Look Who's Back

2015 black comedy

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Hitler wakes up in 2015 (or thereabouts) at the site of his bunker and becomes a media phenomenon.

This had to have either been made before the once-mildly-amusing-but-now-absolutely-insane Donald Trump campaign success story or hurriedly in the early days of Trump's attempts to "make America great again." This movie's Hitler either steals from Trump with a chilling "Make Germany great again" or that's just how terrifying leaders talk. Don't be fooled by the terrible title or mistake this for something goofy. There are moments where it's as goofy as Borat--and it'll remind you of the Sasha Baron Cohen stuff that really connects as Oliver Masucci's Hitler interacts without a script among actual human beings--but it's always got that same satiric bite, too. And that satire manages to explain a portion of human history that allowed something like Hitler to happen and simultaneously warn that that history could indeed repeat itself because people are basically very easy to dupe.

I don't know if I liked all the subplot action involving a television studio although it does work as a metaphor. When this is all about Hitler being Hitler and mingling with people who are either real or actors who are very good at acting like they're real people, this is both funny and horrifying. That's really what makes it work as a black comedy, and as a black comedy, this is about as black as it can get. I'm not even sure there's any gray in this. It's been 83 or so years since Hitler came into power, but there are some out there who would argue that this is too soon, that a Hitler comedy is taboo. The Hitler as a fish-out-of-water idea feels both fresh and really easy, but there's enough subtlety with the comedy and such an intelligence with the way they run with the idea that it works. And Masucci is so good as Hitler. It feels weird to say this, but when Hitler's not on the screen in this movie, you sort of miss him a little bit.

The movie's funny although some will be annoyed at how hard its makers drive its point home. There's a closing montage that hammers you although Hitler's final line will give you the same chills you had when you heard him talking about making German great again earlier.

Oh, I want to acknowledge the neat little trick this movie plays on its viewers. It features a dog, but I really can't say anything more or I'll spoil things. So I'm not sure why I'm even bringing it up.