Taika Waititi: Sympathetic Weirdo or Egotistical Fascist Apologist?  

Taika Waititi the creative driving force behind such irreverent films as Eagle vs Shark, What We Do In The Shadows, and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, not to mention his Marvel tentpoles Thor: Ragnarok and Love and Thunder as well as his series for What We Do in the Shadows and the following Our Flag Means Death, Time Bandits and his production credit in Reservation Dogs. 4 Years ago, following his win for Best Adapted Screenplay for Jojo Rabbit, which he also directed, he was was considered one of the freshest voices working in mainstream entertainment, however I feel his career has has become mired and stuck in the potential for what he could do, not to mention that there seems to have been some general public fatigue for his intense need to put himself in the cast of nearly everything he does, not to mention gilding the lily of everything he touches with his particular brand of humor. You simply couldn't avoid him and for a period of time he was considered a darling amongst more progressive entertainment seekers for his direct connection to indigenous representation, becoming a poster boy for indigenous causes the world over. All that being said I feel like I've seen through the cracks in his carefully crafted persona, at least enough so that I think his career and work is deserving of a fair audit to perhaps see beyond the quippy dialogue through to a more self serious and indulgent creator who has wrapped their vanity in a disarming silliness.

I think Hunt for the Wilderpeople and What We Do In the Shadows are great movies, but I'll just come out and say this off the top: I think Jojo Rabbit is a bad movie. Not just in the sense that I don't enjoy it, which I don't, but I think that it fails to have any real teeth in relation to the subject matter it's trying to chew, and in doing so drastically undercuts the tragic realities of the ideas its trying to satirize. It's trying to send up the self seriousness of the Nazis through the eyes of a child being indoctrinated, but it doesn't really have anything more meaningful to say than being wouldn't it be crazy if Hitler was silly and oh yeah love is better than hate? It felt to me that that's simply why Taika made the movie; because he wanted an excuse to dress up as Hitler and act like a goof. Ok sure that's probably not the only reason, but it sure didn't speak to me on any deeper level. Despite Sam Rockwell's quality portrayal as a sympathetic Nazi…do we really need to start sympathizing Nazis? I'm not saying that something like Jojo Rabbit couldn't work I'm saying that it is not executed with the level of deft taste that I think is required to make a story like this actually succeed in a way that makes it important. I sure as shit don't think it should have won best adapted screenplay, especially when it was stacked up against The Irishman, Little Women, The Two Popes and, to perfectly segue into my next point, Joker. Jojo Rabbit is the Joker of holocaust movies: looks good, has great performances, but ultimately it handles its themes with all the nuance of a tenth grade edge-lord with a full dose of Adderall in him. Joker sucks, but at least it's fault is not taking mental illness serious enough instead of making Hitler look like Bugs Bunny for a laugh.

The novel that Jojo Rabbit is based on Caging Skies, by Christine Leunens is considered to be, not a comedy, but a slog through the indoctrination process of becoming a Nazi and the brutal fallout of trying to heal from that mental trauma. In the movie Jojo (Johannes) is portrayed as a sweet kid who grows up surrounded by the regime and just sort of accepts it, leading to imaginary romps with Waititi's goofy ass Hitler as his best buddy . In the novel Johannes is indoctrinated, he goes to war, is brutally injured and returns home to live with his parents. In the movie Jojo discovers Elsa, a young Jewish refugee, hiding in his house and over the course of the story learns to break away from his fascist brainwashing because his love and care for her is more powerful than the hate of the regime, oh yeah and the Nazi's kill his mother so he's emotionally fucked up enough to make this leap to goodness. In the Novel Johannes, finds Elsa and develops a sexual attraction to her and begins mentally manipulating her. Both his parents die before the end of the war, and once the war does end - Johannes, despite having mostly reformed his Nazi ways, doesn't tell Elsa that it's over, instead keeping her in hiding as his prisoner for 10 more years!?

What kind of ninny reads that book and decides to re-make it as a black comedy where Hitler, not portrayed at all in the novel, is a cartoon character, acted by the writer director himself? Hmm? Maybe the same kind of guy who'd aggressively market himself as a benchmark of indigenous identity in mainstream media, but who would also still instantly sign the open No Hostage Left Behind Letter (google Reverse Canary Taika Waititi for details), following Hamas' attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. During press for Jojo Rabbit Waititi was very up and front claiming himself to be a Polynesian Jew and that he had Hebrew blood coursing through his veins, so it made it ok for him to write and direct something like Jojo Rabbit. So given his darling status and presumably to keep his paperwork right with the powers that be in entertainment, he had no choice but to sign the letter? I'm being generous. Now 2 years later when there's clearly a genocide of indigenous people in Gaza it seems pretty hypocritical to get to gain positive public acclaim for producing an indigenous centered show like Reservation Dogs. Sure there's an argument to be made that signing that letter doesn't endorse the events of the past 3 years but if Taika is really as nuanced as he likes to pretend he is then he should have, at least by now, rescinded his support of that letter - which is bold faced Israeli propaganda that only enables Western support for Israel's crimes and lies, not to mention further bloodshed. And if Taika doesn't have the nuance or mental capabilities to differentiate between true antisemitism and anger at a murderous Zionist state, then I don't really think he has any business writing and receiving credit for a holocaust satire. It's enough to make the plot of a Mel Brooks movie.

Then there's this weird matter of his relationships. Taika was in a relationship with Loren Taylor (previously Horsley), no citation available for dates, with whom he co-wrote wrote and directed in the 2007 film Eagle vs Shark, co-starring Jemaine Clement. The details of their separation are generally unreported on. Following this in 2010 Taika met producer Chelsea Winstanley, who is known for producing films and documentaries celebrating indigenous peoples. She is also the producer of What We Do in the Shadows and Jojo Rabbit and weirdly not Hunt for the Wilderpeople. They were married and their daughters were born in 2012 and 2015 respectively, right before Taika would go on his undisputed hot run. They would divorce in 2018, right before the release of the Jojo Rabbit, with Chelsea still producing. Following this Taika won his Oscar and started making his, quite frankly, insane and inane follow up to his massive success with Thor Ragnarok; Love and Thunder. I've never seen a kids movie so drenched in cocaine and ideas that clearly had zero guard rails. That thing is a fucking mess. In the midst of this Taika met and started dating British pop-star Rita Ora, who he would eventually marry in 2022. In all this I don't think it's a stretch to say that Taika has been opportunistic in his relationships and - especially in the case of power producer, indigenous certifier and mother of his children in Chelsea Winstanley. The whole metaphor of loving someone but locking them up for 10 years has a lot more weird mojo around it after thinking about that. Of course I'm just speculating.

In an interview with Stuff.co.nz, Winstanley stated:

“I didn't want to be the dutiful wife and race over to the Gold Coast where he [Waititi] was making Thor and sit in an apartment all day long f***ing twiddling my thumb.”

“I mean, lots of other wives do that in other departments and they'll dutifully do that thing. But I couldn't think of anything f***ing worse than to go to the Gold Coast. I'm sorry.”

"And also that would mean I have to take my babies out of kōhanga reo. And that to me was really important. So I said, 'I'm not going to do that, but we'll come over and visit'. That probably was the beginning of the unravelling because I wasn't that pandering, dutiful. Get on my knees and whatever you want. Someone else was, though."

Take that how you want.

Since 2017 Taika has been attached/announced as being part of the following films:

• We're Wolves - A spiritual sequel to What We Do in the Shadows.
• Akira - An adaptation of the seminal graphic novel and groundbreaking anime.
  • Since Canceled. Probably because Love and Thunder crashed and burned.
• Flash Gordon - a live action remake of the classic sci-fi fantasy
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - adapting Roald Dahl's book.
• Untitled Star Wars film - Yawn.
• The Incal - Adapting Alejandro Jodorowsky 's seminal psychedelic graphic novel novel.
• Judge Dredd - Reimagining the character for the 3rd time after Karl Urban and, lol, Stallone's version.

And perhaps the most insidious of them all: an adaptation of Percival Everett's novel James, which is a re-imagining of Mark Twain's; Huckleberry Finn told from the point of view of the runaway slave Jim. I have not read this book, but it certainly sounds like a good idea. Exactly an idea that I think Taika would love to get his hands on to continue to drive this narrative that he's some sort of woke wunderkind. And I don't use woke as a derogatory, more as a way to describe the smokescreen that I think Taika's used for as a methodology to deploy whatever he really feels like doing at the time. Hard work, talent, hustle - I don't discount that all these things are part of his creative's body of tools, but I also can't help but feel like he is disingenuous in much of what he does. His entire career and personality is as wry and smartass as any one of his characters. When I take a deeper look at him I find that this surface level self deprecating, but wholly self indulgent version of a calculated identity to be well… rather sinister. Given his ability to extrapolate absurdist fluff from a novel, Caging Skies, I don't love the idea of what he'd do with something requiring the nuance of reinterpreting one of the world's most famous novels through the eyes of a runaway slave.

In between Jojo Rabbit and Love and Thunder Taika directed an adaptation of the 2014 documentary Next Goal Wins which describes the story of the national football team of American Samoa, a small nation with a bad football team, trying to qualify for the world cup. It stars Michael Fassbender and did co-star Armie Hammer, until the latter had a relatively well publicized meltdown. Hammer's scenes were cut, and the film was Frankenstein'ed into something that didn't come out until 2 years after the relative disappointment of Love and Thunder. It all just speaks to me of what I've come to feel about the director. When something is working for him he'll lean into it whether its relationships, wry send ups of vampires, indigenous issues, holocaust commentary and sci-fi superhero bullshit. But ultimately, when something isn't working for him, benefiting him, he doesn't care what happens to it - he'll just move on to the next thing. At this point he's just a poser who wants a new press conference so he can announce whatever thing he's not gonna make next, while he gets to live it up as an A list celebrity and a creator who's only had diminishing returns for years.

Indigenous stories in film matter. I want to see them. I just don't like the idea that Taika has been reduced to the monolith for this. All resources for such stories being funneled into 1 bankable guy who has repeatedly proven that he's not really trustworthy of the mantle of carrying the global identity of these stories. For every Taika we could realistically have 10 more people like Sterlin Harjo, the true creator and show runner behind Reservation Dogs, telling more stories that actually matter - instead of one chucklehead shoe-horning himself into every version of that story, on screen or not.