tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1137730880076755122.post4917893831181244907..comments2024-03-08T03:14:02.855+11:00Comments on This Island Rod: We Are the Best! (Vi Är Bäst!, 2013)Roderick Heathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08107539379079558068noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1137730880076755122.post-11099142808650587322015-01-12T02:10:57.119+11:002015-01-12T02:10:57.119+11:00An interesting and excellent comment there Rob. Th...An interesting and excellent comment there Rob. The thing is, nearly everything you've said can be said for me too, and I think it's that generalised, fits-all, "Yeah, me too!" quality that actually turned me off at some level. I can also see your point about the film's lightness standing out in a heavy year of moviegoing, but I just didn't find it that great. A pleasant little divertissement, nothing more, nothing less. Roderick Heathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08107539379079558068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1137730880076755122.post-90751172830778493882015-01-11T03:45:37.730+11:002015-01-11T03:45:37.730+11:00I definitely see your negative points, especially ...I definitely see your negative points, especially on the film's tendency to breeze across the surface of the girls' troubles and its being a bit too "squeaky clean and blithely tempered" given the girls' passion is punk rock for goodness sake. But for me, though this is a poor metric for thoughtful judgment of a film, it was all about timing: the movie's lack of real probing depth came as a welcome relief from the glut of heavy, portentous, psychologically aggressive fare I've subjected myself too this last month - Calvary, Nightcrawler, Birdman, Unbroken, Foxcatcher, Whiplash, the bludgeoning list goes on. The ultimate affect of We Are the Best! for me, nailed down by the end credits sequence showing the girls "crushing capitalism" at a fast food counter with smiles aplenty, as opposed to snarls of actual anarchy, was of having witnessed a specific phase of the girls' lives in a way they probably remember it now over three decades later, with the darker shades of loves lost and musical triumphs gained long since smoothed round by nostalgia and perspective. It was actually funny and knowing to me throughout that these girls, who seem only marginally marginalized (might seem more so in their memories, in order to preserve the self-mythology), would over-express themselves with such a raucous musical form, one that they could never actually understand at that age, given their safe, accepting homes. They didn't remind me of me so much, as I was more like quiet Hedvig, only without the cojones to actually join in those sorts of antics, but they did remind me of many friends I had at that age who acted out in a way that (even to my barely pubescent mind) seemed somehow uninformed. The whole experience of the movie was like remembering my own junior high school days, rough as they were, but with the edges completely chiseled off by time.Roberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10667380722587782819noreply@blogger.com