We Are The Best!

Synopsis: It’s 1982 and three young teenage girls in Stockholm decide to form a punk band despite not having any instruments.

Lukas Moodysson has carved out a substantial reputation as the director of  the much-admired Show Me Love (1998) and Lilya-4-Ever (2002). His latest film comes to us with much critical praise although I’m blowed if I can see why. The appeal of We Are The Best! relies entirely on whether or not you find the antics of a couple of 13 year Swedish girls engaging. If you do then you may concur with some of the bandied-about epithets such as “vibrant” “hilarious” and “crushingly honest”.  If not, then “crushingly boring” is more likely to fit the bill.

It’s not that the film isn’t well made and the main two girls Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) and Klara (Mira Grosin) with their cocky independence are cute enough poppets (they are joined by a slightly older girl, Hedvig, played by Liv LeMoyne, a Christian whom they try to turn against God) but really nothing happens plot-wise to distract from their banality.  One might say that this was the director's approach with Show Me Love. That is true but the girls we slightly older and at that age a year or two makes a big difference.There is the germ of a School Of Rock-ish story here about the girls putting together a punk band but if you can imagine that film without Dewey Finn then you’ve kind of got We Are The Best!.

Story isn’t essential to a good film particularly one of a realist stripe where the interest and engagement is with the emotional ups and downs of its protagonists as they essay their passage through a largely alien world. Indeed this was very much the approach of Moodysson's debut, Show Me Love. We Are The Best! loosely complies with the realist style, complete with lots of intrusive hand-held camera work, but only as a ”Lite” variant.  Whilst the performances by the three young leads are effective enough, Bobo, Klara, and Hedvig and their lives in the cosseted blandness of 1980s Sweden hardly warrant 102 minutes of attention. Clearly for some audiences this is part of the film’s charm and perhaps even, wry humour but frankly I found myself wishing that I had had a fast-forward option or that some deus ex machina would drastically alter the film's tenor. Unfortunately neither came to pass. If you have a different experience, please let me know.

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