Fucking Åmål

Usually when I flip through the channels and come across a foreign film, it's either an unrealistic sexual crazy flick or a Gerard Depardieu period piece with WAY too much dialogue....this sure was a pleasant surprise.

I'll admit-I'm skeptical when it comes to any movie anymore, much more so when it deals with teens, as so many films on adolescence are completely unrealistic. I started watching this expecting a false move any second now. .....A-any minute.....

But no. In fact, the beautiful acting was the first thing that took me by surprise. Everyone did a tremendous job..especially the character of Agnes...but everyone did great.

The second thing I noticed was the direction, which moved perfectly at all the right times. As someone mentioned, "directed with love", this certainly was...the characters set the pace and the tone...the camerawork let them do that.

The final thing.....the language. How glad I was that I got to hear those heartfelt Swedish sounds, spoken so earnestly, yet so carefully, like Nutella on toast! (Is that Swedish OK, well you get the idea, no? =)

I'd recommend this film to anyone...but even if you're like me, with a bit of ADD who likes to hide from anything "artsy", you will be pleasantly surprised!

I just have to leave my own praise for this wonderful film. No other film has ever touched me this way, and I don't think anything will ever surpass this.

Maybe it's because Lukas Moodysson and I share so much common values (Morrissey, obsession with teenage-romances and protective attitude towards that phase of life that is easily forgotten or denied.). As a 24 year old male I cannot watch this with dry eyes and I have seen this about 9 times. Rebecka Liljeberg's desperate eyes, thoroughly true blurted dialog, awkward silences and perfect resurrection for that old Foreigner song that doesn't fit into either of main character's musical taste, but will remain so important to them anyway... oh..

I raise my glass of chocolate milk for this achingly beautiful movie, without this my own past would be more dark and forgotten, but you, Lukas, Alexandra, Rebecka and the rest have reminded me what love is all about and why it's still worth seeking.

It's not just a good movie, it's one of those rare certainly good things on earth.

It took me awhile but I finally got around to watching this movie. The title "Fucking Amal" didn't sound too appealing, and knowing on top of that, it was a teenage lesbian love, well..... But I loved it. The two girls, Agnes and Elin, are such wonderful characters. They are teenagers in every way but who are so human at the same time. My complaint about most movies about teenagers is that they usually lack any humanity. They are often shown very one dimensionally, very cruel, shallow, and spoiled human beings and when they are finally shown to have redeeming qualities, it usually comes across as forced and/or overly sentimental. The reason I liked this movie and these characters was that they rang true, all the way through, and their bad qualities were just really masking the good qualities that were inside them all along. It reminded me of another movie I really liked, "L'esquive" (Games of Love and Chance) a French film which came out a couple of years ago. It beat out many big budget, high grossing films at the French Academy Awards that year (The Cesars). Check it out if you liked this one!

That scene in the car. That scene brought back every hope and dream I could remember as a 15 year old in love with a girl in my class I would never have. It was a validation of all those wonderful daydreams you had at that age and the hope that sprung from them. It was a moment that would send that pang in your heart to heights it's never known.

You're never in love like you are at that age - and when you watch a film like this where you can become so completely involved in the life and emotions of a girl like Agnes - and see her greatest hope realized after a day of humiliation and pain - your heart soars. In fact, I can't think of a moment in a movie that is as perfect as this one.

There's a universal quality to the feelings this film evokes that will pull in everyone who has a heart. I'm many years beyond high school - and of the opposite sex of the two protagonists in the film - and I still can't help but identify completely with this movie. Much of this has to do with the two actresses in the lead roles. Where did this director find these two phenomenal actresses? Rebecca Liljeberg has such a quiet and powerful range. Watching her react to other characters is one of the great pleasures of this film. Alexandra Dahlström takes a role that, in anyone else's hands would be either shallow or unbearable, and makes a character so complete, beautifully vulnerable and full of life you can understand why everyone loves her. These two girls - they are so wonderful, expressive and real you just want to hug them.

I saw this film when it came to New York, loved it then when i saw it once during what seemed like only a two week run, then recently remembered it and rented it. I have seen it 5 times since and I'm sure I'll see it many times more. It is a film that transcends gender, sexual orientation and age.

And for all you English language folks out there (I'm one of you), the subtitles will not be a drawback. In fact, watching this film in it's native language brings you even closer to these characters when you realize how familiar life is as a human being, no matter where we're from. How much we all have in common when it comes to matters of the heart. It's a nice little extra to be reminded of, since it's something we sometimes tend to forget.

My praise cannot be more genuine, heartfelt and complete. Get this film. Your day will be made by it. You'll be telling your friends about it. In a busy life where there's a lot of distraction, you'll remember for a moment how wonderful it is to be alive and in love - and how that's worth everything in the world.

For me, when watching this movie, one has to keep in mind any other teen-love movies you might have seen. Heck, ALL teen movies are fair game. Then, when watching this movie, notice how those other movies begin to crumble under their own stupidity, and jump off large cliffs like celluloid lemmings. Now THAT'S great filmmaking. Great films go straight for the jugular of other films; thinning out the herd.

Fucking Åmål takes adolescence, and instead of portraying how wonderfully blissful it all was, it shows how it was a time in everyone's life for over-dramatizing and acting mostly petty. But then, out of these ashes rises something that was great about those awkward years: love. Because you didn't stop being dramatic when it came to love, but you celebrated it. Like the characters in this movie, everyone who fell in love in high school spent time brooding over class pictures, or waited by the phone for that one call. Moodysson uses the scenes at the school and the parties to allow viewers to reflect on how awkward and cruel being in high school was. But instead of carrying this effect into the lovely land of high school crushes, he instead raises them up on a pedastal. It made me wonder if i can't love like that again: with no hesitation, no complications, and with all my heart.

What makes this film great though (and not just good) is by bringing the issue of homosexuality into it, but he slowly begins to make the issue hazy and unclear so that it no longer becomes an issue except for the less developed, and unliked, characters in the film. By the end of the movie, it doesn't matter that Agnes and Elin are to GIRLS in love, but that they are two girls in LOVE. In an age where media has transformed homosexuality into more about sexuality and less about love, Moodysson flips the scales. By the end of the movie, you start to realize that Agnes isn't a lesbian, because that title is worthless. She's just a person who loves. She celebrates what she finds beautiful (Elin). Of course, Elin is the main character of the film because she is the one who changes and matures. She elevates herself out of the social stratosphere of high school lunches, and into a world without personal boundries.

Last, one has to admire the fact that Moodysson doesn't take the film over the edge, and make it too much about how girls need to look for love just amongst themselves because all teenage boys are immature. First, he portrays most all of the other kids (regardless of sex) as immature except for Agnes and Elin, not just boys in particular. Then, he allows the viewer to sympathize with Johan. Johan maybe confused and unsure of himself, but he was just as much in love with Elin as Agnes was. How easy it might have been to make him mean, stupid, and worthless, so that viewers would be happy to see Elin flee him and go to Agnes. But he's not, he's kind-hearted and genuinely seems to care about Elin. Once again, this is Moodysson using love to blind the issue of heterosexualty and homosexuality and concentrate on love itself.

Definitely a movie for the romantic, and one that will teach you how to correctly fall in love again.