By John H. Foote
Jo Jo Rabbit, the subversive, brilliant black comedy, has won the People’s Choice Award at TIFF ending the festival.
This superb film has a Hitler we have never seen before as the imaginary friend of a ten year old Hitler youth, Jo Jo, a zealot in training who blindly follows Der Fuhrer. Giddy, gleeful, playful filled with idiotic energy, this Hitler is hilarious, until the boy realizes what Hitler preaches is wrong. Then the real Adolf exposes himself.
Last year’s People’s Choice winner, Green Book (2018), went on to win an Academy Award as Best Picture. Let’s see if the Academy has the courage to honour this darkly brilliant comedy.
John H. Foote is a well-recognized Canadian film critic/historian who has been an active critic for 30 years. His deep love for the movies began at a very young age. He began his career as co-host of the popular TV show Reel to Real where he remained for nine years. While on TV he began dabbling in education, eventually ascending to Director of the Toronto Film School, where he also taught film history. After leaving the college to care for his wife, he returned to teaching at Humber College where he taught both Film History and Method Acting Theory. John has written two books: “Clint Eastwood – Evolution of a Filmmaker” and the upcoming “Spielberg – American Film Visionary”. He is currently working on two books, one about the films of the seventies and another on the films of Martin Scorsese. Through his career he has worked in TV, radio, print and the web. John has interviewed everyone in the industry (more than 300 interviews) except Jack Nicholson, he says sadly. Highlights include Martin Scorsese, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep Robert Duvall, Jane Fonda, Francis Ford Coppola and Kathryn Bigelow.
