We Are The Best!

We Are The Best! follows Bobo and Klara, two 12-year-old punks in 1980s Stockholm.

But they’re not fully accepted by the scene – they’re told that punk is dead, then that women can’t be punk – but they’re not deterred, not even by the small problem that neither of them know how to play their instruments. They enlist the help of acoustic guitarist Hedvig, and a band is formed, as well as a friendship that withstands boy trouble, parental interference, and the everyday minutiae of being your run-of-the-mill outsider school student.

And that’s the only problem with this film. It’s sweet, and at times raw (any time an insight is given into the personal lives of their parents), but it’s ultimately a run-of-the-mill outsider narrative. ‘These girls aren’t the same as the others’ has been done time and time again, to the point where the outsider character and their battles with authority and other people, are as clichéd as the “popular” group they react to.

Artfully shot, the images of the Swedish scenery are arresting, and the songs are humorous adolescent power-chord punk,  but it doesn’t feel like much more than your regular coming-of-age story. A heartwarming narrative about adolescence and friendship, but without enough bite to stay with its audience for long.