1181. We Are The Best! (2013)

Starring: Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin, Liv LeMoyne

Director: Lukas Moodysson

Running Time: 102 mins

We Are The Best! (Vi är bäst!) is a Swedish film about three girls who decide to form a punk band together, however they have no musical experience, are entering into an allegedly dead genre, and are unprepared for the challenges that may lie ahead.

This is a nice little comedy-drama, all about three girls coming of age in their early teens, and it has a simple, light feel to it, making it a pleasant watch. Unfortunately, its story is very plain, and I wasn’t wholly engrossed in what turned out as more of a feel-good comedy-drama than the more interesting film it was clearly trying to be.

That’s not to say it’s an awfully boring film, because its light-hearted feel makes it enjoyable to watch. The three young actresses are all pretty good, and smile their way through the fun bits, and work just as well in some of the more dramatic sequences, so there is definitely a lot that you can enjoy.

Its feel-good atmosphere comes largely from playing on childhood nostalgia of the concept of starting a band. If you ever had a band as a kid, you’ll definitely be able to relate to this story, and even though the music isn’t great (deliberately so), that element can be a lot of fun to follow along to.

What isn’t that great about this film is the way it portrays the more dramatic parts of its story. To me, it seemed as if it was going about the whole coming of age story in a very generic way, and not giving any real emotional intrigue as to the young girls’ developing relationships with one another, and that made it feel extremely plain to me, and as the film went on, I unfortunately began to lose interest.

Overall, We Are The Best isn’t a bad film, and there a lot of enjoyable elements, but it’s almost too light-hearted for the subject it tries to bring across, and that leaves it as a bit of an underwhelming watch, so that’s why it gets a 6.6 from me.