Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson returns with 'We Are the Best!', an adaptation of a graphic novel by his wife. The story is a fictionalised account of her own teenage years as a punk rocker.
'We Are the Best!' is set in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1982. Pigeonholed as outcasts by other children, the bespectacled Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) and mo-hawked Klara (Mira Grosin) try to create their own punk band. Unable to play a single instrument, Bobo and Klara's youthful spirit can only take them so far before they have to learn to play. Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne) has been singled out even more by the kids in her school because of her Christian beliefs, but everyone knows she's a gifted classical guitar player. With some resistance, she is coaxed by the girls into their band. Bizarrely, we don't know the name of their band, but a punk band is born nonetheless. What these collective outsiders lack in skill is bypassed with enthusiasm, determination and a refusal to be told what they can and can't do.
Moodysson concentrates on the exuberance of youth, celebrating the highs of friendships and the chaotic lows of arguments, boyfriends, parents, jealousies, growing up and everything else! Everything is treated with a lack of cynicism, everyone is treated with a sense of perspective and affection. Of course, it helps that you've got three genuine and utterly infectious teenage girls to make you laugh constantly. Hedvig, Klara and Bobo display in their own individual way their sensitivities and uncertainties with life.
The girls collective hatred of sport, religion, beauty products ("We're anti make-up!") and the mainstream is moving and very funny, their endearing teenage logic is hard to resist as much as their punk lyrics ("Abort the sport!"). Throw in a great Scandinavian punk soundtrack that will have you singing along after the film has finished, and there's no denying that the punk spirit lives on! "Brezhnev, Reagan. F*** off!"
'We Are the Best!' is set in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1982. Pigeonholed as outcasts by other children, the bespectacled Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) and mo-hawked Klara (Mira Grosin) try to create their own punk band. Unable to play a single instrument, Bobo and Klara's youthful spirit can only take them so far before they have to learn to play. Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne) has been singled out even more by the kids in her school because of her Christian beliefs, but everyone knows she's a gifted classical guitar player. With some resistance, she is coaxed by the girls into their band. Bizarrely, we don't know the name of their band, but a punk band is born nonetheless. What these collective outsiders lack in skill is bypassed with enthusiasm, determination and a refusal to be told what they can and can't do.
Moodysson concentrates on the exuberance of youth, celebrating the highs of friendships and the chaotic lows of arguments, boyfriends, parents, jealousies, growing up and everything else! Everything is treated with a lack of cynicism, everyone is treated with a sense of perspective and affection. Of course, it helps that you've got three genuine and utterly infectious teenage girls to make you laugh constantly. Hedvig, Klara and Bobo display in their own individual way their sensitivities and uncertainties with life.
The girls collective hatred of sport, religion, beauty products ("We're anti make-up!") and the mainstream is moving and very funny, their endearing teenage logic is hard to resist as much as their punk lyrics ("Abort the sport!"). Throw in a great Scandinavian punk soundtrack that will have you singing along after the film has finished, and there's no denying that the punk spirit lives on! "Brezhnev, Reagan. F*** off!"