Resembling a Swedish after-school special tailored for American art houses, Lukas Moodysson’s We Are the Best tells of two girls who, in the Stockholm of 1982, decide to become punk rockers and enlist a third girl to form a band, which is never within a million miles of being good, even by the ragged standards of punk, but still considers itself to be the best. The film’s winsome, self-satisfied comedy will no doubt appeal more to viewers who prize juvenile hi-jinks over the cultural moment it depicts.
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As anyone familiar with punk during its late- 70s/early- 80s heyday will recall, its musicians were overwhelmingly males in their late teens and early 20s. Still, taking that reality and spinning in a female direction is a perfectly valid idea. The curious thing here, though, is that the two main girls, doughy Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) and impish Klara (Mira Grosin), look like boys, and not just because of their unflattering haircuts and lack of makeup. Though they
A Quiet Place, Film 4, 9pm One of the most inventive horror films for many a moon was directed and co-written by John Krasinski, star of the US version of The Office and the TV take on Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. Krasinksi also appears in one of the lead roles here, alongside his real-life wife Emily Blunt. They play Lee and Evelyn Abbott who are battling to keep themselves and their children alive in terrifying circumstances: most of the world’s population has been wiped out by carnivorous blind creatures that are hypersensitive to noise, a trait which allows them to hone in on potential victims at super-fast speed. Matters come to a head for the Abbotts when pregnant Evelyn goes into labour while alone at the deserted house they now call home. Noah Jupe, the young British star who recently appeared in The Undoing, also stars. A sequel is set to be released later this year.