I had the good fortune to see this film in a theatre in Northern California, where the audience (including more than a few aging hippies) chortled and guffawed with good-natured self-recognition. The opening scenes, -- particularly a drearily, draining, painfully drawn-out, "issue-oriented" house meeting at the politicized/feminist/alternative lifestyle commune where the action takes place -- were a veritable flashback, especially for my companion, who had gone to college in Santa Cruz and had had plenty of exposure to lesbian-feminist process... It was quite funny, but in a loving, self-deprecatory way. Where many would wring laughter out of mockery and stereotyping, director Lukas Moodysson was truthful and honest, and gave the characters the respect and depth they deserved. The interplay and fluidity between "straight" and "alternative" culture is handled with exeptional skill, particularly as seen through the eyes of two children who are thrown in the midst of the well-intentioned but disorganized soul-searching of the older generation. And for those of us who grew up in the 1970s and were exposed to similar cultural experimentation, the dual dangers and priceless opportunities of the "hippie" era are brought back in a heart-warming but not overly sentimental way. This film rings true in every way; like Richard Linklatter's "Dazed And Confused," it should be viewed by anyone who'd like to see what the 'Seventies were really like.
