We Are the Best!

Filmmaker Lukas Moodysson's delightfully distinctive coming-of-age film is a period piece set in Stockholm, circa 1982, that focuses on three 13-year-old girls who form a punk band. We Are the Best! boasts a ragged, episodic narrative style that mirrors the girls' eccentricities as it serves up a charming, ebullient portrait that only occasionally moves in expected directions. Initially, the focus is on inseparable friends (and misfits) Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) and Klara (Mira Grosin). Klara is a pint-sized rabble-rouser who sports a mohawk; bespectacled, short-haired Bobo is more reserved, although when paired with her pal she can cut loose, as well. Wanting to start a punk band, the girls enlist a classmate, pretty guitarist Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne), to join their group. The film strays into more predictable territory when the girls meet a couple of punk boys and both Klara and Bobo have eyes for the cuter one, which causes a rift between them. But that subplot doesn't stay center-stage for long; instead, the girls' unified opposition to everything that represents normalcy and order continues to dominate, especially when the band performs at a Christmas concert and winds up causing a ruckus with their androgynous appearance and anti-establishmentarianism. Moodysson secures wonderfully natural performances from the cast, while seeming to effortlessly capture the spirit of genial youthful rebelliousness. Highly recommended. (F. Swietek)