Show Me Love Reviews

F***ing Amal vs F***ing dawson's creek

Naturalistic dialogue, atmosphere and dynamite performances turn what could have been an 85 minute rite of passage nightmare into a believable, emotionally true teenage love story.

Though more focused and less fluffy than Together, Show Me Love has the same warmth, humour and humanity, and is in the same way unafraid to be cruel and optimisic at the same time amid the adolescent angst and boredom on display in small town sweden (in all its glory). This film nails teenage frustration and longing without melodrama or self-indulgence.

An Essential Watch

Show Me Love, by Lukas Moodysson, is essential viewing.

By turns funny, romantic, sad and honest, this film about the relationship between two girls in a provincial Swedish town is one of the most affecting, cool and adorable films you will ever see.

Friendless Agnes is in love with Elin. Elin is bored with her life. But when Elin finds herself falling for Agnes after a bizarre bithday party, she starts to question what and who she wants.

The portrayal of teenage life is realistic and funny, the central romance is believable and ultimately heart-warming, if you like film, you'll love 'Show Me Love'

Swedes don't pull their punches

To make films like this, director Lukas Moodysson would have to be sharp, sensitive, observant, and to have lived through the dark side of ordinary life without getting painfully melancholy about it (unlike his countryman Bergman). What happens when a 'cool' teenage girl meets the 'dorky' teenage girl at school? (And how on earth does Moodysson know that?) This is a meticulous and entertaining portrait of small-town angst, the anatomy of loneliness, teenage boredom, anger and love. I preferred the original Swedish title though (a litany of obscenities); Swedes don't pull their punches.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Show Me Love / F**king Amal

Lukas Moodysson debuts with this, a fine coming of age movie.

Agnes, 16, is in love with 14 year old Elin from afar but when, after Agnes complete failure of a birthday party, they kiss it begins a tentative relationship that Elin spends much of her time trying to deny her interest in.

As a character piece Show Me Love hinges on the main performances and both Alexandra Dahlström as Elin and Rebecca Liljeberg as Agnes are impressive. The performances are almost the antithesis of each other; Dahlstrom is all sound and fury(she even appears to kiss with quite some force, as she does when Elin and Agnes have their first real kiss) whereas Liljeberg gives a much more inward looking performance, quiet and cmposed, different as they are each is convincing and compelling.

Moodysson is wisely unflashy, using a grainy handheld technique serves the film well, making it feel very real.

Some of the supporting cast aren't great and the character of Johan is painfully thin, a cipher even but the core of the film, the will they won't they between Elin and Agnes works beautifully and is resolved in a hugely satisfying moment (which should end the film, which continues for another brief scene thereafter). It's a confident debut, and one Moodysson would top in films to come, and worth seeing to see one of Europe's most interesting new directors make his first steps in cinema.

Not Swedish lesbo action

Put your dirty mac away - this film may be about a lesbian relationship between Swedish schoolgirls, but it's free of any gratuitous sexual content. This is a heartwarming film with a wonderful, witty script that is superbly acted by the talented young cast. This film captures the agony and ecstacy of being an adolescent with warmth and humour. Ultimately, this is a feelgood film, but it's free of any sentimentality. I loved it.

Smallville, Anywhere

Amal in the east of Sweden is a remote little town where nothing ever happens, a nightmare for adventurous teens which explains the original title of F**king Amal. One of those adventurous teenagers, Elin, wants to go to a rave but stops fighting with her sister just long enough to discover that raves are out before they've even arrived in Amal. Elin’s classmate, Agnes, just wants Elin. Neither girl is happy. Elin is disgusted with the life style of the adult women she sees around her, they get married, have kids and when they get older get dumped for someone younger. Agnes can't find a friend at her new school. She is persuaded by her well meaning mother to have a birthday party but no-one comes except for a girl in a wheelchair who Agnes promptly throws out in a frustrated rage. Later Elin and her older sister turn up and for a bet Elin kisses the lovelorn Agnes. The next day at school Elin claims that kissing a girl was disgusting but she is sufficiently intrigued, even if it is only by the thought of trying something new, to begin to explore the new possibilities that are opening up in front of her.

Lukas Moodysson's debut film is an warm and sympathetic exploration of the struggles of very young teenagers, unsure of themselves, their place in the world and their gender orientation. The script packs a lot of incident into the mere 86 minute running time and it draws a very sympathetic portrait of the main protagonists as they try haltingly to express their emotions, full of foul language as they give vent to their frustrations. The only long articulate speeches are made by adults. There are wry thumbnail sketches of the other characters which don’t make them too stereotypical; the caring father who tries unsuccessfully to comfort his distraught daughter, the mother who has a liberal attitude to homosexuals until she discovers that her daughter is a lesbian.

The two young leads perform very well making their sudden transitions between 'normality' and sudden rage or despair entirely believable. Rebecka Liljeberg has a wonderful habit of rolling her eyes up as she tries to think of what to say next.

The photography has a dogme look to it as if it the cameraman was relying on available lighting instead of using floods and spots. This mutes the colours and darkens the image pointing up the drabness of the town although the location shots were filmed in Trollhatten not Amal. Very noticeable is an almost excessive reliance on close-ups. This gives the movie a claustrophobic feel which maybe Moodysson intended to reflect the lack of variety in the lives of small town teenagers but it is strongly reminiscent of TV soaps and sitcoms although maybe as Swedish TV had a hand in the production perhaps that is not surprising.

Much of its popularity lies in the fact that although it is set in Sweden it could be any small town in any part of the industrial world. This is a very entertaining love story although I cannot help but wonder if it would have the same appeal if it had been about a couple of boys.

well-rounded teenage angst

'Show me Love' engaged me from the first moment with its protrayal of brutal adolescence.

Of course, a director can throw in a bit of lesbianism, girly spite and boy territorial machismo, but what sets this film aside from an American teen flick is the successful attempt to portray the complexity of teenagers in testing situations. Here, we see the pull between adult sensibilities and childishness, reflection and regret alongside thoughtless impetuosity.

'Show me love' is somehow a film with a heart which at the same time pulls no punches and leaves us heartwarmed

Are you watching Hollywood

A truly great and brave film that tackles a subject sensitively and is realistic. If this was hollywood then it would be girl meets boy. However this is Top girl in school meets outsider. Agnes knows she's a lesbian, Erica finds out she has lesbian feelings. Despite the subject material this film remains thoughtful and believable throughout. I would reccommend however I warn you that it is subtitled.

Just wonderful

This is my favourite gay movie and I never grow tired of its charms.

Lukas Moodyson captures the angst of Agnes perfectly, showing very honestly, her near-suicide after being humiliated at her 16th birthday party. But the movie soon picks up the mood as a bond begins to form between Agnes and Elin. There are some wonderful comic moments, particularly from Elin, whose indignant grunts made me laugh out loud a few times.

If you've seen Moodyson's 'Together' you'll know his films have a real quirkyness and charm to them - he doesn't shy away from difficult issues but ultimately the films are upbeat. 'Show Me Love' is exactly that - painfully realistic yet also funny, a wonderfully innocent romance. See this and 'Together' and you'll be having a great day.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Interesting take on the teenaage traumas

Interesting take on the teenage trauma(s). Well acted.