We are the best (Vi är bäst!) (Lukas Moodyson, 2013) Sweden

Reviewed by Linnea Nilsson at Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2014

Since I am from Sweden, It was obvious for me to watch the only Swedish movie at the festival: We are the best (Vi är bäst!). The director of this movie, Lukas Moodysson, is a well known director from Sweden that mostly is known as the director of “Fucking Åmål”, that has gotten many awards and has been showed at many festivals. After reading that he did the movie, I had another reason to watch it.

“We are the best” takes place back in 1982 in Stockholm, Sweden. We first get to meet Bobo and Klara, two outsiders that does not really fit in anywhere. Why? Because they don’t look like how society thinks girls should look like. They have cut their own hairs and listen to music that people claim is dead – punk. But these two girls aren’t afraid to be themselves. One day they decides to start a band, even though none of them knows how to play any instruments. While watching a music concert at their school, they find Hedvig: another outsider that doesn’t really fit in because of her believes. She is really good at playing guitar so Klara and Bobo decides to ask her if she wants to help them and join their band.

This movie have a lot of stylish details and tells the time of when it takes place. The clothes are one of those details they did really good job at. They actually looked like they were from the 80’s. The contrast between the styles are kind of funny to see too. As the girls are wearing saggy, dark colored clothes and having short hair, the other girls around them are wearing colorful clothes and having very stylish hair. You could easily see what was considered to be “normal”. The acting of the three girls was very good too. I especially liked Mira Grosin who played Klara. She did an excellent job with being the cocky kid, the one who does whatever she wants to do. They reviled at the festival that one of these three have done some work before, but the other two haven’t. I could not tell who was the most experienced one, since they all did such a great job.

Since this movie is about girls playing punk, the soundtrack of the movie is only old Swedish punk-bands. They once played a song in the movie from Ebba Grön that’s called “Vad skall du bli” (= What should you be?). In that song they sing “Fortsätt å fortsätt å va rebell. Fortsätt å fortsätt å va dig själv” that pretty much means; keep on being a rebel, keep on being yourself. Which, what I think, is a big part of what the movie is about.

I liked this movie. It really shows how hard it is to be 13 while trying to find yourself. Even though it’s set on the 80’s, these finding-yourself-problems still exist for mostly every thirteen year old, so anyone can relate to this story in some way. I don’t think I will watch it again, but I really enjoyed it.