A genre of film that I find fascinating is that of the unconventional narrator; more specifically, films from the perspective of someone we don’t normally take the position of. The inner world of the child is one that is hard to accurately capture, yet greatly effective in presenting dark themes for the viewer to contemplate. Two films that show this contrast of innocence with tragic reality are JoJo Rabbit by Taika Waititi and The Florida Project by Sean Baker. Each plays with the adventurous and imaginative worlds of children as they face the brutal realities of the Holocaust and extreme poverty respectively.
The Florida Project follows six-year-old girl, Moonee (Brooklyn Prince) as she experiences childhood in a motel meant for Disney World goers that serves as homes for many impoverished families. The film approaches childhood with extreme realism, with little music or extravagance to take you away from the characters. Even with the bright backdrop of a purple motel, we can see our own childhoods in Moonee’s and closely feel the hardships she encounters. Childhood is wonderous naturally, so without the idealisation of it, we are able to explore the grit and harsh circumstances more intimately. Specifically, scenes of Moonee experiencing the efforts her mother Halley (Bria Vinaite) makes in order to pay rent each month. These challenges are attempted to be hidden from the child’s understanding until it becomes more difficult and more desperate, and inevitably the child’s world is infected with devastating realities.
We also see into the life of the motel’s manager Bobby (Willem Dafoe), as his motivations lend generously to giving the kids of the motel a decent childhood. He acts with understanding toward the unjust situation despite still having boundaries to contend with. While the children present a childish sense of hope, things as simple as being able to get ice cream, Bobby lends his perspective to give the audience real hope, that someone is there to look out for those living unjust circumstances. He has a similar role to that of Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) in JoJo Rabbit.
In contrast to the realism of The Florida Project, JoJo Rabbit heightens the whimsical, colourful and adventurous aspects of childhood to show the terrors that can interrupt this world. JoJo (Roman Griffin Davis), an eleven-year-old-boy, joins a camp run by the Nazi party during the second world war. He passionately agrees with their plight against Jewish people and has an imaginary friend who takes the form of Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi). This is starkly different to The Florida Project as we see the inner world of the child, how they experience it or wish it to seem, rather than how it appears from the outside. JoJo guides the story as he makes friends with a Jewish girl, Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) hiding in his house.
Waititi takes us on a journey through the lens of JoJo, as he implies a childish, ridiculousness to the war. This is comedically played in order to present the atrocities committed as only understandable by a compromised narrator. Jojo’s mother Rosie acts similar to Bobby, opposing this childish perspective to a true hopeful one where happiness and wonder can persist without the norms we are accustomed to. She protects Elsa, and acts as a source of childhood protection for JoJo as she aims to retain dancing and whimsy in their lives. She does this by not shying away from the evil that is happening, such as making JoJo look at executed people on the street to make him stronger in the face of adversity, and appreciate whimsy more.
Each film deals with incredibly dark themes, and exploring these are made more tragic from the child’s perspective. The unjust actions of adults are deconstructed to their simplest form as the children replicate those actions without concern for nuance. For example, Moonee swears and doesn’t respect authority as she has seen her mother do; JoJo consistently speaks hatefully towards Jewish people. In both cases they do so without a true understanding of the weight these actions carry, highlighting the fundamental evil, and injustice these actions truly have, as the children do not have the autonomy over their childhood to correct these evils. Yet the adults who do make these decisions, have a choice. By simply lowering the camera angle and focusing on the more vibrant aspects of the world, film can precisely show us how evil our world truly is, and how hope is all we can rely on.
“Jojo Rabbit 01 (48810532492)” by GabboT is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.