Director: Lukas Moodysson
Starring: Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin, Liv LeMoyne
Running Time: 102 minutes
Certificate: 15
Ever experienced that moment when you’ve seen something so epic, you feel like you want to do the same so you can be just as epic? Well try watching WE ARE THE BEST! You just might be grabbing a guitar in no time.
The film, based on the graphic novel Never Goodnight by Coco Moodysson, follows three pre-teenage girls named Bobo, Klara and Hedvig who are considered outsiders in the 1980s Stockholm. The trio decide to form a punk band, but everybody else has considered punk dead. The film is directed and adapted by Lukas Moodysson, Coco’s husband.
Moodysson’s sticks with what he knows best in WE ARE THE BEST! He has brought us such films as SHOW ME LOVE, MAMMOTH and LILYA 4-EVER, he has an eye for a strong female lead and showing us their stories without a rose tint over it. This time around we have three strong characters, and Moodysson takes the source material and gives it the wonderful life it deserves.
Visually the film takes you back to the heart of the 80s, and unlike usual coming-of-age movies we do not see any cheesy conventions or any adult protagonists to be inspiring the group in some way. The city they are in is not the greatest, but the trio use it for their music. It’s their own mind, own rules, and despite the fact they are not the greatest (and only one member of the group can actually play their instrument) they stick to their cause and could not care less about what people think. The fact that the actresses on screen are all making their feature debuts and give such strong performances so young makes it that more special, and we can not wait to see where they go in the future.
Sometimes films of this genre tend to get overlooked because of the fact that it is quite niche, but The Moodysson’s have gone with one angle that wins people over every time – being the outsider. And that is the biggest universal language there is. Everybody in unison now Hate The Sport! Hate The Sport!
[usr=4] WE ARE THE BEST is released on DVD from 28th July.
