Click photo to enlarge
The Topp Twins. Photo Gregor Richardson
Everybody knows the Topp Twins, or do they?
> The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls
Directed by: Leanne Pooley
Cast: Jools Topp, Lynda Topp
Rating: M
Five stars
Review by Christine Powley
The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls(Rialto and Metro) is
a look back on the past 30-odd years in an attempt to explain
to us and themselves how a pair of yodelling lesbian twins
become beloved comic icons in New Zealand.
When I first heard that the Topp Twins had made a movie about
themselves I could not see the point.
They have been on the telly and in our women's magazines for
so long - is anyone going to bother to go to the cinema to
learn more? Then I saw the trailer a few times and it cracked
me up.
I had forgotten the main thing about the twins, they are just
so entertaining.
Of course we want to know more. They are a pair of comedians
who make it look effortless. They appear to just wander on to
the stage and start talking.
For all that they prepare by donning costumes and assuming
characters, the Topp Twins have that same casual,
anything-could-happen air about them.
It is something of a revelation to look back on
black-and-white footage of them busking in the early days.
They were radicals singing about changing the world and the
only person each twin was interested in entertaining was the
other.
Times change and that is the other fascinating thing about
this film - just how much we as a nation have changed in
their wake, allowing the old-time radicals to become cuddly
Kiwi icons.
Best
thing: This is hard to choose. Their parents could
easily carry a show on their own, but in the end it is the
backstage footage of the sisters giving each other a bit of
the borax.
Worst thing: I am still not sure
that this is really a movie but whatever it is, it is
thought-provoking and fun.
See
it with: The entire family. The Topps have a character
for everyone. Mine is Camp Mother - she is so deliciously
bossy, you can see why Ken has a thing for her.
