Show Me Love is a rare movie. It is accurate in its depiction of teenagers both in terms to how the characters are written and also because its cast of actors genuinely look like they belong in high school. Achieving both these feats makes Show Me Love a simple yet remarkable film.
The movie follows Agnes, an angsty teen. Agnes is generally displeased with her parents, her small hometown, her lack of friends and generally with life. She also has an unrequited crush on Elin, a popular girl.
At a birthday party thrown for Agnes by her parents, Elin and her sister show up. Elin kisses Agnes on a dare. Despite this cruel start to their courtship, Elin apologizes to Agnes and the two bond. However, Elin experiences some gay panic and calls things off.
The film then comes its emotional climax in a school bathroom. It’s the best scene in the movie.
Show Me Love works because it successfully puts you in the headspace of being a teenager. The stakes in this movie are far from life and death. But to a teen, being embarrassed by the popular kid or having a crush on someone seems like the biggest pain you can experience. Show Me Love’s depiction of such events and characters is successful because it brings its audience back to a point in their lives where this was true and as such, we can empathize with the situation.
Show Me Love successfully walks the very fine line of realistic depictions of teenagers. There is the angst, the selfishness and the thoughtless cruelty that are trademarks of that age but movies often tone down. The movie does this while still making its protagonists likable and interesting.
I’ve seen a lot of movies where the teenagers act like no teen or real person I’ve ever encountered. I’ve also seen movies that lean too far the other way and their teen characters are too fraught with angst and self-interest that I don’t care about watching a movie featuring such whiny protagonists. Show Me Love is quite miraculously neither of these things. It is a true feat to have successfully walking that tightrope.
Show Me Love is an above-average coming of age film. Its protagonists are universally relatable; it doesn’t demand its viewer to be Swedish/queer/female in order to empathize with them. Overall, Show Me Love is one of best teen WLW dramas out there.
Overall rating: 7.8/10
Other WLW films in similar genres
European teen dramas
The angst that accompanies being in a small town
This is one of those 10/10 films for me. I prefer the original title “Fucking Amal” as well.
I just love this film with all my heart. I saw it in my early 20’s and it just struck with me so much. Maybe cause it reminded me of me when I was a teen in late 90’s.
I always say the film is like if Celine Sciamma and John Hughes teamed together to do a romantic coming of age film about two teenage girls falling in love. The film would be Fucking Amal. Also a big positive at the time was the actors in the film were actually teenagers, not mid to late 20’s actors like Hollywood did and still somewhat does. And they acted like teenagers.
Rebecka Liljeberg and Alexandra Dahlstrom are fantastic as Agnes and Elin. The films two main characters, the first half of the film is Agnes story and the second half is Elin’s. At 90 minutes it works so well, First half is Agnes/Elin falling in love and second half is Elin coming to terms with her sexuality and that she really loves Agnes. Dahlstrom gets the meatier role, and only 14 at the time delivers amazingly. But for me Liljeberg’s Agnes always sticks with me more, her part of the film is my favorite and most touching. Most memorable stuff from the film happens in the first half. It’s tough to buy the beautiful Liljeberg as a outcast in school but she does sell it well.
Lukas Moodysson does an amazing job at just getting the details down about teenagers. Neither Elin or Agnes aren’t always nice, in fact they can be horrible and flawed like most teenagers are. That’s why I love this film so much. The film also has slightly dark undertones with some bully characters. But the ending of the film is one of the best of Coming of Age genre. The relationship might not last but at least at the moment they got each other.
The film’s soundtrack is mostly excellent, the indie rock stuff from Swedish band Border Daniel and always great Robyn’s cheesy 90’s classic Show Me Love are the stand outs. The film got a great blu ray release from Arrow Video as a part of limited edition Lukas Moodysson boxset and is well worth picking up if you can still find it.