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I could not get worked up about JOJO RABBIT, pro or con. Obviously it's as phony as a $3 bill. That didn't bother me.
What struck me is that it's phony in a way that WWII-centric fiction tends to be these days. Using the war more as a backdrop than a specific event. A generalized setting with era-signifier props that don't look like they're actually used. A misery that looks beautiful.
THE GUERNSEY LITERARY ETC. is the other example that sticks out in my mind. DUNKIRK has a bit of this. MY WAY certainly. There's other recent stuff I haven't seen but assume fits the bill, e.g. MIDWAY, all those airport books.
I can't help but think this is due to the war no longer being a lived experience. Artists are freed up to use it in phoney ways because no one will roll their eyes and say, "That's not how it was for me."
That's not to say WWII stuff wasn't phoney before. It sure could be! But there's a difference in, say, BATTLEGROUND, which generalizes Bastogne but nails the specifics of fighting there because it was made by people who fought there.
Maybe all I'm sensing is that historical fiction is becoming a different kind of phoney.
