The Fox Searchlight production logo appeared before Jojo Rabbit with a heavy sense of irony. How far and wide did the studio have to search to discover Taika Waititi, the Oscar-nominated director of Thor: Ragnarok? If this was an art house film, it was the kind that co-stars Scarlett Johansson and grosses $64.6 million. Yet it had the hallmarks of independent cinema: an unusual perspective and an uncomfortable message. A few weeks before, audiences turned out for Rian Johnson’s Knives Out – a similarly uncommercial update of Miss Marple that happened to be helmed by the director of the previous Star Wars, and star the current James Bond. By the end of its run it had grossed over $300 million. This is the new normal in a world where franchise movies have become a finishing school for esoteric filmmakers. With Marvel and Star Wars in the rear-view mirror, Waititi and Johnson have both been able to return to their idiosyncratic impulses and, crucially, bring the cast and crowds of Disne…
