REVIEW: 'The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls'

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.