Welcome to Rosie the Reviewer, a Dutch-Canadian female-led WW2 media podcast. A new episode airs every Friday!
Rosie the Reviewer is a passion project, built episode by episode. If you’d like to support what we do, you can help keep us on the air or pick up some Rosie merch. We’re working on more ways for you to get involved in the future.
Buongiorno Principessa! In this episode, we laugh and we cry about this magical and tragical Italian masterpiece. Is it just us, or do hilariously funny films make the best tragedies?
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Can WWII be told through satire? Dive into Inglourious Basterds, Jojo Rabbit, and Life Is Beautiful with Rosie the Reviewer.
In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we discuss the beautiful Ballad of a Soldier (1959), a Soviet-era WWII film that might just be the gentlest war movie we’ve ever seen. The film follows a young soldier named Alyosha as he travels across Russia to visit his mother on furlough. Along the way, he meets the love of his life. Not a very outspoken war movie, but a gentle story with sincere performances from main cast and supporting actors.
X Company’s Faber cries, and we’re meant to feel something. But what happens when World War II villains become emotionally complex and maybe even… sympathetic? This piece explores the discomfort and consequences of redemption arcs for Nazis on screen.
In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we dive into Black Book, Paul Verhoeven’s 2006 thriller about a Jewish woman who goes undercover in the Dutch resistance. Nearly twenty years later, its themes of complicity, moral ambiguity, and survival feel sharper—and perhaps even more relevant—against the backdrop of today’s conflicts.
We unpack the film’s chaotic plot, infamous pube-bleaching scene, and the real-life resistance fighter who inspired the story. And we discuss the uncomfortable: how Verhoeven uses a WWII setting not just to thrill, but to ask unsettling questions about the blurred lines between victim and aggressor—and how quickly one can become the other.
A war movie that’s sexy, violent, politically loaded, and painfully relevant.
This week, we discuss Taika Waititi’s satirical film, Jojo Rabbit (2019) and once again question what makes good satire. This story is based on Christine Leunens’s 2008 book Caging Skies that Sam had the difficult task of reading. Pallet cleanser after that one, Sam?
Rosie the Reviewer is a passion project, built episode by episode. If you’d like to support what we do, you can help keep us on the air or pick up some Rosie merch. We’re working on more ways for you to get involved in the future.