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Fucking Åmål (aka Show Me Love)
I guess I’m watching this now to try and get the foul taste of Moodysson’s latest Hole in My Heart out of my mind. This one has a happy ending, I recall, it will therefore make me happy. Weird thing is, coming back to it after Hole and the similarly shattering Lilya 4-Ever, in addition to the very disturbing short movie, “Talk,” included as an extra on this new Region 2 DVD (annoyingly only available in the Lukas Moodysson box set), I couldn’t help focusing in on the more negative aspects of this movie now. Gee, thanks, Lukas.
It’s still a lot more fun to watch, though. For better or worse, it probably paints the most realistic portrait of teenagers ever seen in the movies: at once beautiful, pathetic, and inconsequential. The soundtrack is excellent and the two leads are perfect for each other.
June 20th, 2006 at 5:37 pm
[...] Uncomfortably raw and almost needlessly long, this one will nevertheless stick in my memory. It owes something to the earlier Al Pacino movie, Panic in Needle Park, but also, I think, the little-known Linda Blair / Richard Donner TV movie called Sarah T: Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic – despite its veracity, it does come over a little cheesy and preachy at times. Since this movie, directors like Larry Clark and Lukas Moodysson have addressed teen issues without copping out so easily – the movie in fact reminded me most of Moodysson’s Fucking Åmål which, though completely different in subject matter, hit the nail on the head over how it feels to be a teenager. If by chance you thought the cold turkey scenes in The Man With the Golden Arm, French Connection II, and Trainspotting were somehow tame, you should take a look at this one, it leaves you shattered. The dedications at the end, particularly for “Babsi”, are heartbreaking. The soundtrack’s pretty good too, reminded me of Abel Ferrara’s Driller Killer I think. David Bowie puts in an appearance which is … interesting … [...]
March 21st, 2007 at 3:17 am
[...] All the way, the movie reminds me a lot of Lukas Moodysson’s movies, particularly Fucking Åmål and Lilya 4 Ever. To that end I kind of wish it did have more of a story to it, a few more emotional ups and downs, even if they did betray the movie’s astounding veracity. Don’t get me wrong, I love when movies are as heartbreakingly, face-slappingly real as this one is … but this one is so in touch with the real world that it kind of tires a little towards the end, even if the final image is the most harrowing of all. [...]
March 21st, 2007 at 3:44 am
[...] Show Me Love/ Fucking Åmål Lukas Moodysson [...]