Show Me Love

Lukas Moodysson’s debut feature film is an affectionately humorous and candidly realistic look at the lives of a group of disaffected (are there any others?) teenagers living in the terminally boring Swedish town of Åmål (hence the film's original title "Fucking Åmål").

Reminiscent of the films of  Larry Clark, albeit with a slightly more conventional narrative form, Show Me Love convincingly captures the tedium of high school years and a home-life constrained by parental control as well as the first thrills of sexual exploration.

It is in the latter respect that the film assumes a more conventional Hollywood form despite the daringly unconventional relationship between self-consciously awkward just-turned 16-year old Agnes (Rebecka Liljeberg)  and the school’s most popular hottie, the precocious 14-year old, Elin (Alexandra Dahlstrom).  As is so often the case, Elin’s reputation as a wanton is very much a combination of her self-created image and the fantasy of the males who desire her. Agnes however discerns something more in her and the girl responds to it despite the potential ostracism that Agnes’s attentions will bring upon her.

Show Me Love works because it shows the teens with their thoughtlessness, cruelty, naivety and impatience to be independent  with unvarnished and unforced honesty.  The scenes with Elin’s older sister, Jessica (Erica Carlson), are particularly amusing whilst Agnes’ frustration with her caring-but-terribly-uncool parents are realized with well-observed accuracy.

 

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