We are the Best!

Lukas Moodysson’s fantastic new picture about trio of 13-year-old schoolgirl trying to form a punk band is overflowing with energy and youthful exuberance. Set in 1982 Stockholm, the film has a raw authenticity, perfectly capturing the spirited naiveté of the period. There is so much to love: the wonderful terrible music, the punking-out of the straight Christian girl (chopping off of her hair with paper scissors), the pubescent suburban punk boys with their baby fat cheeks and vinyl records, the out of touch adults, the way the girls can’t sing or play but it just doesn’t matter. Absorbing non-stop insults from schoolmates, they go about learning their instruments, thinking up suitably incendiary things to sing about, and preparing for their debut at a community center Christmas show. But plot is not what is important here — mostly it is about these girls growing and experiencing themselves in the world, trying on new attitudes to see if they work, fighting, making up, taking chances, realizing that they are the center of the universe.