Ford v. Ferrari (3/5 Stars)

Ford v. Ferrari is a pretty good snapshot of all the contradictions of the sport of car racing. The fan base of this sport are red blooded Americans from those parts of the country that are all about less government and more bootstrap. They wear cowboy hats, eat steak, and drive cars, that most singular way to travel. But is there a sport out there that is less beholden to corporate interests? Look at those NASCAR cars. They are covered head to toe with advertisements. No car racer owns his own car. It is the corporation's car. This is because it takes a hell of a lot of money and engineering to build a car that can compete in these races. So much so that it may be a question as to whether the individual driver is all that important. Particularly in long races like the one at issue in this movie, the 24-hour race at Le Mans. No individual racer drives all the race. It is the car that goes the distance. But how do you tell a story about the car to the NASCAR fan base who are highly individualistic. (Were Carol Shelby and Ken Miles really ignorant of the rule that affects the end of this race? I mean, really?)

Ford v. Ferrari is a basic and competent sports story about simple and rebellious protagonists and affluent and beholden antagonists. It works on this basic level and is anchored by a cast of manly men: Matt Damon as coach/car builder Carol Shelby and Christian Bale as the driver Ken Miles get the job done on the ground. In the Ford office are Tracy Letts as Ford CEO Henry Ford II and two of his senior employees Jon Bernthal as Lee Iacocca and Josh Lucas as Leo Beebe. Ferrari is not played by a name actor and actually does not have much to do in this movie. The main conflict is between Lee Iacocca who wants to give our heroes (Damon and Bale) more discretion and Leo Beebe who is mainly interested in marketing. Why can’t our driver be more photogenic, asks Leo, we could totally sell more cars that way? This question becomes the linchpin of the movie. Will the corporation give the renegades enough leeway to succeed? Leo Beebe is portrayed as a scheming pretty boy. Josh Lucas does his smarmy best (I remember him from American Psycho).

Is Ford really an underdog here? It has all the money and talent and a willingness akin to the NFL’s Patriots to undertake courses of action that aren’t technically cheating, but probably should be. Reading between the lines, I got the feeling that Ferrari did not have much of a chance. All Ford needed to do was show up and care. The main impetus for the whole rivalry was the hurt feelings of Henry Ford II after Ferrari used the Ford Company’s interest in acquiring his company to run up the price on the other buyer, Fiat. Lee Iacocca reports this failure back to Henry Ford II and adds that Ferrari called Ford cars ugly and Henry II fat. Henry Ford II gruffly declares that the Le Mans racing team has a blank check. The rest is history. Ford won the next five years. I expect Ford stopped winning because it stopped caring. It made its point and went back to more profitable ventures, like selling cars to regular people. Meanwhile, we are told that Ferrari went bankrupt chasing perfection at Le Mans. There is a female character in this movie, the wife of Ken Miles. She feels out of place in this exorbitant high-stakes pissing contest.

This is one of those movies where I sort of wish there was a less Hollywood version. I would like to know more about the engineering and science of making a car go really fast for a very long time and less about the mystical and intangible qualities of race car drivers. Having said that, Christian Bale once again showcases his superhuman ability to gain/lose weight. Last time I saw him, he had the gut of Dick Cheney. Now, he is thin and wiry again. That talented jerk.

Jojo Rabbit (4/5 Stars)

In 2006, I visited family friends in Uberach, Germany as a prelude to my study abroad in college. During my time there, I happened be introduced to this little old lady that lived in the village. After she had left the general area, for whatever reason, my hosts informed me that she had been in the Hitler Youth and after the war spent her entire life helping refugees escape from the Soviet Union. Her? Yes, that little old lady with the kind eyes had once been a Nazi. I saw “Jojo Rabbit” the new film by Taika Waititi and thought of her.

“Jojo Rabbit” is about a ten-year-old boy in the Hitler Youth. It is a club like the Boy Scouts. The boys are taken out to the woods by camp counselors where they dress in uniforms, learn survival crafts, and sleep in tents. Not like the Boy Scouts they also burn books, are taught how to handle guns and grenades and are counseled in basic cruelty. One day, Jojo is picked out of the crowd and instructed to strangle a rabbit. Poor Jojo can’t bring himself to do it and all the other boys make fun of him. Jojo runs off into the woods where his imaginary friend comforts him. His imaginary friend is Adolf Hitler or, more accurately, what a timid would-be Nazi boy would imagine Adolf Hitler to be like. Hitler here is played by the Writer/Director himself, Taika Waititi, and well, he is zealous but in a goofy way. He's funny.

Apparently, Taika Waititi adapted this screenplay from a novel. It is hard to believe that the novel is anything like the movie in terms of tone. I expect the novel had a boy in the Hitler Youth and that was about where the similarities end. There is just too much here that seems from the same mind as "Flight of the Conchords" and "Thor: Ragnorak". For whatever reason, Waititi thought it would be appropriate for a native of New Zealand like himself to make this movie. Good for him. We need more filmmakers with balls like that in this day and age. I especially approve of his application of white-face to play Hitler.

 “Jojo Rabbit” is as much of a comedy that a movie with this subject matter could be and still be plausibly respectful. The movie has bright colors, gorgeous weather, and colorful characters. Chewing up the scenery in supporting roles are Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson and Stephen Merchant, three inspired casting choices for comic Nazis. Scarlett Johannsson plays Jojo’s mother, Rosie. Thomasin McKenzie plays the jew who is hiding in the walls of the house. Jojo’s discovery of the jew, the first one he has ever actually met, kicks off the movie’s second half.

A storytelling technique that Waititi deftly employs is to limit the information about the war. The audience basically know as much as Jojo and it is only gradually revealed that the Nazis are losing and have been losing from the start of the movie. (One of the reasons that the kids are being taught how to handle weapons has to do with Hitler’s late war plan of using children in the fighting.) The movie takes place between the lines. We understand Jojo is not evil because he is ten-years-old and barely knows what is happening around him. But what about his mother? What does she believe? Has she allowed Jojo to take part in the Hitler Youth to protect him, to protect herself, or what? What about the other Nazis? They seem to know at some point that the war is unwinnable. Their choices in the face of that situation are never boring. Because Jojo’s understanding is somewhat limited, our understanding is limited to, and in that way “Jojo Rabbit” may be very good movie to see twice.

I am amazed again at the acting chops of a child actor. Jojo is played by Roman Griff Davis. This is that kid's first major role in anything (although he does come from a family in the movie business). He couldn’t be any cuter. Almost by default is is heart-rending/warming to see a kid like that go through the Huck Finn transformation in which a good heart ultimately triumphs over the evil indoctrination. This development necessarily pits Jojo against his imaginary friend Adolf. The climatic scene is unfortunately too short, I felt, and my one disappointment.

 Taika Waititi has cemented himself in my mind as one of the more interesting storytellers around. I expect I expect I will try to see all of his work going forward and look up everything I missed in the past.