We Are the Best!
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We Are the Best!

The year is 1982, and while many would have you believe that punk is dead, in Stockholm teenage girls Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) and Klara (Mira Grosin) are doing their level best to keep it alive. Mocked at school for their boyish looks, they spend their spare time hanging out at the rec centre, where they discover they can piss off a bunch of long-haired teenage jerks by booking the band rehearsal room out from under them. Using the instruments in the room, they start their own punk band (based around a song about how sport sucks) and ask Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne), a shy, conservative Christian girl from their school, to join. Surprisingly she agrees, and with her guitar skills they’re well on their way to being a proper (well, “proper”) band.
Adapted by Lukas Moodysson from the graphic novel Never Goodnight by his wife Coco Moodysson, this is a joyous salute to the thrills of hanging out with your friends doing what you feel like. There’s not a whole lot of story going on here – some boys from another punk band briefly threaten to tear the girls apart, and there’s a big concert coming up – but the kids are clearly having so much fun just rocking out that it’s impossible not to get swept up in it all.
There’s enough hints of teen angst and rebellion here to keep it grounded, but the overall impression is of how much fun it is just hanging out with friends who get you – and a film that gets that is one not to miss.