Rabbit | Jojo

Jojo’s fervent nationalism is violently disrupted when, in a training accident involving a live grenade and a misguided act of bravado, he is scarred and sidelined. Sent home to paste propaganda posters, Jojo discovers a shattering secret: his seemingly compliant, single mother, Rosie (Scarlett Johansson), is hiding a teenage Jewish girl named Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) in their attic.

The final scene of Jojo Rabbit offers no easy victory. As the Allies roll into town and the war ends, Jojo has finally expelled his imaginary Hitler—kicking the pathetic figment out a window. He and Elsa, now free, step outside into a defeated, rubble-strewn Germany. Jojo doesn’t have a grand speech or a political awakening. He simply begins to dance, a clumsy, ungraceful imitation of the dance his mother taught him. Elsa, after a moment of stunned relief, joins him. Jojo Rabbit

The film’s most devastating pivot comes without satire. Rosie, Jojo’s buoyant, life-affirming mother, is the moral center. She dances in the living room, scolds Jojo for his “Führer” obsession, and tries to teach him that love is the strongest force in the world. Her fate—a quiet, horrifying discovery on a town square gallows, her shoes slowly kicking in the wind—snaps the film’s comedic register in half. It is a reminder that in a regime of monsters, being a decent person is the most dangerous act of all. Jojo’s fervent nationalism is violently disrupted when, in