JOJO RABBIT (Cert 12, 108 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Comedy/Drama/War, available from April 27 on Amazon Prime Video/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, available from May 11 on DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £21.99) Starring: Roman Griffin Davis, Taika Waititi, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Thomasin McKenzie, Alfie Allen, Rebel Wilson, Archie Yates.
TEN-year-old Johannes Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis) lives in Nazi Germany with his mother (Scarlett Johansson).
The youngster is an enthusiastic member of the Hitler Youth and undergoes training with best friend Yorki (Archie Yates) at a camp run by Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell), his second-in-command Finkel (Alfie Allen) and Fraulein Rahm (Rebel Wilson).
Returning home one day, Jojo discovers a Jewish girl called Elsa Korr (Thomasin McKenzie) hiding in a crawl space adjoining the bedroom of his late sister.
The boy intends to notify authorities but Elsa points out that Jojo's mother would be executed for harbouring a Jew.
Jojo turns to his imaginary best friend, Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi), to decide the best course of action.
Adapted from Christine Leunens's novel Caging Skies, Jojo Rabbit is a daring comedy drama, which navigates some tricky and delicate changes in pacing and tone including an unexpected sucker punch to convey one character's fate.
London-born actor Davis beautifully captures the naivete of an impressionable tyke on a challenging and morally complex journey of self-discovery.
New Zealand writer, director and star Taika Waititi confidently walks a tightrope between heartbreak and hilarity, employing his quirky brand of humour to witness the rise of fascism and its devastating consequences.
His pointedly outlandish portrayal of Hitler as a bile-spewing buffoon – as imagined by a boy who has never met the leader in person – has the power to offend some viewers.
However, the satire and sentimentality of Waititi's vision affirms the enduring strength of love to light a path through the darkness.
9/10
:: AFTER LIFE SEASON 2 (6 episodes, streaming and available to download from today exclusively on Netflix, Comedy)
RICKY Gervais reprises his role as everyman Tony in the self-penned six-part Netflix comedy drama, which tackles bereavement and mental well-being from a blackly humorous perspective.
Set in the fictional town of Tambury, the first series charted Tony's response to the death of his wife Lisa (Kerry Godliman) from cancer and his reliance on his father (David Bradley), brother-in-law Matt (Tom Basden) and best friend Lenny (Tony Way) to clamber out of a pit of despair.
In these six instalments, Tony's job as a writer for the local newspaper is at risk when the publication faces closure.
The prospect of unemployment clouds Tony's efforts to be a better man and friend to those around him.
He focuses his efforts on a local amateur dramatic performance to raise the community's spirits.
:: CODE 404 (Six episodes, streaming from April 29 exclusively on NOW TV, Comedy/Drama/Romance)
THE future of policing rests with state-of-the-art technology in a six-part Sky One comedy written by Daniel Peak, which streams exclusively on NOW TV.
In the near future, best friends John Major (Daniel Mays) and Roy Carver (Stephen Graham) are Detective Inspectors working for the Metropolitan Police's Special Investigation Unit (SIU).
They are involved in an undercover sting that goes horribly wrong and in the ensuing melee, Major is gunned down and killed.
The future of the SIU hangs in the balance until top brass green lights an experimental artificial intelligence project to reanimate Major's lifeless body.
This risky reboot restores all of Major's arrogance but his crime-fighting instincts are dangerously absent.
Meanwhile, Carver is riddled with guilt about the loss of his partner.
In the midst of grief, he turns to Major's wife Kelly (Anna Maxwell Martin) for emotional support.
They are stunned by the arrival of Major 2.0 and face tough choices to teach the artificial intelligence how to become a better police officer and man.
