Jojo Rabbit (12A)

Oscar season invariably brings out the meaningful and the worthy as the world's weightier subjects are slung at the big screen. 

Or, adaptations of the classics are foisted on a new audience with the aim of spreading the word and gathering a few gongs.

Or there's Jojo Rabbit.

Giving a weighty subject (Nazis) a lighter touch, writer/director Taika Waititi has adapted Christine Leunens's book Caging Skies into one of the most joyful, touching, heart warming, tense, horrific films you're ever likely to see.

Set in Germany at the tail-end of the war, good little Nazi boy Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) is forced to question all he knows to be true when he discovers his mother has been hiding a Jewish girl in the house.

Coming at a time when hatred and division are riding roughshod across the land, Rabbit takes us by the hand and shows us a better way.

With lush, warm tones washing over us, Waititi treads his fine line perfectly — capturing the horror of war and the Nazi movement while also getting is to laugh at the absurdity of extremist dogma.

Which, admittedly, does sound a bit heavy.

But thanks to some genius casting and Waititi's deft touch, what you have is a film that will have you laughing out loud seconds after you've been sitting upright holding your breath.

Central to the magic is young Roman.

Putting an entire film on such young shoulders is a brave move, but he owns this film from the off and holds his own alongside Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell and Waititi himself.

Matching him step for goose step is the amazing Thomasin McKenzie as Elsa, the girl hidden upstairs who turns Jojo's world view upside down.

The two young stars you give us characters we love and care about from the opening scenes, adding immense emotional depth to the seemingly frivolous story telling.

Johansson and Rockwell are also on form, delivering vastly different performances (Jojo's mother and an oddball army captain) with a subtlety and grace that allows the two young stars to shine.

Of course, you can't talk about the film without mentioning Adolf (as he's credited on IMDB), Jojo's imaginary friend and leader of Nazi Germany.

Played by Waititi himself, he's given enough comic touches to help you laugh at him while also giving space for the hatred and madness to surface.

As well as making us laugh out loud at times, this also allows us to frame Jojo's world view and see that while his views are abhorrent it's the lies he's been fed that have shaped them.

This is further emphasised when Stephen Merchant and his team of Gestapo officers turn up, further blending drama and comedy so seamlessly that if Waititi was to do a remake of ’Allo ’Allo we'd probably organise a street party in celebration.

There are moments within this film where you are holding your breath, there's one moment that will have you in tears, but there are so many others that will make you smile and laugh you can't help but fall in love with this film.

A water-tight script and a cast on top of their game (only Rebel Wilson falls short) and a vibe reminiscent of The Grand Budapest Hotel, this is a film that is essential viewing.

A member of The Church Of Wittertainment write in to the show and drew comparisons with the classic children's novel The Machine Gunners — and having now seen the film, we have to agree.

In both we see hatred and racism through a child's eyes, and see such views challenged by actual interaction with “the enemy”.

And in both cases we get to laugh and learn a lot while also feeling the impact such views have on the world.