'Jojo Rabbit' is joyous considering its bleak subject matter

Director Taika Waititi makes disarmingly charming movies. He's great at directing children (Hunt for the Wilderpeople) and marquee movie stars (Thor: Rangarok) , he can do big scale and small scale. There's a bit of Wes Anderson in him, but his humor is more universal even if he's channeling a droll New England sensibility.

Still, he is not someone who I'd expect to make a feel-good inspirational comedy about a Nazi youth learning to reject hate and embrace love.

Jojo Rabbit isn't as corny as that description sounds -- in part because it has enough darkness and hilarious moments to even get bogged down in sentimentality -- but it is a strangely old fashioned life affirming film amid an era of more cynical fare like Joker.

Clearly, its relatively sunny disposition has rubbed some critics the wrong way, and I must admit being wary myself about humanizing any Nazis right now, even if they are a remarkably charismatic child. But then I saw the movie, and much like I did with the aforementioned Joker, I thought the movie is being incredibly underrated.

It's devilishly funny from the very start with the child actors hitting home runs across the board, with Roman Griffin Davis emerging as an overnight star in the title role. It's also undeniably moving, with Scarlett Johansson and Thomasin McKenzie supplying pathos in their powerful supporting performances as the women in Jojo's life.

Waititi himself steals scenes as a kind of fantasy, goofball Hitler. It's a real deft magic trick he pulls off, never diminishing what a horror show the Nazi regime was while also filtering that reality through the perspective of a child.

This movie has been knocked for shying away from the horrors of the era its depicting, but a child in Jojo's position could be blissfully ignorant of all that. You can call that a dodge on the movie's part but I felt that it was simply offering a different more humane perspective on a oft-portrayed subject matter.

If you're looking for a more grounded, harrowing portrait of this era, I'd recommend the devastating multi-part documentary Shoah, which recounts in great detail the crimes of the Holocaust, and is an overwhelming emotional viewing experience in its own way. I don't know that this film, Jojo Rabbit, would have been better had it done darker than it does.

I also don't think it's naive or simplistic. I personally think there's great value is presenting the absurdity of conspiracy fueled racial hatred which is just as potent today as it was then. To hear a child espouse claims (which Nazis really made) that Jews have horns and tails, is laughable but also compelling because the film makes it clear that adults also embraced this kind of thinking, which suddenly makes it far more disturbing and insidious.

This film, for me, occupies the same space as The Death of Stalin did, with much less cynicism. But it's basically an outsider's riff on an era we've all seen explored many many times but not in this irreverent way. And it's comedy may not be for everyone -- it does conveniently take place during the last months of the war, so we're spared a lot of unpleasantness. And, the fact that Jews are only represented by one character in this movie is not ideal. But, I laughed, I cried a little and I left this movie with more appreciation for life, which is no small feat for a mainstream comedy like this.

There are movies I loved more this year, but I still think Jojo Rabbit deserves to be in the awards conversation alongside the likes of Parasite and The Irishman.