November 12, 2014 -- This is a better than average coming of age story about three girls who form a punk rock band in Sweden despite some big obstacles, such as not having musical instruments and not knowing how to play them. But mostly, it is just about the very messy, sometimes funny business of growing up in the modern world. The film is adapted from the graphic novel “Never Goodnight” by Coco Moodysson and directed by her husband Lukas Moodysson.

The story takes place in Stockholm during the 1980s, after the decline of punk rock. Two young teenage girls, Bobo and Klara (Mira Barkhammar and Mira Grosin) start complaining about the noise from a band practicing in a youth activities center. They discover the band, which practices every Wednesday, neglected to schedule their practice session for that day, so they schedule themselves into the same area and arrange to have the other band kicked out. They play around with the drums and a bass guitar, but they really don't know what they are doing.

The two girls decide to form their own band and play punk rock music. Everyone tells them punk rock is dead, but they like it anyway. They recruit another girl, Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne) to play lead guitar, since she actually has a guitar (acoustic, not electric) and knows how to play it. Hedvig teaches the other two girls some basics, how to play chords, how to play in time, how to establish a beat and follow it.

The girls get along, but they have their squabbles over boyfriends. Bobo feels left out because the other two girls are more popular with boys. Bobo doesn't like playing the drums, but Klara won't give up the electric bass guitar and Hedvig is the only one of the three who can play lead guitar (even though it can't be heard over the other instruments). Eventually, the three girls learn to appreciate their friendship and their music.

For the most part, the music is real punk, fast, hard-edged, with anti-establishment lyrics. Klara writes a song about how she hates sports. When the girls play for their first audience they enrage the crowd to the point where they need bodyguards to protect them. They love it. That's punk. Despite the hatred from the audience and opinions to the contrary. They proclaim “We are the best!”

The characters in this film are very believable. The kids behave like you would expect typical kids would behave. Some of the adults in the film seem pretty strange, but it is a culture I'm not very familiar with. The kids have their problems, but they also have a lot of fun just being kids, and musicians. The three girls are full of life. They are excited about their potential and their possibilities. This movie is a tribute to the spirit and optimism of youth. This film rates a B.

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Copyright © 2014 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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