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Jeff wrote:We are the Best! Lukas Moodysson, Sweden (North American Premiere))

Wow, had no idea this existed. This sounds like Classic Moodysson!

Stockholm 1982. A film about Bobo, Klara and Hedvig. Three 12-13-year old girls who roam the streets. Who are brave and tough and strong and weak and confused and weird. Who have to take care of themselves way too early. Who heat fish fingers in the toaster when mom is at the pub. Who start a punk band without any instruments, even though everybody says that punk is dead.

You might wanna check out the trailer then! Feels closer to Fucking Åmål and Tilsammans than Lilja 4-ever and Mammuth. Can't wait.

This was the most exciting surprise announcement out of Toronto to me too. It was on the list of films I was most looking forward to this year, but I didn't realize it was actually finished.

Even with only a rudimentary understanding of Swedish that trailer promises great great things

I'm cautiously excited. The trailer makes it look pretty generic thematically, and that variety show scene is straight out of Ghost World. Moodyssons first two features did a great job of balancing youthful optimism with lifes harsh realities however, so I can only hope this will be more of the same. Mammut was kind of a let down.

Lukas Moodysson's wonderful Director's Statement:

I wanted to make a film showing that life—despite all evidence to the contrary—is worth living.
“Hiersein ist herrlich” (Rainer Maria Rilke).
It’s wonderful to have a friend, wonderful to play an instrument without knowing how, wonderful to set fire to an old statue, wonderful to have the most annoying parents in the world, wonderful to throw up on someone’s records, wonderful to be booed and mocked, wonderful to be the best.

Guy Lodge's Variety Review:

Lukas Moodysson makes a sweet, spirited return to form with this utterly delightful evocation of early teenage life.

Scott Tobias tweet wrote:WE ARE THE BEST! (Moodysson) Been waiting a decade for Moodysson of FUCKING AMAL and TOGETHER to return. Here he is! Adorable l'il punks.

Chris Vognar tweet wrote:Really liked Lukas Moodysson's "We are the Best!" Punk alive and well in the spirit of 13-year-old Swedish girls, circa 1982. #TIFF13

Jason Solomons tweet wrote:Lukas Moodysson back on the form of Fking Amal and Together with 80s teen girl punk band comedy We Are the Best. Great fun #Venezia70

Tom Hall tweet wrote:WE ARE THE BEST! (Moodyson)- return to the generosity of spirit of Moodyson's early films. Anti-social teen friendship never so fun! #TIFF13

Manori Ravindran tweet wrote:Moodysson's WE ARE THE BEST! is delightful. Bad-ass 13 y/o girls starting a punk band. Can't go wrong. #tiff13

I really hope a real U.S. distributor picks this up, so it doesn't get the shaft like most Moodysson does in this country. Metrodome has already snagged it for the U.K.

Jeff wrote:I really hope a real U.S. distributor picks this up, so it doesn't get the shaft like most Moodysson does in this country. Metrodome has already snagged it for the U.K.

I'm pretty sure I saw all his films in US theaters, except for Container. This looks like an easy sell regardless, I'm looking forward to it.

I thought I'd mentioned this earlier, but this is actually based on a comic written by Lukas Moodysson's wife Coco Moodysson. I'm unfamiliar with her work, but apparently it's often autobiographical. She was born in 1970 and the movie is about 13 year old girls, set in the early 1980s, so I guess it's not a stretch to assume that some of Coco Moodysson's experiences as a teen found it's way to this project. Then again, this is just speculation.

Joshua Rothkopf's review at Time Out New York. Justin Chang's at Variety.

RobertAltman wrote:I thought I'd mentioned this earlier, but this is actually based on a comic written by Lukas Moodysson's wife Coco Moodysson. I'm unfamiliar with her work, but apparently it's often autobiographical. She was born in 1970 and the movie is about 13 year old girls, set in the early 1980s, so I guess it's not a stretch to assume that some of Coco Moodysson's experiences as a teen found it's way to this project. Then again, this is just speculation.

Yep:

Moodysson’s new film is an adaptation of a graphic novel by his wife, Coco, a fictionalized take on her own teenage years as a punk rocker.

Love this quote from Moodysson in the same piece:

"I’m not really a big fan of the Internet in general, but Tumblr I really like because it’s so much about being a fan of things,” he said. “I think it’s important in life not to be too grownup, to continue to be a fan of things and just really like things the way you did when you were 13 years old. And that’s sometimes forgotten when you grow up."

Great news: Magnolia Acquires Lukas Moodysson's 'We Are The Best!'

That is great news, sounds like we're gonna get our first Moodysson on English-friendly Blu-ray! And I'll be able to see it at a reasonable date since Magnolia does In Theatres Now On Demand

That's fantastic! I suppose there could potentially be more good Moodysson news on the horizon as MGM's rights to IFC's Together have expired, and it's theoretically available to Criterion now. Hopefully Strand's license for Fucking Åmål will expire eventually.

domino harvey wrote:That is great news, sounds like we're gonna get our first Moodysson on English-friendly Blu-ray! And I'll be able to see it at a reasonable date since Magnolia does In Theatres Now On Demand

The Scandinavian Mammut BD is English friendly. Not his best movie, and the BD is just ok, but there you go. Now Together on BD, that I would be interested in.

This is already readily available in 1080p for people who are the best. And it's an absolute charmer.

Oh, way beyond that: it's a straight-up masterpiece. I can hardly be accused of only being a fair-weather Moodysson fan (I was one of the few to defend Mammoth upon release), but this is exactly the film anyone who loved Fucking Åmål has been waiting for. Moodysson's keen eye with regards to capturing youth (especially, it must be said after Fucking Åmål, Lilja 4-Ever, and this, young girls) is so well-suited to the story of these three girls and the three astonishing child actresses who embody their roles that there are multiple times over the course of the picture when I literally couldn't even believe the film was so good. It's also easily Moodysson's most laugh out loud funny film (and one of the funniest pics I've seen from anyone in some time). I was in tears from laughing so hard several times throughout, and the laughs come from such a warm and honest place that it feels almost therapeutic. Moodysson is of course unafraid of painting his characters without the use of stock solutions and machinations, and the girls, especially Klara, frequently say some truly awful shit perfectly tuned to an 8th grader's view of rebellion. There are no weak links here, but my favorite character has to be the unlikely third member of the band, Hedvig, who is shunned by the rest of the school for being overtly Christian and yet finds kinship with the two atheist girls. Some of the film's finest moments come from her trying to navigate their world on her way towards making it hers as well. It's telling that she's the one in the climactic performance to first shout-out the film's titular line, and it's a wonderfully observed victory in a film with lots of competition for best moments.

What an exhilarating moviegoing experience! Lists of the best films ever to deal with youth just got one title longer, and near the top.

Well I didn't want to risk overselling it, but you may be right!

One of my favorite scenes, which shows just how much the film upends expectations, how much compassion Moodysson has for all of his characters, and how much fun this thing is:

Spoiler

Hedvig shows up to lunch the day after the haircut confrontation. Bobo and Klara assume that the band/world is now over, and approach her on the defensive. Hedvig surprises them by admitting that she assumed they'd never want to speak to her again, and then apologizing for her mom (who would have been an easy villain in most any other film). The other two girls brush it right off, readily confessing that her mom was right to do what she did. And then, just to show that there are no hard feelings...FOOD FIGHT!

Moodysson has been playing on my mind lately due to reading about the content of Blue Is The Warmest Colour, which I have not seen yet. For those who have seen both, how would you all compare the representations of the girls there with Moodysson's films?

Jeff wrote:

"I’m not really a big fan of the Internet in general, but Tumblr I really like because it’s so much about being a fan of things,” he said. “I think it’s important in life not to be too grownup, to continue to be a fan of things and just really like things the way you did when you were 13 years old. And that’s sometimes forgotten when you grow up."

Here's Moodysson's Tumblr, which I discovered after he liked my post about this film!

LQ and I had tickets to this at the Philadelphia Film Festival last year and ended up preoccupied with something else - sounds like we picked the wrong film to flake on!

domino harvey wrote:

Jeff wrote:

"I’m not really a big fan of the Internet in general, but Tumblr I really like because it’s so much about being a fan of things,” he said. “I think it’s important in life not to be too grownup, to continue to be a fan of things and just really like things the way you did when you were 13 years old. And that’s sometimes forgotten when you grow up."

Here's Moodysson's Tumblr, which I discovered after he liked my post about this film!

Ha! Same here. Couldn't believe it was really him at first. If you follow him, prep yourself for a flood of posts about Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, and the political situation in Ukraine...

Now you tell me. When I looked at it yesterday I mostly noticed Miley Cyrus, pens, Robert Smith, figure skaters, and the kind of "cute" pictures that are catnip on Tumblr. No judgment implied. I enjoyed the gif of Smith drinking vodka out of a plastic cup and grimacing.

Despite never posting any of those things, this happened this morning:

The film finally gets a halfway-decent poster for its US release: