Spoiler alert – Jojo Rabbit is all about learning to tie your own shoelaces.

The simplest of repeated motifs provides the narrative thread that holds together a remarkable film that surely cements Taika Waititi as one of the most talented artists working in modern cinema, as a director and as an actor. The audience’s applause at the end of last night’s premiere was a spontaneous salute to an artist at the top of his game.

His deft touch as a director is clear in the remarkable performances he coaxes from his young leads, Roman Griffin Davis (Jojo) and Thomasin McKenzie, as the young Jewish girl hiding in the attic of fervent young Nazi Jojo. And his increasingly unhinged Adolf Hitler – Jojo’s imaginary friend – shifts from comic to terrifying as the war gets closer and closer.

Just as Tarantino’s Django Unchained portrayed almost in passing the brutal day-to-day reality of slavery, Jojo Rabbit plays out against a backdrop of the brutal reality of life under fascism and of life during wartime. There’s humour, sure – it is Taika after all – but there are more dark moments than light, and anyone fearing that the film would minimise the legacy of Nazism can be reassured that is not the case. This is not Hogan’s Heroes.

There’s some definite Oscar material in the performances of the whole cast. Scarlett Johansson as Jojo’s mother is glamorous and enigmatic; Sam Rockwell as a burnt-out former frontline commander is equal parts ridiculous and sad, and Rebel Wilson’s character is both the funniest and scariest of all.

Jojo Rabbit has layer on layer of complexity that will definitely reward repeat viewing. Like all great cinema, it stays with you long after the credits have rolled. See it sooner rather than later so you have time to see it again. And again.

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