Show Me Love
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Movie Reviews of Show Me Love
Movie Review: A seriously excellent film
Summary: 5 Stars
Show me Love (nee "F****** Amal) is perhaps the most realistic portrayal of early teenage life other than Todd Solondz's Welcome to the Dollhouse, except with more tenderness and heart. I would not categorize this film as a "lesbian" movie because the story could have been about a heterosexual couple and it still would have maintained its emotional grab on the viewer. The two leads' acting was very naturalistic. It was almost like watching a documentary; that's how brutally and unsparingly this film and its team of talented young actors capture the realities of the teenage social scene and the pain and contradiction of being in love and being a teenager. The two leads actually looked 15, unlike movies in which 26 year olds play high school students.
I was very impressed by the tenderness between Agnes and Elin. When they kiss, emotional fireworks go off. The setup and payoff of that single kiss is so well-earned and glorious that it was worthy of applause.
the story may seem cliche, but the execution is far from it. Agnes is a dark-haired, depressed, brooding youth. She knows she's gay. Elin, on the other hand, is popular and blonde, and jokingly says "I'm going to be a lesbian when I grow up." It's not long before we realize that that statement holds more power than we thought.
During Agnes's disastrously painful birthday party (complete with Solondz'esque teenage cruelty) she gets to know Elin in a sort of ironic, yet ultimately realistic way. Elin does a cruel homophobic thing to Agnes after being pressured by her "friend." Just as Agnes is slitting her wrists as a result of the mean joke, Elin comes back to give a heartfelt apology. The two strike up a chemistry together and it is because of this chemistry that their relationship so brilliant and full and wonderful.
I really like this movie, and am usually pretty critical of dialogue-heavy movies shot on DV. But the heart and intelligence of the script and acting make this movie very powerful; the oversaturated ugliness of the DV give the documentary feel and is perfectly appropriate for a story about people in a town and environment (Amal, Sweden) that they find hideous in every way.
Show me Love is a movie that might be overlooked. If you have an opportunity to see it, don't pass it up!
Movie Review: A beautiful movie
Summary: 5 Stars
'Show Me Love' is a truly beautiful and enchanting film. Despite it being based on the lives of teenagers in a small Swedish town, the subject matter is one that will strike an emotional chord with people from all age groups and all walks of life. This is a brilliant movie about the life of some people in a boring small town in Sweden. It's about being an outsider, like Agnes (Rebecca Liljeberg) and the difficulties about being popular, like Elin (Alexandra Dahlström), who discovers a new side of herself. This is not only a film about lesbians and a problematic love story. It's also a movie about life, love and about prejudice. Agnes mother says she has nothing against lesbians, but it's really hard for her to accept that her daughter is. All the charachters in this movie are very good, the lead characters are, and also the smaller ones, especially Jessica, Elin's sister, Agnes's parents and Johan and Marcus. And the actors are great in their roles. I dont know how the director got such honest performances from actresses so young, especially Elin and Agnes characters but he did a good job of it.
Of all the countless portrayals of teenage life that have been created by the world of cinema, none compare to 'Show Me Love' in terms of truth and realism. Within 'Show Me Love' Lucas Moodysson strikes a beautiful balance of emotion that will appeal to most viewers. He allows his characters to express passion and unrequited love, without ever slipping into overdone, Hollywood style shmaltz. Conversely he also allows his characters to undergo pain and suffering, without ever letting the tone become too bleak. It truly is a film that aches with realism.
"A completely reality-based romantic fantasy, both sweet natured and sympathetic. Best of all, though its central romance is between two girls, 'Show Me Love' couldn't be further more from a specialty film geared to a niche audience. This film makes room for all of us, creating a world we will cherish no matter who we are of whom we love."
Lucas Moodysson has made a brillant movie, a rare moving film that will take your heart away. There is no question about it, this one of the finest love stories created and Moodysson's best work.
Movie Review: A Sad Tale From Rural Sweden Anno 1998
Summary: 5 Stars
I remember seeing this film several times when it hit Scandinavia with a storm in the 90's, it blew me away then, just as it did as I saw it again today. Apart from one disgusting unnecessary scene, I think it is a really beautiful film that manages to capture the feeling of what it meant to grow up in rural Scandinavia in the 90's. The film has several main characters, although Agnes, played by Sami actress Liljeberg is probably the main one. She is 14 years old and according to the plotline the loneliest person in the whole world. She is madly in love with Elin, played by Alexandra Dahlstrøm, the prettiest and most popular girl in their high-school. Elin's 16 year old sister; Jessica, is the girlfriend of the shallow Markus, whose best friend, Johan, is madly in love with Elin. Quite a labyrinth of love, so to speak.
The whole lesbian-thing is not something that should put you off from the film; they are just confused kids and would probably grow out of it in the real world. For me the real story is the story of Johan Hult, the somewhat introspective precocious youth caught in the mindless plebeian attitude of his peers. I recognize so much of myself while younger in Johan that it is painful for me to watch this film. I was caught in a very similar situation (without the lesbian-thing, of course) for years while their age. The film captures perfectly the both wonderful and horrible feeling of being young and new to love, while at the same time they are in many ways young adults. So if you want to know what it was like growing up in rural Europe in the 90's, or anyplace for that matter, look no further. Beware that it is a painful film to watch at times, though. There are so many great actors in the film; Johan, Agnes' father, Agnes, Elin and several others. Agnes' father has some very important words to say to those that stand out among teeming masses of plebeians in this descending world.
Highly recommended for both previous teenagers and current ones, with the added bonus of a more or less all-European cast. 5 stars.
Movie Review: An empathetic wonder
Summary: 5 Stars
You may have heard that Show Me Love's original Swedish title was F***ing Amal, and to explain the movie, let's put that title in context. In a wonderful scene, Agnes (Rebecka Liljeberg) and Elin (Alexandra Dahlstrom), the two main characters, sit in the back of a stranger's car before suddenly, excitingly kissing each other. Elin, says to Agnes, who we've seen in pits of loneliness and isolation, that she is only lonely as a lesbian, "Because you live in f***ing Amal; if you lived in Stockholm, you'd have a million girlfriends." Maybe that would be true, maybe it wouldn't, but that title and that line tap into that true sense of teens - and maybe all of us - that just want to be alive and free and living as they see fit. Show Me Love goes is a marvel in that it shows teens as they truly are - competitive, self-centered, confused, immature, but capable of great love and friendship and sympathy and wisdom. We get to see Elin's aggressive, loving relationship with her sister Jessica (Erica Carlson), and their relationships with their equally confused young boyfriends Johan and Marcus (Mathias Rust and Stefan Horberg), and as each additional person shows up, another person and relationship we recognize as true seems to materialize. Johan spends time in the mirror adjusting his hat so it looks cool enough, Jessica and Elin get in shouting matches about chocolate milk, and Agnes, in a fit of anger, humiliates her only friend only to cry to her father minutes later that "No one will ever like me!" In other words, they act like we did, and Show Me Love observes them with utter acceptance and humanity. Lukas Moodyson's next two movies, Together and Lilya 4-Ever, are full of the same wide-eyed understanding, but in a way Show Me Love is his purest movie, and his easiest to empathize with. The ending is pat for the honesty we've seen throughout, but it's also so pleasing and silly and great, it barely matters - by the time we get there, nothing could disrupt the love we've built for these characters.Movie Review: A moving film about two Real girls in high skool
Summary: 5 Stars
This film took me back in time to age 15 when the only thing that mattered was how many friends you had, how popular you were, & your status in the social pecking order. High school society is about the most meaningless, inane, irrational, and unproductive place in the world one can be. It is almost better to be dead than to go to school every day, a point that Agnes evidently concurred with (and uh, no, she doesn't die)...
This is the messed-up and decadent reality of the modern world, where youth are idle, and have nothing to do with their time except obsess over shallow, hurtful social war-games. Our society does not engage young people in helping to solve today's problems; and so, many problems (like the lost of our manufacturing in the U.S.A., or our export of jobs and careers, and the demise of the American middle class, and the environment) simply do not get fixed, and people grow up callous and uninterested in solving social problems. This film indicts the entire system of education, which needs to be overturned and revised...
I call the two main characters "Real" girls, in contrast to the other girls in this film, who are not real, but are phony, obsessed with playing the game and with getting into other people's business. I do not idealize lesbians in particular, but to the extent that they are Real and willing to buck the social system and be Themselves, they are highly Admirable.
These two girls have different personalities from each other, and it would have been really interesting to see how their relationship progressed over time. But this movie is about First Love (Lesbian), and only involves the initial stage, somewhere between Rejection and Acceptance.
I won't tell you how the movie ends, but it is very Moving and highly Recommended. I really feel for Agnes.