Writer-director Camille Griffin’s debut feature film “Silent Night” effectively blends two seemingly disparate genres — holiday films and impending apocalyptic cinema. Both high-pressure situations that get you thinking about what really matters, Griffin’s film navigates difficult family and friend dynamics with mordant humor as they face the end of the world together on Christmas Eve. While the film works best when it’s satirizing ensemble holiday films a la “Love Actually,” it’s not afraid to go bleak as impending doom creeps ever closer.

Continue reading ‘Silent Night’: Keira Knightley & Co. Blend The Holiday Film With The End Of The World Genre [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

Taika Waititi’s self-proclaimed “anti-hate satire” “Jojo Rabbit” exists in service of a single idea, a notion so desperately idealistic that it lands somewhere between naïveté and disingenuousness. The film takes place during the waning months of the Second World War, in the German hometown of the sensitive, creative boy, Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis). Despite his timid nature, he’s an enthusiastic member of the Deutsches Jungvolk, the youngest sector of the Hitler Youth.

Continue reading ‘Jojo Rabbit’: Taika Waititi’s “Not-All-Nazis” Satire Is Naively Idealistic [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

With today’s announcement that Taika Waititi’s “Jojo Rabbit” will have its debut at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, the filmmaker decided it would be the appropriate time to release a teaser for his highly-anticipated World War II comedy featuring himself as Adolf Hitler.

That’s right, a WWII comedy with Waititi playing Hitler. And before you recoil in fear, as you might when you hear that idea, don’t worry.

Continue reading ‘Jojo Rabbit’ Teaser: “Visionistical” Director Taika Waititi Unveils The First Footage For His “Anti-Hate” Satire at The Playlist.