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'We Are the Best!': Swedish punk-rock tween trio thrashing in the '80s

Pipsqueak misfits in early 1980s Stockholm, Bobo and Clara - played by Mira Barkhammar (the wire-rims) and Mira Grosin (the mohawk) - are the kind of friends who bond because everybody around them, from their parents to their teachers to their classmates, is impossibly stupid and wrong.

We got the beat: (from left) Liv LeMoyne, Mira Barkhammar, and Mira Grosin as Swedish punk-rockers in "We Are the Best!" (Magnolia Pictures)
We got the beat: (from left) Liv LeMoyne, Mira Barkhammar, and Mira Grosin as Swedish punk-rockers in "We Are the Best!" (Magnolia Pictures)Read more

Pipsqueak misfits in early 1980s Stockholm, Bobo and Clara - played by Mira Barkhammar (the wire-rims) and Mira Grosin (the mohawk) - are the kind of friends who bond because everybody around them, from their parents to their teachers to their classmates, is impossibly stupid and wrong.

In Lukas Moodysson's exuberant We Are the Best!, the tweenage girls do the only thing they can: Start a band.

Not some glammy Abba-esque pop outfit, but a slashing, crashing punk unit. Their gym teacher is a tyrant, soccer blows, so Bobo and Clara's first fiery two-minute anthem makes perfect sense. It's called "Hate the Sport." Their repertoire, raging and rebellious, goes from there.

Adapting a memoir-ish graphic novel by his wife, Coco Moodysson, the Swedish director (Together, Lilya 4-Ever) captures the crushing urgency and emotional craziness of youth. It's not blood that flows through these girls' veins, it's nitroglycerin.

At a school concert, Bobo and Clara watch another student, Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne), play the guitar. With her long blond hair and her devotion to Christ, she seems an unlikely recruit. But they need another player - one who can actually play her instrument. They talk Liv into joining the group.

A few rehearsals later, the trio hit the road to play in a hinterland gym, a tour (on a double bill with a band of heavy-metal doofuses) sponsored by the clueless counselors at the youth club. The show does not go well.

The two Miras - Barkhammar scrunched up, smart and sulky, and Grosin gawky and grinning with defiance - are a delight. LeMoyne, as the quiet, unsophisticated one, is a perfect foil.

Funny, passionate, full of compassion for its just-pubescent protagonists, We Are the Best! is a total charmer. The girls jump up and down and chant the original Swedish title of their film: "Vi är bäst! Vi är bäst!"

And they're right, they are.

We Are the Best! ***1/2 (Out of four stars)

Directed by Lukas Moodysson. With Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin, Liv LeMoyne. In Swedish with subtitles. Distributed by Magnolia Pictures.

Running time: 1 hour, 42 mins.

Parent's guide: No MPAA rating (profanity, adult themes).

Playing at: Ritz Bourse.EndText

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