But boy am I glad that there is a forum and even a whole site dedicated to it! It certainly deserves it. I'm so thankful to everybody who has made this site and this forum and all these resources available.
I was actually going through withdrawal today cause I returned the movie yesterday to Netflix and immediately regretted it. I shoulda kept it and watched it a few hundred more times before returning it! haha. But I felt like I had totally related to and fallen in love with the two main characters so much that when the movie ended and I returned it, I felt like it was the end of something really big. And even though it's a happy and optimistic ending, it made me sad because that's the last I can know of that story... it won't continue, it's like losing 2 good friends.
Anyway, I hope I'm not being too melodramatic. It's just the teenager in me that comes out if I am, because this movie really does bring me back to that time in my life (I'm 28 now, straight male, if that matters). Some of the things I love about this film:
- the acting is superb. I have rarely seen acting this good, and never have I seen acting this good by a teenager. The subtleties and everything are so well done. I love watching Agnes during the O-boy scene, it's so real I could die! You can see so many things aside from the obvious (happiness, amusement, etc.) you can also see that she is a little bit nervous and self conscious (I love when she scratches her face, sorta... I don't know why).
- I loved how all the characters were treated as complexly as possible, even though a lot of them didn't have as much screen time. I felt for Johan even though I understood why he had to be dumped.. in a lesser movie, he would have been made out into a villain or something
- I love how the 2 main characters have flaws that the film doesn't try to hide from you
- I love the parents, who obviously care... and aren't villians either.
- I love that they ended on the O-boy scene instead of the coming out scene. It is one of my favorite scenes and it is says so much about everything (the characters, the future, etc.) without directly spelling it out for you
- I loved the use of music that the characters are actually listening to in real life. It makes it seem that much more real as opposed to a "soundtrack" that is mixed in. I also love how the music sounds so un-mixed in... Like it feels documentary like.
- this point is related to the last one... I love how the director has kind of a REALISTIC approach to the material, and yet at the same time he doesn't feel tied down to being realistic. It's not like the dogma school where the approach defines the movie. Here, if he feels like being a little bit unrealistic and if it benefits the story, he does it. What I mean is that in the kissing scene, the music swells up, when in real life it obviously won't do that since it's just coming from the car radio. This at first seems like a flaw in a movie that kind of tries to be completely honest to how things REALLY happen. But the way it is done is so OBVIOUS that it makes you feel like YES he is manipulating your emotions and it is intentional. But you allow your emotions to be manipulated because you're aware that the director is aware of it, and it's not like just something he was trying to sneak past you (like many hollylwood manipulations seem to do). Also: because the rest of the movie is so realistic, it makes these manipulations even more powerful.
- I hope that made sense
- I also love how all the dramatic scenes are immediately undercut. It's SO like real life esp. as a teenager when you want so bad to make everything dramatic and beautiful and full of self-pity. But then it's not how it ends up, it just ends up awkward and painfully real. Like in the car scene, I love how the audience is drawn into that kiss, with the music and everything, but I love just as much how short lasting it is and how quickly and abruptly it is interrupted by this kinda real-life figure. "Is this Candid Camera?" I love that! It's just how life is, you want these moments to be bigger than life, but no, life isn't there to help you dramatize things.
- I love that it ends where it ends and how short it was. At the end I was definately like I WANT TO SEE MORE but I also realize that if it went on longer it would kinda diminish the movie as a whole. It's about a very tiny thing and it does that thing well. I like how it doesn't promise us anything as in happily ever after or anything. It's very honest that this is what we have at the end, which is a happy thing, but we know very well that it may not last. But "it doesn't matter" as Elin says. That is such a good message I think.
- I love the restraint that is practiced here. It is easy for a lesbian movie to have lots of gratuitous scenes of sex and stuff. But that isn't what this movie is about. Those scenes would ruin what this movie is about. The only scene where any real physical expression of love happens is in the car, and that's perfect because it makes it better and more RARE. It makes you really kinda savor it, like a really good moment in your own life that you may try to remember every detail of. I think restraint is very important in showing love in movies, because movies these days show so much physical sex that it becomes totally meaningless. Whereas a movie like this, or a movie like "In the Mood For Love" (which is all about a love affair but has NO kind sex or even kissing) is so effective because it keeps you wanting that element and then you realize that you shouldn't want that element because that's not what love is about, but that movies have trained you to associate that with love. And that is why it is so great that it's not there!
If I had to say anything I didn't like about the movie, it would be the bathroom/out of the closet scene. I loved it in terms of the acting and everything, but I thought the physical and literal-ness of the "coming out of the closet" seemed a bit cheesy and hokey... haha. I do understand the need for it, but felt like the symbolism was a bit strong.
I think Moodysson realized this too, which is why he ended on the O-Boy scene which undercuts it in the best way possible.
Okay I have rambled way too long, I hope this is okay with you because I am obsessed right now and I'm sure you all understand because you've been through it too
~j
