Low laying sunlight spilt into my apartment window as if to call to my simmering hangover just to ruin my day. So it came with a whisk of spontaneity that my partner and I began watching the film 'Look Who's Back' whilst scrolling through Netflix on a rather lazy Saturday afternoon. We searched for something quirky and different as we both had become tired of predictable plotlines that hit every major storytelling beat without thinking. And with this mentality we settled on a film about everyone's favourite historical villain: Adolf Hitler.
'Look Who's Back' directed by David Wnendt is a comedy that revolves around Hitler coming back in the year 2014. The premise is as straightforward as it possibly could be, yet the execution clearly was more complicated. As typically in fiction Hitler is portrayed as one of the two extremes of either oafish or entirely evil whereas 'Look Who's Back' attempts to humanise him without losing his defining ideals that make him, well.. Hitler. Hitler as the protagonist seems like the perfect place for a character study, something many pieces of media have done before, both fiction and non-fiction but this film uses it's premise to shine a very big spotlight on the society around him; our society.
The film features the actor, Oliver Masucci, as Hitler in scenes with real people in real locations, reminiscent of the Sascha Baron Cohen films like Borat and Ali G, showing the shocking political indifference that plagues society. We begin to learn that as long as you promise simple solutions to complex problems people will even listen to Hitler. It's a welcome addition to the film as the written narrative slowly takes the film to its, what should be, illogical conclusion set up by the method events. Masucci does not shy away from the "Hitlerness" either, spouting anti-Semitic, racist, power hungry remarks frequently. Hitler is Hitler and the society is society. And as often as politicians are compared to Hitler as well as comparing the political climate of 1930's Germany and today's politics it is never quite as terrifying as seeing contemporary people saying they would vote for Hitler. He even goes so far to say phrases like 'Make Germany Great Again' - and that's the tip of the satire iceberg.
The humour of 'Look Who's Back' is just as good as the characters and setting, it fits perfectly in a world where most of liberals political information comes from the critique from comedians. Obviously the film main claim on the comedy genre comes from it's satire but it handles it gracefully and it is, at least I found, not very heavy handed therefore acknowledging that fact that politics is a joke. A very big, unchanging, uncompromising joke.
Yet, even aside from the political satire the film is a delight. It displays a wide variety of comedy from the physical - Hitler walking into things, Hitler not understanding technology - to the ironic - a man in blackface saying Hitler has gone too far. 'Look who's Back' does not hold back, it criticises the commentators of politics and their effect on societies views on current events - the film even manages to sneak in a shot-for-shot re-enactment of the very infamous Hitler scene in Inglourious Basterds (which is not the only reference to Tarantino snuck in). It's smart, funny, quirky and horrifically relevant.
'Look Who's Back' comes out at a perfect time in the height of political frustration and indifference. I'm amazed it isn't more widely known, praised or even acknowledged for it's efforts.
So, the credits crawled up the screen my partner and I sat there astonished that a comedy film about Hitler can be given the OK and do it with such grace and execution yet goes under the radar.
But also y'know it's also entirely in German and who wants to read subtitles. Subtitles suck.
-Antony.