How to describe Lukas Moodysson’s We Are The Best! without resorting to a litany of synonyms for ‘jubilant’? Better to describe the surprising, gratifying ways it is just that, since saying that the film is a crowd-pleaser about three misfit teenage girls who start a punk band in early ’80s Stockholm conjures a whole shopworn narrative and corresponding clichés, which Moodysson – working from a screenplay based on a graphic novel by spouse Coco Moodysson – largely avoids.
For one, Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) and Klara (Mira Grosin) – two spiky-haired, androgynous teens, who identify as punk rockers despite punk’s cultural moment having passed – don’t encounter adversary so much as bemusement. Their classmates ‘get’ their lifestyle, but remind them that punk is dead, while their parents don’t disapprove so much as ignore them entirely. It’s only when Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne), a shy, musically gifted Christian girl, joins their band to the chagrin of her strict mother that a rare semblance of conflict emerges, and is also where the film is at its weakest.
Fortunately, this subplot is a minor one, and it’s a testament to the spirit of the film that its lack of narrative stakes is never a flaw, buoyed instead by delightfully unaffected performances from its young cast and cosy, grainy verité cinematography (rarely has woolen winter-wear been filmed with such vivid tactility). It’s something of a return to form for Moodysson, who made his name with similarly warm, humanist films like 2001’s Together and 1998’s Show Me Love, before the making a 180 with 2003’s gruelling Lilya 4-Ever and following it up with a few self-consciously experimental curios (A Hole In My Heart and Container). We Are The Best! is the product of a filmmaker at home in his comfort zone, but in the best possible sense. It should be mandatory school excursion viewing for young girls and boys alike.
4/5 stars
We Are The Best! opens in cinemas Thursday September 18.
