By Zulay Regalado, 25, reporting from Miami on a sweet Swedish film about two girls who start a punk band
We Are The Best is all about girl power and wild hair—and I mean that in the best ways. This sweet, Swedish film touches on every element of the adolescent spectrum, from awkward crushes to unmistakably homemade haircuts and dreams of starting your own hugely successful band with your closest friends.
Anyway, in this film we first meet Bobo and Klara, two 13-year-old, punk-rock-loving best friends in early-80s Stockholm who don’t quite fit in with other girls at school. Meaning they’re much cooler. These girls embody everything I wish I could’ve been at their age: adventurous, fiercely original and brave with instruments, including musical ones that are new to them and a pair of scissors. (They both rock some killer punk mohawks; me, I accidentally gave myself a mullet in the seventh grade that I still haven’t emotionally recovered from.)
Together they recruit shy, conservative and insanely talented guitar-playing classmate, Hedvig, and form an all-girl punk band. You’re cheering them on as they learn to make music to defy their social counterparts, showing the world that it’s OK—better than OK—to be the outcast. That’s what punk was built on. That and awesome haircuts. I’m sorry, but I’m still not over all the pixie-meets-rocker looks in this movie.
The film is equal parts humor (their first band rehearsal is pretty much what my Spice Girls tribute band would’ve sounded like) and drama (all love triangles and musical rivalries and embarrassing parents playing the clarinet in their underwear). Thankfully neither of my parents ever owned a clarinet. Still, the story is powerfully, irresistably relatable.
For those of you who can’t find the film in your local artsy theatre, We Are the Best is available on Google Play and Amazon. Oh, and pay close attention to Hedvig’s acoustic rendition of Sex noll tva (“Six Zero Two”) by Swedish punk band KSMB and thank me later. Or just join my band! Make music, make a difference. Change your hair, change the world? This movie is the best.