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Billy the Kid
EMAILPRINTAn Elephant Eye Films

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 9 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Documentary
Written by:
Directed by: Jennifer Venditti
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 5, 2007
Running Time: 84 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Penny Baker, Billy P., and Heather Pelletier
Billy the Kid is a sensitive and humorous vérité portrait of Billy, a 15-year-old outsider growing up in small-town Maine. Billy appears, in many ways, like other teenage boys. He's into heavy metal and martial arts, is desperate to find a girlfriend, and aspires to a career as an actor and rock star. Yet in other ways Billy is unique. A troubled past and ongoing behavioral issues have left him marked. But he is unapologetic about his personality and refuses to be victimized, creating his own techniques to help him survive in an environment of pain, conformity, and prejudice. Billy is funny, sharp, strangely wise for his age, and remarkably candid. We witness life from his perspective--from intimate conversations with his mother, to being bullied at school, to his fantasies of becoming a superhero. We also experience the exhilarating pangs of first love as Billy pursues Heather, a shy 16-year-old waitress. Will Billy get the girl? Will his community accept him on his own terms? Billy the Kid challenges viewers to imagine themselves beyond labels. (Elephant Eye Films)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
TV Guide Ken Fox
In the end, Bill emerges as someone truly unique and someone who we feel privileged to know.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
If the film has a significant flaw, it's that Venditti never explains in the film how she found Billy, or why she's interested in him. Billy The Kid often plays more like an extended home movie than something intentional and artful.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ernest Hardy
But what you ultimately take from the film is the awareness that this smart, self-aware, uncensored kid has been playing to a camera in his own head since well before Venditti came along.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
In her directorial debut, Venditti does her best to keep a distance between herself and her subjects. But you have to wonder how much of the Billy we see on-screen is affected by the presence of Venditti's camera.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
a movie about adolescence unlike any other; An intimate portrait of a singular personality in the making and a stark look at our culture of suspicion and conformity.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
A heartbreaking vérité documentary by Jennifer Venditti about a misfit Maine teenager--a film that makes you think about (and question) what fitting in really entails.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Julia Wallace
I have seen more than 25 documentaries this year, and after a while they all start to run together, both structurally and thematically. Billy the Kid is utterly original in both respects.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis
Presenting neither an argument for medication nor its rejection, Billy the Kid is a deceptively simple portrait of a shockingly self-aware and articulate young man.
Read Full Review >Variety John Anderson
One of the more irresponsible eruptions in the current rash of populist nonfiction cinema.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
