Amateurs (2018)

AMATEURS  (2018)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Gabriela Pichler
    Zahra Aldoujaili, Yara Aliadotter, Fredrik Dahl,
    Shada Ismaeel, Maria Nohra, Susanne Hedman
When the somewhat rundown Swedish city of Lafors finds itself in the running for a big new German superstore, the town's civic leaders decide that what's needed is a promotional video showcasing all the benefits of building there. When they decide to make it a competition open to students at the local high school, two immigrant girls take up the challenge, using a cellphone camera and a selfie stick to show the town they really see. What they come up with is as silly, loose and ragged as you might expect, revealing aspects of the community not everybody wants the world to look at. "Amateurs" has a brash, shot-on-the-fly quality, too, the two films - the one the girls are making and the one that frames it - effectively reflecting each other. If some of the performances seem amateurish, it's because they're supposed to, and the actresses playing the young protagonists - one heavyset and the other distinctly androgynous - capture their giddy, dreamy, go-for-broke energy in a way that's completely convincing.