but as an Actor as well. He is hilarious as the imaginary Hitler, and that goes along with his credentials in all of his previous movies. He is one of the few masters we have right now in Hollywood.

Stock Neutral – Roman Griffin Davis as Jojo was amazing, but I just do not know where this will take him in the future. For now though I will happily enjoy watching him go through every emotion possible in this movie to come out as a star. He was absolutely hilarious, but he really shined in the emotional scenes and really impressed me.

Stock Neutral – Scarlet Johansson is one of the biggest actresses in the world, I mean she is a freaking Avenger (I know I like that word for Marvel descriptions). So the stock is going nowhere, but that does not mean she was not great in this. Her accent was fine, but you really felt for her character and that is a testament to Scar Jo’s greatness.

Stock Up – Thomasin McKenzie to me was the breakout star of the movie. She played Elsa Korr and had to do so much in a very small amount of screen time. She blew me away and I would love to see her push toward another great role. I know she also was in the acclaimed movie last year Leave No Trace, so she really is someone to watch moving forward.

Stock Up – THIS GUY

*A couple other tidbits

• Stephen Merchant was amazing as usual.
• Sam Rockwell really loves playing racist dudes huh? I mean he was hilarious but still right?
• I still am not a fan of Rebel Wilson.

Taika Waititi really went for it with this story and it absolutely is one of the most surprising and emotional stories of the year. That is not just because I am Jewish! This is a tale everyone can learn from and It is one of the best movies of the year.

Juice Rating:

*You can find all of my Movie Ratings here.