Articles + Quotes on Film & TV

Back in 1843, almost two hundred years ago, Charles Dickens wrote and had published a book named A Christmas carol. Like his other works, it opened the eyes of its readers to the plight of the poor, the downtrodden, disenfranchised, elderly, sick and oppressed. While Victorian England was the age in which many good works were done to alleviate people's suffering, there was a lot of suffering for all those who weren't privileged to own property or vote. Selling out overnight, it forever established its story of how we view Christmas, with the snow and holly (regardless of which hemisphere we live in) and the characters of Scrooge and Tiny Tim, along with their famous phrases: 'Humbug!' and 'God bless us everyone.' It is a joyous tale, with redemption, love, family and friendship. Fast forward to 2019 and we now have a three part adaptation of the tale, created by Steven Knight, with Guy Pearce as the main character. Very much a no frills edition, this

I saw this film last week and I am still thinking about it. A good film should keep you wondering about the subject matter and this was a great film. Taika Waititi has done this before, made the child the protagonist in his films and explored on a deep level the experiences that can make us stumble as adults and somehow make us laugh at the same time. In this film, the protagonist is a ten year old in Nazi Germany. Like others, he has become deeply committed to the third reich and his imaginary friend is Hitler himself (portrayed here too by Mr Waititi - the Hitler imagined by a ten year old is a new one) but finds himself questioning the ideals pressed on him when he discovers a young Jewish girl hiding in his attic. Mr Waititi, pulling off the ultimate double hat trick as director, writer and actor. He strikes the rare and perfect balance at finding the farce in the lunacy of the Nazi regime and the heartbreak of the realities of what war does, to the community and to people.