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We are the best!(2013)
This is a Swedish-Danish film which revolves around three young girls who deceptively look like teenage boys in the film’s promotional poster. This is an adaptation of Coco Moodysson’s graphic novel Never Goodnight. Her husband Lukas Moodysson takes the director seat so it is clear that the film was made in close collaboration. It grabbed both audience and critics’ attention at the Toronto film festival of 2013.
We begin in the classroom canteen with classmates of the opposite side of the spectrum in 1980s Stockholm. Bobo(Mira Barkhammar) and Klara (Mira Gorsin) have already cut their hair short in 1970s punk style. They defy their classmates who say that punk is dead and vow to prove everyone wrong. During this turbulent journey they recruit fellow misfit but devout Christian and guitarist Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne) as both girls are not musically skilled. Here we have 13 year old girls going through the periods of adolescence with their music mentors, teachers and families in intense love-hate chemistry.
All three young actresses give their all with maximum effect in their respective roles. Mira Gorsin gives the lively performance as Klara who leads and instigates this movement whilst Liv LeMoyne and Barkhammar are able to give broody performances as social outsiders to route for and sympathise with. They all blended very well with their screams and dialogues to make their characters convincing. We also get an appearance from David Dencik as Klara’s musical and liberal father who many will recognise from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy(2011). He along with the rest of the supporting cast help our main characters as effective conservative forces to rebel against.
The best feature of the film is that no background music is done in relation to our characters’ actions to dramatize the scene. The musical attempts by our characters clearly fulfils that role for the audience. It is a wonderful time for Scandinavian drama with TV shows such as Borgen and The Bridge also reaching the small screens. The themes of key songs though comically performed come across as an 1980s form of American Idiot by Green Day. The only flaw would be that there are limited revelations on what has caused the characters rebellion against 1980s conservatism.
The best lesson from the film in the modern internet age of narcissism is not to be afraid to be unpopular and to truly belief in your cause. The fearlessness is admirable where there is nothing to lose. It is interesting to see music from a Scandinavian perspective on the other side of the continent in an era where we no longer had the Sex Pistols singing about Anarchy in the UK. The film is for teenagers and adults who can have a passing interest in rock and teenage juvenile adolescence. The film has themes many in the audience can identify with. .
This is a Swedish-Danish film which revolves around three young girls who deceptively look like teenage boys in the film’s promotional poster. This is an adaptation of Coco Moodysson’s graphic novel Never Goodnight. Her husband Lukas Moodysson takes the director seat so it is clear that the film was made in close collaboration. It grabbed both audience and critics’ attention at the Toronto film festival of 2013.
We begin in the classroom canteen with classmates of the opposite side of the spectrum in 1980s Stockholm. Bobo(Mira Barkhammar) and Klara (Mira Gorsin) have already cut their hair short in 1970s punk style. They defy their classmates who say that punk is dead and vow to prove everyone wrong. During this turbulent journey they recruit fellow misfit but devout Christian and guitarist Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne) as both girls are not musically skilled. Here we have 13 year old girls going through the periods of adolescence with their music mentors, teachers and families in intense love-hate chemistry.
All three young actresses give their all with maximum effect in their respective roles. Mira Gorsin gives the lively performance as Klara who leads and instigates this movement whilst Liv LeMoyne and Barkhammar are able to give broody performances as social outsiders to route for and sympathise with. They all blended very well with their screams and dialogues to make their characters convincing. We also get an appearance from David Dencik as Klara’s musical and liberal father who many will recognise from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy(2011). He along with the rest of the supporting cast help our main characters as effective conservative forces to rebel against.
The best feature of the film is that no background music is done in relation to our characters’ actions to dramatize the scene. The musical attempts by our characters clearly fulfils that role for the audience. It is a wonderful time for Scandinavian drama with TV shows such as Borgen and The Bridge also reaching the small screens. The themes of key songs though comically performed come across as an 1980s form of American Idiot by Green Day. The only flaw would be that there are limited revelations on what has caused the characters rebellion against 1980s conservatism.
The best lesson from the film in the modern internet age of narcissism is not to be afraid to be unpopular and to truly belief in your cause. The fearlessness is admirable where there is nothing to lose. It is interesting to see music from a Scandinavian perspective on the other side of the continent in an era where we no longer had the Sex Pistols singing about Anarchy in the UK. The film is for teenagers and adults who can have a passing interest in rock and teenage juvenile adolescence. The film has themes many in the audience can identify with. .