We are the best

Swedish director Lukas Moodysson's new film 'We Are the Best!' hits all the right notes, according to film critic Niclas Goldberg.  

  • Swedish director Lukas Moodysson's new film "We Are the Best!" ("Vi är bäst!") hits all the right notes, according to film critic Niclas Goldberg. The film is the feature film debut for its three leading ladies: Liv LeMoyne (Hedvig), Mira Barkhammar (Bobo), and Mira Grosin (Klara).
  • WE ARE THE BEST! (Vi är bäst!)

  • The film is the feature film debut for its three leading ladies: Liv LeMoyne (Hedvig), Mira Barkhammar (Bobo), and Mira Grosin (Klara).
  • Directed by Lukas Moodysson and starring David Dencik, Alexander Karlsson, Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin and Liv LeMoyne. The film is the feature film debut for its three leading ladies: Liv LeMoyne (Hedvig), Mira Barkhammar (Bobo), and Mira Grosin (Klara).
    Details: 102 mins, Released in Sweden Oct. 11, 2013. US distributor Magnolia Pictures acquired the North American rights for the film and a U.S. release is expected for 2014.

  • Fall is here, and what better thing is there to do, than to fall in love with a great new movie? Nordstjernan's film critic Niclas Goldberg did just that with Swedish director Lukas Moodysson's "We Are the Best!", a film Goldberg calls "unreservedly lovely and exhilarating".

  • Lukas Moodysson is back. Sweden’s outsider genius has returned to form with his newest film. Screened at Toronto International Film Festival, We Are the Best is an unreservedly lovely and exhilarating tale about three rebellious teen girls who form a punk band.
    Stockholm, 1982. The film follows Bobo, a 13-year-old who shows much initiative in dealing with her troubled adolescence. Her best friend is the outspoken Klara of the same age, and like her she proudly refuses to fit in with other kids at school. They have cut their hair, love punk rock and want to form their own band (they don't want to call it a girl-band). But they can’t really play any instruments or even know what a chord is. So they convert Hedvig, an excellent classical guitar player, to rock music, and persuade her to also cut off her hair. Their motto is “Punk never died”—although it already surely has. Inseparable, they meet a boy who has made a name for himself on the city’s emerging rock scene. Both Bobo and Klara really like him and their friendship starts to tremble.

  • Keep going, keep it up, be yourself—the film's theme is clear. Moodysson has, with such an ease and joyful storytelling, returned to his sharply human observation of girls' adolescence as he brilliantly captured in Show Me Love (Swedish title: Fucking Åmål, 1998). Based on the graphic novel Aldrig godnatt (2008) by Lucas' wife, Coco Moodysson, the humor is disarming, the dialog authentic and the actresses just blow your mind with their naturalism. We find the warm communality and heartfelt characters that many appreciated in Moodysson's success Together (Tillsammans, 2000).

  • The atmosphere feels unusually genuine and every little detail truthful—those of us who lived at the time in Sweden recognize the Oboy, fish sticks (fiskpinnar) and milk cartons as well as the music of Ulf Lundell, Joakim Thåström and Ebba Grön and the references to author Klas Östergren. Nothing is left behind in Moodyssons delightful world, especially not the un-ignorable girls. Their presence will be felt long after the credits roll and we smile from ear to ear. The film has already found distributors in 25 different countries, including the United States.
    Moodysson, who has been described as one of the most important European filmmakers in the last 15 years, said himself that he wanted to make a film showing that life—despite all evidence to the contrary—is worth living. We Are The Best hits the right note.

  • By Niclas Goldberg

  • Watch the trailer on youtube: Vi är bäst (Lukas Moodysson, 2013, trailer)
    WE ARE THE BEST! is produced by Lars Jönsson for Memfis Film, co-produced by Film I Väst, SVT and Zentropa in co-operation with Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) and with support from the Swedish Film Institute, The Danish Film Institute and Nordisk Film and TV Fond.