In his most successful mode — which is, happily, the one we find him in for WE ARE THE BEST! — Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson turns out feel-good movies about countercultures, some actual, others aspirational. The oppositional ethos that attaches so naturally to adolescence, replete with its occasional petulance, see-sawing emotions, and irrational exuberance, animates his best work even as it serves as its subject.

In 1998’s SHOW ME LOVE, the loneliness and eventual romantic triumph of a bright, bullied, very young lesbian was given a sensitive yet lighthearted treatment. In TOGETHER (2000), the arguably arrested adolescence on display in a hippie commune in 1970s Stockholm was handled with similar affection, humor, and tender attention to kitchen-sink details of personality and relationship. In recent years he has dabbled, with erratic results, both in semi-experimental documentary (A HOLE IN MY HEART(2004)) and in grimly somber narrative melodrama (2009’s lugubrious MAMMOTH). So it is something of a relief, and certainly a pleasure, to see him return to his strengths in WE ARE THE BEST!, a crowd-pleasing romp (yes, yes, I’m going with romp) about three thirteen-year-old girls who form a punk band in 1982 Stockholm because — well, fuck you, why wouldn’t they?

One thing you need to know about these girls is this: they hate sport. They hate it so much, in fact, that the one and only song they write, relentlessly rehearse, and finally perform for an unappreciative (and well-nigh riotous) mob of yobs in a suburban youth center is actually called “Hate the Sport.” You might wonder: is it possible to be or love or understand punk, then, for those of us caught up in this summer’s World Cup hysteria? Well, sure, I think so, and I think the film thinks so. Despite all the mohawks on display and Ebba Grön songs on the soundtrack, Moodysson’s punk is of the catholic and universal variety — be yourself and do what you want, propriety and popularity be damned, and poof! You’re a punk.

And that’s cool. But maybe it’s also a weakness, or a missed opportunity. Moodysson’s will to universalism results in a very likable film about some very likable kids, but it’s a film that so wants us all to be essentially alike that it runs the risk of neutralizing the very counter-cultural energies it ostensibly celebrates. It is a little disappointing — even if true enough to lots of lives, as seems likely — that our punk rock heroines’ most abiding concerns should turn out to be how pretty they are and whether they’ll ever have a boyfriend. Punk may not be dead, but it feels like something of an ornament here at times.

Is it all a little too cute for comfort? Or, more to the punk point, is it too cute to cue the discomfort that ought to accompany its putative subject matter? Yeah, probably. There is little here to ground the film in any actual punk subculture. But then, this doesn’t have to be a failing as long as you keep your expectations in check. More than anything else, what punk represents to these girls comes down to head-strong independence, anarchic playfulness, and a vague yet snotty opposition to “conservatives” and conformity wherever they find it, even if they sometimes fail to notice it in themselves.

Moodysson was a poet before he became a filmmaker, and he impresses most when he gives full reign to a lightly worn, lyrical humanism that puts one in mind of the Dardennes brothers, or even Vittorio de Sica, but above all of his compatriot Lasse Hallström‘s classic early work, MY LIFE AS A DOG. For WE ARE THE BEST! — which was adapted from a graphic novel by the director’s wife, Coco — Moodysson’s natural gift for a goofy, thoughtful kind of warmth is made more effective still by terrifically focused performances in the three lead roles: Bobo (Mira Barkhammar), Klara (Mira Grosin), and Hedwig (Liv Lemoyne). Their joy in being in “the best band in the world” is fierce, infectious, and giddily thrilling.

WE ARE THE BEST! (2013) DIR. LUKAS MOODYSSON [102 min]
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