Fucking Åmål/Show Me Love (1998) - Moodysson
So this is where it all started eh? For some reason I always thought this Swedish coming of age tale involved fucking some guy named Amal. Not so. Åmål is a small Swedish town where the film takes place. It's like, "I live in this small ass town where everyone's so fucking boring. Man, fucking Åmål!" kind of thing. Shot on grainy 16mm, Fucking Åmål tells a sweet teen lesbian love story.
Agnes is a lonely girl with no friends. But she is crushing heavily on a blonde bombshell bad girl, Elin. Tired of all the wrong attentions she gets everyday, Elin is easily irritable and gets into physical fights with her older sister Jessica all the time. It's Agnes's 16th birthday and her parents wants her to invite people for the party. Her clueless parents even cooks up the storm for it. Only person who shows up is a girl on a wheelchair whom Agnes hates. Elin decides on a whim to show up at the party late, because the other party is filled with immature, gross jocks. On a dare, drunken Elin kisses Agnes and takes off. But even with bad behavior and popular girl persona, deep down Elin is a good girl who feels bad for what she's done. She comes back and they try to hitchhike to Stockholm where things must be much more fun. They end up making out in a back seat of a car that belongs to a creepy old stranger who stops to pick them up.
There is rumor going around that Agnes is a lesbian. Elin has to keep a distance from Agnes and pretend to like the boy who's been stalking her just to keep up the appearance. After another sucky experience with the mindless, boring boys, Elin realizes that she is also in love with Agnes who seems to be a lot more intelligent and interesting. Fucking Åmål is a sweet, acutely observed, intimately portrayed teen movie with a great heart. It features best coming out of the closet moment in movie history.