WE ARE THE BEST! (Vi är Bäst!) plays TIFF 2013

The first few years of being a teenager can really suck sometimes. In that stretch of time when one’s parents begin to be a real drag, and what was so much fun just a year ago now seems childish, the world can become a very confusing place. You don’t know who are yet, but you definitely know who you aren’t. WE ARE THE BEST! is a tender look at that confusing time in-between, and the way we fumble to work through it.

As the film begins in 1982, we are introduced to two teenage girls named Klara and Bobo. They don’t get along well with their parents – adults who either don’t care enough or care too much – and they certainly don’t get along with their schoolmates. One afternoon while at an after-school social club, they decide to try their hand at music. With both of them being fans of punk music (even though all around them say that “punk is dead”), they attempt to play something that would make Siouxy proud. The results are what you’d expect.

Soon though, they make another friend – a prim Christian classmate named Hedvig. Hedvig is a talented guitarist, but like Klara and Bobo, has no friends. As their timid friendship is born, so too is the great DIY spirit that so much great music came from.

What’s great about WE ARE THE BEST! is the authenticity it comes with and the relationships it portrays.

From the moment we see Klara and Bobo pick up drumsticks and a bass, we feel a twinge of worry that they are about to wail into a song with the natural talent of Joe Strummer. Happily though, the sound they produce is a sound that you would expect from two thirteen-year-olds who have never played a note. It’s droning, it’s cacophonous, and as admirable a credo as “Hate the Sport” is – they don’t have the talent to fully express it. Even when Hedvig joins them, she is still only able to get them to a low threshold.

Seeing this is actually refreshing, since a western film would likely turn the girls into The Runaways overnight. But seeing their passion outrun their ability gives the story an unexpected authenticity.

The other element that makes the film so wonderful is the way it paints the girls’ relationships. There’s a caring but complicated dynamic in play between Klara and Bobo. It affects what they do, where they go, and even what instruments they play. We sense feelings of isolation from Bobo, but we also sense that they aren’t deep enough for her to strike out on her own. Their relationship is both loving and complicated, and it all stems from the sorts of things our typical 13-year-old keeps bottled up. The same goes for Hedvig, who is both moved by the feeling of making new friends, but likewise insecure in the face of two people more comfortable with who they are.

Put it all together, and you have a story that moves the audience and makes them want to throw some horns in the air.

WE ARE THE BEST! is a subtle portrait of an unsubtle time in our lives. It beautifully captures that spirit of doing something first, and then learning how to do it after…something that exemplifies the spirit of youth.