{"id":4377,"date":"2014-04-16T19:47:29","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T18:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=4377"},"modified":"2014-04-17T09:43:31","modified_gmt":"2014-04-17T08:43:31","slug":"we-are-the-best-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2014\/04\/16\/we-are-the-best-2\/","title":{"rendered":"We Are the Best!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"We<\/a>
We Are the Best!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\nFormat:<\/B> Cinema

\nRelease date:<\/B> 18 April 2014

\nDistributor:<\/B> Metrodome

\nDirector:<\/B> Lukas Moodysson

\nWriter:<\/B> Lukas Moodysson

\nBased on the graphic novel by:<\/B> Coco Moodysson

\nOriginal title:<\/B> Vi är bäst!<\/i>

\nCast:<\/B> Mira Barkhammer, Mira Grosin, Liv LeMoyne

\nSweden 2013

\n102 mins\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

For all you punkety rockety girls out there, and those who love them: this is your new favourite film, you just don\u2019t know it yet. With We Are the Best!<\/i> (which is based on his wife Coco\u2019s graphic novel), Lukas Moodysson returns to the inclusive humanism of his earlier work (Show Me Love<\/I>, Together<\/I>), rather than his pass-the-razor-blades phase (Lilya 4-Ever<\/I>, A Hole in My Heart<\/I>) or his what-the-bloody-hell-is-this phase (Container<\/I>). It\u2019s a simple tale: two 13-year-old girls, Bobo and Klara, are outcasts at school, mainly because it\u2019s a bad place and time to be ferociously dedicated to punk rock: Stockholm in the early 1980s. Partly out of spite, they get the metal band Iron Fist thrown out of the practice room at their local youth centre on the pretext that they have a band, and having booked the room, they decide that they might as well start a band for real. Undaunted by their lack of talent, but aware that they ought to have somebody on side who knows what they\u2019re doing, they recruit Hedwig, a Christian and another outcast, on guitar, and the film follows their trials and tribulations as they attempt to get it together for their first gig.<\/p>\n

There is very little conflict here (an unfortunate haircut incident, a falling out over a punk boy), just a lot of brilliantly observed business about families and schools and pop culture and all that other stuff you have to negotiate when you\u2019re 13. The girls are adorable, fearless and bulletproof, wide eyed and vulnerable, with their own cool punk chic (it involves a lot of scarves) and Moodysson perfectly captures that age when you can be obsessing over nuclear annihilation one minute and having a food fight the next. There is a great sense of time and place, and fun to be had about the difficulties of being a rebel when everybody\u2019s so tolerant and accommodating (Swedish punk songs of the period seem pushed to find stuff to complain about). We Are the Best!<\/I> finds time for everybody \u2013 youth club workers, parents, and hell, even Iron Fist are people<\/I> rather than characters. There may not be a great deal to the film other than a little slice of time, but it\u2019s bloody delightful – a warm, spiky hug.<\/p>\n

Mark Stafford<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n

Watch the trailer:<\/B><\/p>\n