An interest in music was definitely the common denominator for my group of friends but I never really had the confidence or initiative to organize like they did. I played my guitar with my dinky amplifier turned down very low during jazz band at school. A few of my friends made a Ben Folds Five-esque trio and did a great job playing a school function. I remember sheepishly hauling my guitar over to my friend Tyler's house for a jam session - he played the bass. Although I knew how to play, turning it into something individual, unguided, and self-expressive was much harder than playing the notes of a sheet of music. I dinked around and gave up after a half hour. Music was definitely a gateway to my teenage community, though, a knowledge base that had been introduced to me by others, expanded on my own in my bedroom with headphones, and then turned into a means of relating with my peers. For the girls of We Are The Best it serves the same function, allowing a pair of punk-loving 13-year-olds in a post-punk world to define themselves and distinguish an identity that helps them grown up and learn about the same stuff the rest of us have to deal with at some point too: friendship, family, love & politics, In other words, life.
Set in Stockholm in 1982, We Are The Best opens with 13-year-old Bobo at her mother's birthday, sitting sulkingly while everyone goes about the celebration. Then the worst happens and she is noticed by her mother on the way to her room and she becomes the center of attention. She complains on the phone to her best-friend Klara the same martyr's cry of preteens the world over: "My mom is the worst. She's so embarrassing." Klara disagrees. "My parents are the worst. Just listen to them" and then she holds to the phone out the door to hear an argument about laundry. Both girls are punk rock in a disco pop age. Klara gets grief about her mohawk and impassioned pleas about the perils of nuclear power from the other girls at school. Both are called ugly and despised by others. One night on a whim at their local youth center they decide to make their own punk band. Mostly they just bang on the drums and bass available in the common rehearsal space. They enlist their overtly Christian classmate Hedvig to help them because she actually knows how to play music, albeit only classical guitar. She's also an outcast and they bond over their first song about how much gym class sucks called "Hate the Sport."
The whole thing is joyously fun and as the trailer says, it for anyone who is 13 years old, will be 13 years old, or was 13 years old. The director, Lukas Moodysson, hits every beat just right balancing the touching moments as you watch these girls form and strengthen their friendships, deal with boys getting in the way, and fight a riotous audience at their coming out concert. There are plenty of laugh out loud moments. I really loved Hedvig's character and how she provided an opportunity for Bobo and Klara to realize the merit of compassion. Hedvig is more mature than the other two but also benefits in the relationship by learning to have fun and let her hair down (or actually, to cut it off). Even though Bobo and Klara are anti-God and anti-religion they get a taste of how Christianity has punk rock roots as they see the courage Hedvig has to be herself even when it's not popular.
One token of a great movie is that it helps you expand your circle of humanity. I've never found MMA cage fighting to be enjoyable, and yet while watching Warrior I was on the edge of my seat. You might never have associated punk music with the fragile yet hilarious stage of life of coming-of-age of preteens but through these girls' characters you come to love punk music for the opportunity it provides them to grow up and accept new people. Although they might resist the notion, the love these girls develop for each other is just the same that a group of cheerleaders might. We Are The Best reiterates the fact that you already knew that life for punk rockers is pretty much the same as it is for the rest of us. Roger Ebert said, "The movies are like a machine that generates empathy." This is something I'm always looking for and We Are The Best takes you into the space of being a 13 year old. From a goofy dad that wants to embarrass you by bringing a clarinet to your punk band rehearsal to the joy of serendipitous friendships turning into lifelong relationships, this movie reminds you of yourself - whether you've had the same experiences or not - in a fresh way.
We Are The Best is currently streaming on Netflix.
