Lukas Moodysson

From Sweden, the land of love.

Show Me Love (1998) -- The Swedish title is Fucking Amal. This is maybe the most "accurate" movie about teenagers I've seen. That's the first thirty minutes. Then the story starts, and it gets pretty interesting. All the actors are really good, and it manages to be interesting in spite of its tired subject matter (teenagers, coming of age, coming out of the closet, etc.).

Together (2000) -- The character Eva has the best observation about the characters in the movie when she says they wear ugly clothes and listen to bad music and say it's good, that the homosexuals are only so in order not to be like everyone else, etc. These sorts of things (more present today than they ever were in 1975) are being made fun of by Moodysson, but at the same time he allows everyone to be "real" characters, and you end up liking at least half of them in spite of whatever stupid thing they're doing (and almost everyone does at least one stupid thing). A complicated-yet-simple plot that plays out like a short story.

Lilya 4-Ever (2002) -- The stuff that happens in this movie is pretty grim throughout, but it's actually kind of an uplifting movie in an odd way, especially the relationship between Lilya and her young pal.

A Hole In My Heart (2004) -- Although Lilya 4-Ever was intense and more in-your-face than his previous work, it still retained the great characters and story of the first two movies. A Hole In My Heart is simply intense and in-your-face, right down to the industrial music, vomit porn, and labia surgery (to name a few things) all over the screen. Of course, all these "extreme" images demonstrate that Moodysson is just an old-fashioned, idealistic, and maybe even naive guy.

Container (2006) -- Jenna Elfman provides narration for an overweight man who feels that he is Paris Hilton or whatever. It's okay to watch if you half pay attention, since some of the monologue is funny, but it feels better suited for a short subject than a feature film.