Home :: DVD :: Art House & International :: European Cinema  

Asian Cinema
British Cinema
European Cinema

General
Latin American Cinema
Show Me Love

Show Me Love

List Price: $29.99
Your Price: $26.99
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 .. 4 5 6 7 >>

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Imminent classic
Review: I loved this film and I'll probably not be the first or last person to make such a statement. Despite the grim, dull setting in a typical boring small European town, the characters are anything but. I think anyone who's ever been young, confused and in love will identify immediately. This film is destined to become a cult classic, especially with young audiences.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: See This Movie Or Die Unfullfilled
Review: When i first got this flick in the mail, i figured it'd just be cool to see once or twice, no biggie. Once again, i was wrong. This is prolly the best movie i have seen all year. the cast was amazing, direction was much better then any american film i have seen commercialy released sind Hitchcock and the plot was very involving. Besides, thoese girls were SOOOO damned cute.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I was moved...again and again...
Review: Having watched a lot of lesbian themed film. The one film that truly touched me is "Show Me Love". There is no cliche storyline or dialogue in the film. It is a truly sincere piece of film making with wonderful acting talent all around.

The film revolves around Elin (played to perfection by Alexandra Dahlström who is 14 year old at the time of filming) and Agnes (Rebecca Liljeberg, 17 at the time of filming). It's a coming of age movie that explores the difficulties of being a teenager in a small town in Sweden and being a lesbian.

What amazes me most about the film is the dialogue is perfectly delivered by all the young actors, not feeling like they are acting. Filmed in almost Dogma style, the film had a wonderfully written script. It is a film that you can watch over and over again and discover something new and unique during each viewing.

It was great to see the actor's reaction and facial expression throughout the whole movie. My favourite moments:
- Elin's first realises that she could be in love with Agnes when confronted by her sister Jessica on the swing.
- Agnes reaction towards the teasing when she was exposed as a lesbian in school.

The supporting cast was equally wonderful. Jessica (Elin's popular sister) and Johan (Elin's fake boyfriend). This is a film that I will definately enjoy for many years to come.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Show Me Love
Review: Show Me Love~ Lukas Moodysson is more junk from Moodysson. He is such a non tallent that one wonders why he bothers making all this trash. I am not a fan of Swedish movies except from perheps some Bergman flicks. This is a lame movie about two strange girls that fall in love and their relationship. First of all it feels like a low budget movie and the acting reeks. One could have gotten better acting skills from joe and jill average. Secondly, I can not relate to lesbian feelings and I find it a bit preachy and ultimately it is a niche production.



Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Unbelievable acting
Review: This movie is excellent. The story line is perfect, and the acting by the two girls is flawless. I found this movie definately worth watching and for two girls that young to be able to act so well, its amazing. You won't be disapointed with this film, its so real.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A Typical and Superficial, Boring Film From Sweden
Review: *Plot/ending analyzed*

Its actually quite surprising that this cliche-driven movie imported to us by the tepid makers of "dogma 95" cinema has such high ratings. To be frank, this is an utterly terrible film, completely boring and pretentious. If you can stand the first 30 minutes of this rubbish, then you will know what the entire film is composed of. It deals with a spoiled teen who has no friends and one can see why, not only does she hate everyone and whines for most of the beginning of the film but she even insults the only friend she has, who is a cripple in a wheelchair and then she has suicidal thoughts but the director leads us to believe that the "lesbian way of love" is more solid and composed of true sentiments, whereas the boy-girl relationship is only composed of "humping each other", this is quite preposterous.

Most of the film drags on with shoddy camera shots which harbor on out-of-focus and misdirected teens and their acne who are talking about the most inane teen junk ever imagined, while drinking Swedish beer, this allows us to believe that they stole every sentence from 1980's American movies. This is not an "original" film or even an "art" film, it is like watching someone's awful video shot on location in a high school for idiots. Typical "dogma 95" camera angles at their worst are what we see and this is very amateurish and it gets tired after the first 20 minutes.

The teen is about to kill herself when some drunk bimbo who had kissed her a few minutes earlier knocks on her window and all of a sudden they are in "love". This is superficiality at its worst. If you think that is stupid, the ending is more horrendous, they shed all their past acquaintances and walk out into this new "love" with some American song playing in the background, never mind that the blond bimbo is an alcoholic freak or the lesbian teen is a psychotic. It's a very artificial film and to base the entire scope of the picture on it is dull and monotonous. I wouldn't want to see this piece of junk ever again, I was glad when it was over because I only came to the film because of my Russian friend who thought it might be good because the Swedes have eaten it up in Sweden, probably because they thought it was a sex film.


Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not as "uplifting" or "sweet" as everyone seems to think
Review: I have to be a voice of dissent from all the reviews on here that gush over this movie as so poignant and wonderful and showing the pangs of first love (with the very small twist that it's a first lesbian love).

Neither girl in this movie is created as someone you (the viewer) likes. Elin is a bratty 14-year-old who apparently has made out with every boy in school. Her dreams of escaping her provincial and suffocating town come not from a desire to realize larger goals or dreams or plans, but to live somewhere where she can be in front of trends like raves and designer drugs before they go out of style. Agnes is quiet and shy and thus painfully antisocial -- perfectly creditable given her secret sexual identity -- but she allows her overwhelming crush on the "popular" girl to swallow her whole. She takes it to such an extreme that she alientates the one girl in school who would have been willing to be her friend, calling her a palsied cripple and gratuitously insulting her wheelchair basketball game as the most boring hour she's ever experienced.

Given that neither of these two girls is terribly likeable, it's difficult to muster any level of sympathy or happiness for them when they go busting down the closet door.

In fact, none of the teen girls in this movie are likeable at all. From the very beginning, we see "Mean Girls" Sweden-style, with the popular chicks terrorizing the ostracized one, going so far as place a dare on kissing Agnes and laughing in her face afterwards. Mocking the unpopular chick's attempt to have a birthday party was just the start.

It's the side plots of this movie -- more worthy of attention than the budding lesbian relationship -- that made this movie more interesting.

Take the case of the girl in the wheelchair (whose name I unfortunately forget). While our lesbian "protagonists" battle with their emerging emotions for each other, it is this handicapped girl whose pathetic attempts to "fit in" are fascinating. At the beginning of the film, she fits in about as much as Agnes, thus leading to their mutual reliance on each other for companionship. However, when Agnes turns viciously on her at the birthday party, she reciprocates the vitriol -- hoping that the common bond of animosity toward Agnes will bring her closer to the "cool" kids (male and female) who seem to make lifelong ambitions of picking on the lesbian girl.

Although underplayed, it is this girl's conflicting feelings, her misguided attempts to fit in, which are the more interesting to watch in terms of character development. Keep in mind that by the time Elin comes to grips with her homosexuality, she pretty much has enough social capital to get away with something daring. She's cool enough that she just might be able to survive the coming out process with minimal bruising. The girl in the wheelchair, however, will likely never fit in, despite her willingness to skewer the lesbian along with the rest of them.

Another interesting character to consider is Johan. This is the poor kid whose relationship with Elin was, unbeknownst to him, a vehicle for her to deny her budding homosexual feelings. A young man who started off just wanting to date the hot chick in the school, we can see his feelings for her developing, all while Elin ponders her feelings for Agnes. He also has to walk the delicate line between impressing Elin and not losing face with his uber-macho friend Markus. It can't be easy suffering the collateral damage from someone else's coming out process.

And, while also underdeveloped, only at the very end do we see a smattering of hope that Jessica might very well realize that she's with the wrong boy -- an abusive, possessive and mean one -- and she may be better off with Johan, who appears to be truly sensitive and empathetic.

To that degree, the movie in fact represents adolescent angst decently. But those are subplots. The main lesbian plot line leaves much to be desired because the girls are just so darn unlikeable.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Touching, funny, and uplifting
Review: This is a wonderful reality-based film on teenage love and growing up in a small, boring town. The acting is brillant, you'd never know they were; the characters are believable, and while the plot may seem ordinary, the film is far from it. It's a movie to be watched over and over again, and I would recommend buying it, because you'll want to see it more than once! Although the only downside is the translation to English. Not perfect at all, somewhat second-rate, but the subtitles are very easy to get through. This movie made me want to learn Swedish! I find myself paying more attention to their reactions and language other then focusing on the subtitles. This is a good movie to show to someone who is narrow-minded. Not just in the aspect of homosexuality, but about other things as well. It will open their eyes. I think this is a film more people should see, and it will always be my most treasured of all movies.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An encouraging movie that does not lie to you!
Review: This is definitely not just another trashy movie about discovering your own homosexuality and how it feels to be an emotional unsecure Teenager; although "Show me love" treats theese topics in a very sensible and honest way, I think it would be a mistake to reduce the story of Agnes and Elin with its quite unconventional way it is told by Lukas Moodisson on the homosexual aspect. The film also can be watched as a story about going your own way despite of the popular opinion. Amal is everywhere!
On the European CD-cover they try to tell you this were the swedish answer on "American pie". No, that seems definitely wrong - its much more than that, because watching this movie, you will be able not to laugh about, but to suffer (and finally: laugh) with the charakters. "Show me love" does not just take its charakters serious, but (important as well) even the audience. There is no false political correctness, there are no inhonest solutions, masked behind a soundtrack, deniing the existence of real problems.
Agnes and Elin find the courage to listen to their feelings, to use their brains, to respect each other - which message could be more encouraging and honest at the same time?


Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sweet, but without the sugar
Review: This movie is very simple, but its completely involving and totally realistic. The story revolves around two high school girls, and the people around them. Elin is the most popular girl in school, and is liked by all the guys. Agnes is the exact opposite of Elin. She is awkward, she is nerdy, and she just happens to be completely in love with Elin. What follows is a realistic and open look into the lives of these girls, and just teenage life in general.

What truly won me over about this film, was how natural it all seemed. Throughout the movie, it didn't even feel like these people were actors reciting dialogue. IT felt like these were people you actually knew being caught on tape. Also, most films that deal with lesbianism are trashy and gratituous. This movie was neither. It was heartwarming, and real, and truly made you see the relations and interactions beneath.

NO, this film isn't extraordinary. But it's refreshing to have a simple film, with a simple story, that depicted the pleasures and horrors of everday teenage life. And that's basically what this film is, a slice of everyday teenage life. The fact that its warm, enveloping, and pleasant is just a plus. It doesn't try to dumb things down, and make pain non-existent, as many shallow teenage films do.This film might be simple, but its not shallow or silly.Lukas Moodysson is masterful at showing life at its most realistic. I would whole heartedely reccomend that you see one of his other films, "lilya 4-ever" as well.Its very different from this movie, but will serve as more proof that this is a director with genuine feeling.


<< 1 .. 4 5 6 7 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates