Generally, the muppet look isn’t one you find on the big screen … aside from Muppet movies, of course. We open with Bobo (Mira Barkhammar), a bespectacled Swedish thirteen-year-old. I’m gonna forgive myself for not knowing if Bobo were a boy or girl – the face is young, the secondary sex characteristics invisible, the voice undecided, and has a friend who is all kinds of aggressive. Yeah, it doesn’t help when mohawked Klara (Mira Grosin. You’re both named “Mira?”) shows up. She looks like the wide-eyed kid who’s always auditioning for the part of head toady in the local gang. I do not know if it was writer/director Lukas Moodysson’s intention to offer up androgyny in his tale of two punks, but androgyny happened. Occasionally there’s a dead giveaway – like the pair hugging to celebrate a victory, but otherwise, am I watching boys or girls? And does it matter in the least?
Bobo and Klara have unsatisfying home lives. Like many teens, they’ve decided to mask personal insecurity with a love of harsh music, specifically punk rock. Busybody Klara has clearly influenced the meeker Bobo to ruin her own hair in the process. Bobo really does look like one of those “human” muppets. Klara has also taken over their collective taste in music; punk is very unusual for 1982 Stockholm. Now here I thought we were getting a “building a band” movie — every afternoon, the girls hang out at a local rec center for, I’m guessing, troubled teens, although none of the teens looked particularly troubled. When the older group claims the music room for their band practice, Klara and Bobo protest, mostly out of earache. Then we get one of those “ah, this isn’t the United States,” moments – the girls notice that the offending band “Iron Fist” has failed to register the music room properly and take advantage. Hey, rules are rules.
Despite the protests to the contrary, the girls have talent on par with the original Bill & Ted. Three chords and spit? These two don’t even have the chords down. That doesn’t stop music. It doesn’t matter whether you look like a muppet or even play like one, music is limited only by inhibition. Good music takes a little more, of course. Inspired by a rotten day in Phys. Ed., the two write “Hate the Sport!” a song with a great deal of energy and not an ounce of merit. It goes, I’m paraphrasing here, “♪HATE THE SPORT! HATE THE SPORT! HATE THE SPORT! HATE THE SPORT!♫” I don’t speak Swedish, so it’s possible something was lost in translation.
ID’ing a like soul, and one with actual music talent, the pair acquire Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne, not a Mira!), who is neither angry, nor a screech owl. And she kicks ass on 
acoustic guitar. Ah, we are building a band, aren’t we? Ok, let’s see who shows up next. It was about this time I wondered if they’d actually start getting better when instead they start hittin’ on a boy punk band in Solna, one town over. Oh, fighting over boys? Hey, this isn’t a band film at all … this is a coming-of-age film! You lied to me!
Well, I’m not complaining. Or not much at least. Funny how a teen girl can be the exact opposite of what you expect a teen girl to be and still act, in part, exactly as you expect a teen girl to act. Some battles are universal. Fake band or no, their first concert was nothing shy of brilliant. I’d be surprised if I ever saw any of this threesome again, but if I did, I’d be excited to point out, “I saw her in We Are the Best!”
♪Shout
Shout off tune
Shout out loud
Like a goon
Shout of phys ed and lunch
Shout til folks hate you a bunch
Shout
Shout some words
If possible
Your lyrics sound absurds
Don’t worry if you’re not quite the age
To command a Swedish stage
Just shout
Shout some words♫
Rated NR, 102 Minutes
D: Lukas Moodysson
W: Lukas Moodysson
Genre: Birth of a band, no! Psych!
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Swedish punks
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Musicians
♪ Parody inspired by “Sing a Song”
