We Are the Best!

English Title: We Are the Best!

Based on the 2008 graphic novel Never Goodnight by director Lukas Moodysson’s wife Coco, WE ARE THE BEST! rocks with good fun. It’s Stockholm in 1982, and everyone is wearing awful sweaters. Punk may be out, but it’s not dead yet; it lives on in the minds of junior high school girls Bobo and Klara. These enfants terribles are fed up with Middle Class everything—parents, sports, politics. Mostly out of spite, and undeterred by their lack of musical talent, they form a punk band. Inspired by the classical guitar playing of Hedvig, a conservative Christian, they recruit her to give them pointers. The three outcasts shave their heads and start tearing up the stage and the school, experimenting with alcohol, flirting with punk boys, and getting ready to perform their one song at a Christmas concert. This ebullient film is for everyone who is, will be, or used to be 13-years-old. (In Swedish with subtitles) —B.B.