Jojo Rabbit

Jojo Rabbit is one of those movies that I knew I was going to like and I knew that I likely wasn't going to see in theaters and I knew I was going to write this review and say I regret not seeing in the theaters. I love Taika Waititi, the premise seems hilarious and I went in with high expectations. Jojo Rabbit did not disappoint. 

Jojo Rabbit follows the story of a young boy by the name of Johannes "Jojo" (played by Roman Griffin Davis). He is growing up in the tail end of World War 2 in Nazi Germany, where Germany is losing the war, but Jojo remains steadfastly loyal to the Third Reich despite being a small kid without a violent bone in his body. He also happens to have Adolf Hitler (played by Taika Waititi) as his imaginary friend. I understand how this might give some people pause, but when you watch the movie, you understand what Hitler comes to represent and the comedic efforts of Waititi make him a very effective part of this movie.

After an accident, Jojo is left scarred and limping at home with his mother Rosie (played by Scarlett Johansson), and he gets a job putting up propaganda and gathering scrap for the war effort. But he soon figures out that his mother has been hiding a Jewish girl named Elsa (played by Thomasin McKenzie) in the walls of their house. Jojo is torn by his loyalty to the Nazi ideology and the desire to protect his mother from any kind of harm, so he begrudgingly keeps the secret of Elsa's hiding and decides to use it as an opportunity to learn more about Jews, at first in a way to defeat them, but later out of a friendship that blooms between the two of them. 

So there's a lot there. It should be noted that the movie is very satirical in nature and comes in with the understanding that Nazism is bad. Nonetheless, the movie takes some risks. Sam Rockwell, Afie Allen, and Rebel Wilson all play Nazis and the good thing is, they're played off as fools for the most part, but you also have a whole environment where we're supposed to be relating with characters who consider themselves Nazis. 

The movie only lightly grazes the real horrors of the Holocaust, persecution of Jews and others affected by Nazi Germany, and instead focuses on the smaller, but more personal interactions of a young boy experiencing it all.

While a lot of the movie is satire, the reason this movie resonates with me is the sincerity it has with the interactions between Jojo and his mother, and his interactions with Elsa. 

That familial relationship hits to the core and it's what makes the movie meaningful. Johansson is just too damn charming in this film and Griffin and McKenzie crush it, especially since they carry much of the film. 

The movie is also really, really funny, but also hits a lot of emotional chords. If you're prone to crying in emotional films, you better bring the tissue box because this one is gonna get you. 

I think some of the weaker parts were when they were focusing on Rockwell, Allen, and Wilson. I am starting to understand the underground love for Sam Rockwell and he really crushes it in this film, but again, those three are mainly played as the fools and the movie probably could have done a little bit less with them. 

There's just a lot that is really charming about this movie. And even the weaker parts still got a laugh out of me now and again. 

The messaging behind the film is pretty relevant for today when it highlights the different opinions and belief we all have and how those opinions, or worse prejudices, can be crystalized into ideology when we lose track of the humanity of one another. 

The difficult thing about my last two reviews is that I watched two really good movies, this and I, Tonya. It's frankly hard to really criticize these two movies that I had a lot of fun watching. 

I highly recommend watching Jojo Rabbit. 

But what did you think? Comment and Discuss below! I obviously need some help finding what's wrong with this film. You can also send your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog. 

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I, Tonya

 

The story of Tonya Harding was never really one that was very interesting to me. Not to age myself, but I was a little young to understand the story when it happened in real life and as the movie sort of alludes to, she fell into obscurity after the whole ordeal. However, since the movie came out in 2017, I have heard enough people really praise this movie, especially people I wouldn't expect to be really into a movie about figure skating. So I thought I'd give it a try. 

As mentioned already and should be pretty obvious, I, Tonya is a semi-biographical story, based on conflicting interviews, of Tonya Harding (played by Margot Robbie). If you're like me, you may be going into this story with no inclination of who Tonya Harding is or what her background is but the movie does a pretty good job at placing her in the middle of a working class, poor family and consistently trying to shed that perception. 

Tonya grows up with her abusive mother (played by Allison Janey) who pushes her into skating and forces her to be the best. Eventually she grows up, meets, and eventually marries Jeff Gillooly (played by Sebastian Stan) who is also abusive towards her. Her escape becomes skating, but she struggles with the perception of being "white trash" or not wholesome enough to be very successful, showing the politics of the skating world other than focusing on the talent. 

This of course all leads up to "the incident" where a man assaults Tonya's rival Nancy Kerrigan with a baton, breaking her leg, and with ties back to Jeff and Tonya. The movie dives pretty deep into that and its fascinating because the movie is presented in somewhat of a mockumentary form where present-day Tonya and Jeff, as well as other characters are giving their accounts of what happened and it's not totally clear who was involved and at what level. 

The movie as a whole is very self aware and is paired with narration and testimony from Tonya, from Jeff, from her mother, from all these other characters providing a cast of unreliable story tellers. 

The focus is less on totally determining the people behind the assault, and more focusing on the life of this uniquely talented woman born in the wrong neighborhood, and raised in the wrong family for the talent that she had. 

I think some of the best comparisons I can draw in this movie is that the toxic relationships happening in white working class environments remind you of something out of a Stephen King horror story. I think there's something about the real-ness of the ways in which people can inflict trauma on one another that is both spooky and real to us that you are able to see in Stephen King novels and I, Tonya taps into that. It's not a horror movie by any means, but it has that uneasiness about it paired with dark comedy. 

I think the other comparison would be the ways in which this movie reminds me of something like Fargo where its focusing on true crime in unorthodox places. The culture of figure skating is not what you'd expect to be in the center of assault charges and conspiracy, but it some how manages to be in a super interesting way. 

It should go without saying that the performances in this movie are very good. I have yet to find a performance from Margot Robbie that I disliked and the rest of the cast is right there with her. Sebastian Stan draws a really weird line of being an absolute scumbag and someone you relate to, and there's a reason Allison Janey won an Oscar for this performance because she's just a weird but compelling character throughout. 

I've seen some criticisms that the movie paints Harding as a victim and doesn't exactly tell a whole lot of truth in the film. While I understand that criticism, I would say that the movie disclaims at the beginning that the narrators of this film are unreliable and contradictory. If you're going into this movie to gain all the facts of the case, this is not going to be an objective story at all. 

But I would argue that's not really the point. I would imagine there's a podcast out there about the facts of the case. But I, Tonya provides a real unsettling, uniquely told dark comedy on a person I didn't know too much about. 

I became interested in this film when a podcaster said that that this was a movie he has watched multiple times and he loved it a lot. Everyone has their preferences so I'm not bashing him, I guess I'd be interested to see how this movie holds up a second time, especially considering I wasn't particularly interested in the topic before I saw the movie and still am not super interested in after seeing it. 

It's a good movie, no doubt about it. I just don't know how interested I am in watching it again. I know that the first time I saw it I really enjoyed it and I kind of forgot about it until I needed to finish this review. 

But you will have to let me know what you think. Overall, I really liked I, Tonya and would say that it's a pretty easy movie to pick up and watch almost casually. I will give credit where its due, a lot of movies that are going for awards feel like events for me and I just want something casual to watch. I, Tonya is like watching a really good, and funny, episode of a true crime show. Great performances from the actors involved and a great example of unreliable narrators telling an interesting story. 

Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog. 

Thanks for reading!

Bodyguard

So I'm only getting to Bodyguard now because while it looked interesting when it first came out, I heard some pretty mediocre reviews of it. With Netflix its kind of a waiting game for me to determine if a series is really worth checking out or just something to waste time on a weekend. Bodyguard honestly is somewhere in between. 

Bodyguard follows the story of David Budd (played by Richard Madden), a Sergeant in the London

Police Protective Services and a war veteran. After an act of heroism, he is assigned on the protective detail (think secret service) of Great Britain's Home Secretary Julia Montague (played by Keeley Hawes).

The relationship between the two begins tense and is only exacerbated by Montague's hard line on counter-terrorism and borderline surveilance state policies becoming very personal to David's personal troubles coping with his military experience. On face value, the premise is an interesting look at the dichotomy between David's professional committments versus is own personal opinions of Montague's policies. But like most of these Homeland/24/Jack Ryan-like shows, the plot unravels a huge conspiracy with leaks, terrorists, and political intrigue. 

Right off the bat, there was something a little weird about Bodyguard. I was interested on how you make a character like David Budd, the attractive strong jawed white male government agent action hero, interesting as he's been done a million times before. Bodyguard really emphasises the fact that he's clearly got PTSD and he's not all there, but the reality is, he doesn't have much of a personality right off the bat. 

To give some credit to the show's first episode, the first 15 minutes are pretty great as David finds a

suicide bomber on a train he's on with his kids. He's able to build rapport with the bomber, talk her out of it, and save everyone on board. It's intense, but it's also contrary to the typical national security storylines where everything is dealt with gun play. The exchange in the start of the show made me think there was something deeper to this character and I'll give all the credit to Richard Madden for nailing this first segment. 

The problems come later when he's actually doing his protective detail job and beyond because all that personality and charm goes out the window when he's supposed to be this stoic almost robotic figure. Seriously when he's on the job, I akin him to Arnold Schwartzenegger in the Terminator movies. He's very professional, he's looking for these potential threats and all you have to do is add a red tinted robot view scanning for threats to complete the package. But then this is also offset by moments where he's supposed to come off as unhinged and dealing with his PTSD. 

Again, there was something you could have done with this where you really leverage this professional who's really good at his job with the unhinged war torn Veteran trying to come to grips with his lacking faith in his country. But the show didn't do that. It wanted to keep the likeable duty bound action hero in tact for future seasons and you can do two of the three, but not all three. 

My difficult relationship with this show is made more difficult by how the show largely is two in one with the first half examining that character study of a war torn veteran divided by his duty and his personal beliefs in the first half then a conspiracy in the second half. All of that comes down to Keeley Hawes as Julia Montague. 

Thinking about it now, Hawes is definitely the best part of the show. While David Budd could have been a complex character, Julia Montague is incredibly complex and you're never really sure where she stands and if she's using people for her own political benefit or if she's sincere. 

The first half of the season mainly focuses on dichotomy between Budd and Montague, and while I wish that could have been fleshed out more throughout the entire season, I do think it is good. 

My issues comes more in the second half of the season where they start to dive more into the conspiracy going on behind the scenes. This is where the show starts to feel a little bit more like a typical 24/Jack Ryan type show with terrorists, criminal elements, government plots, etc, all coming to a finale that is fine, but nothing that hasn't been done before. Any kind of question of David Budd's mental state or loyalty goes out the window and it just becomes action hero versus the bad guys. Again, not bad, it just didn't fit with the rest of the narrative that was provided prior. 

And again, it's just kind of weird. Maybe it's a British thing, but the style of the show feels too artsy for what it ended up accomplishing. The show at the end of the day doesn't feel like its saying much but it does have random artistic choices that don't feel consistent. If they wanted to do a straight up British version of Jack Ryan, okay, do that. But don't throw in these artsy angles and try to cram deep ideas into it. Accept what you are, or try to be what you want to be.

The show is only 6 episodes and I don't think it allowed plot points to really marinate very much. The last two episodes feel very bloated and while it's interesting, it feels overly convoluted in a way to get to a suspenseful conclusion and again, all the complex ideas presented in the first half go out the window. 

At the end of the day, I can sort of see what Bodyguard might have been trying to accomplish. The characters are performed well even though they're not written to the conclusions they set up. The plot starts off as complex but ultimately reverts back to the same old same old. And the style, while unique, doesn't fit with the end, somewhat shallow, result. At the end of the day you end up with another suspenseful action drama that you might get with a 24 or Jack Ryan, just British. Which is fine. If you're like me and need an injection of action in your life, Bodyguard might be for you. There's some intense scenes, ridiculous conspiracies, and fun intrigue, but you're not gonna get much beyond that. 

It's not particularly deep or saying anything of note. I have heard that it's been confirmed for a second season and I am pretty apathetic to that idea. I don't see myself watching it immediately after it releases and it'll probably end up being the same situation I did with the first season, it'll be something I check out when the hype is over. It wasn't a complete waste, just nothing more than something to fill up a weekend. 

But those are my thoughts on Bodyguard? What did you think? Do you think they can up the ante with the second season? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as requests for films and TV shows I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog. 

Thanks for reading!

VEEP (Seasons 5-7)

So I think I knew that VEEP eventually evolved beyond a show about the first female Vice President of the United States and she would, in one way or another eventually be the actual President, I guess I just didn't know how it was going to end and I will say, the last three seasons of VEEP really don't go any which way you think they're going to go. With very few exceptions, the show continues to shake up the fate of the characters, the premise, and just the stakes to the point that even though the finale kind of came out of nowhere for me (I'll talk about Season 7 in a little bit more in depth later), it built up so well that the ending felt perfectly landed. 

My first review was of the first four seasons of VEEP, this one will conclude my thoughts on the series as a whole giving my honest opinion of what I liked, what I didn't, and why. 

Much of the fourth season was Selina Meyer (played by Julia Louis Dreyfus) adjusting to the role of President while running to legitimize herself as an elected President. Season 5 picks up after the election is a tie and there needs to be a tie breaker vote in the House of Representatives. 

I think the draw of Season 5 is this is where she really starts to take the gloves off. The show is by no means a rosy picture of politics, but Season 5 is where VEEP distinguishes itself as a dark comedy, not just a ridiculous satire. There are a lot of moments that are funny, but ultimately very dark. It's also where things start to go off the rails a little bit, but in a good way. Some unthinkable things start to happen and it's really, really entertaining. 

I will say a theme among all three of these seasons with maybe the exception of Season 7 is the idea that while Seasons 1-4 were largely this cast of characters failing upwards, Seasons 5 and 6 definitely feel like they're just failing. 

Vox did a review of Season 6 where they essentially say its a smaller, meaner version of the previous seasons and I would agree with that. 

Without getting into too many spoilers. Season 6 is all about cementing a legacy but it also just feels a little smaller. With that being said, Season 6 arguably has some of the best performances from Julia Louis Dreyfus and explores some elements of DC politics that aren't as out front. 

There is an episode where she's doing a lot of back door dealing with a Qataris Prince (played by Usman Ally) which is a lot of fun. There are a couple episodes where you dive into Selina's backstory and why she is the way she is. 

I think of the three seasons I'm examining, Season 6 is definitely the weaker of the seasons because it lacks the clearest goal and feels more meandering than the other two. The 

Season 7 on the other hand is where things get realigned and it comes crashing towards a really brutal but hilarious end. 

While Season 6 was probably the season that took me the longest to get through, likely finishing it in two weeks, Season 7 I blew through in two days. 

Everyone is alligned towards the goal of the 2020 (I think) election and while the fast pace of the season might be due to the fact that it has less episodes, it is just a lot of fun. 

Part of the appeal of this show is the applications of these specific character types in a slew of situations. I mentioned in the previous review that Jonah Ryan (played by Timothy Simmons) is easily my favorite character in the show and he only continues to be the horrible person he is, but they expand him more and more as he goes along. The same goes for the other characters. Reid Scott plays Dan Egan and he shows the side of Cable News and how they cover politics. Anna Chlumsky continues to play the uptight campaign manager type who is toxically loyal to Selina despite being being treated horribly. 

A really great element of the show is how nothing is done on accident and everything almost certainly comes back around. Even little details have their impacts and it gets baked in with Arrested Development style in-humor. The show only gets more absurd but in a way that isn't really that absurd in relation to the world of politics. It's a brilliantly smart show and I was laughing in almost every episode, even the ones I didn't really like or remember that well. 

I mentioned this a little bit already, but I think the characters of the show get a little bit old when it feels like they're meandering back into similar situations they've been in in the past. 

At many points in these seasons, they're scattered doing different things, working different jobs in a way to show how incestuous life on the beltway can be, but I think these characters are funnier when they're together. 

My issue is more that these characters are mostly caricatures showing different aspects of the DC life. They're funny, but when they meander into the same scenarios over and over and over again with no change, it does feel a little repetetive. A good example is Selina's daughter Catherine (played by Sarah Sutherland). She's a really funny character and she sort of changes, but there seemed to be a couple of points that should have just cut the ties between Selina and her family and that never really happens. It's only exacerbated by the meandering moments and I think if they had done away with Season 6, or paired it down to be the first half of Season 7, it would have felt just a tad more succinct. 

On a side note, Sam Richardson is a delight in this show because he's one of the only characters who is legitimately a good person and they do his character so much justice that it's hilarious. 

The truth is, any "criticisms" I have of this show are pretty minor considering that it is a hilariously poignant show. There are hopeful shows about politics and then there are dark shows about Politics. If House of Cards is the dark dreary version of the West Wing, then VEEP is the dark dreary, and more popular version of Spin City. 

I do definitely recommend it if you haven't checked it out. For how much it feels like an HBO show, it is an easy watch. One criticism I have of HBO is that their shows, while great in quality, often feel very dense and not easy to watch unless you're totally invested. VEEP manages to be somewhere in between HBO deep and a casual watch. Obviously if you're totally invested you're going to pick up on the in jokes and facial reactions, but you can gather what's going on and really enjoy the wacky ride these truly horrible people are on. 

But those are my thoughts on VEEP (season 5-7). What did you think? What seasons of VEEP do you prefer? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films and TV shows I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog. 

Thanks for Reading!