Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls

Rating:

* * * *

Verdict:

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you might just yodel

On the face of it, a feature-length doco about the Topp Twins would seem to crave your indulgence.

After all, what - after three decades of increasing ubiquity - don't we know about Jools and Lynda, the Waikato farm-raised lesbian twins who went from 80s radicals to a yodelling, wisecracking mainstream showbiz institution?

One of their early numbers cried "Bullshit, shove it, stick it in

The Woman's Weekly

", but now they're a fixture in it.

They were among the protesters who invaded the pitch of Hamilton's Rugby Park during the Springbok tour protest - years later they returned as Ken and Ken to play a comedy curtainraiser.

But that journey from the street-busker margins to the centre also makes

Untouchable Girls

a compelling biography.

Along the way the film also turns into a breezy history of the 80s protest movement, taking in that rugby tour, the anti-nuclear movements, homosexual law reform and the occupation of Bastion Point. Which, if you were young, carefree and liberal back in those days, is quite a nostalgia trip.

But there's also a telling moment when Rosie Horton - one of the film's talking heads who also include Helen Clark, John Clarke, Billy Bragg, and the Topps' terrific parents - says when it came to the social upheavals of those years, looking back, she often first heard about the issues from the Topps.

Horton also generates one of the best laughs of the piece with a story about inviting the Topps to her husband's birthday party, only to have them turn up as Remmers ladies who lunch. They then turned the event into a fundraiser involving charging admission to their host's lavish wardrobe.

It's largely left to the other commentators to reflect on what the Topps have meant. The twins themselves - often interviewed in the guise of their best known comedy characters, the edits between them a thing of beauty - aren't given to much self-analysis or revealing much that's not already widely known.

That's except when this touches on the emotional reality of Jools' battle with breast cancer in recent years. It was possibly the initial impetus for this doco, one which fortunately has become more of a celebration of the Topps' staying power instead.

Much of the documentary is driven by a live performance before family and friends, cutting away to illustrate the on-stage anecdotes. While it's a solid framing device, its cosiness doesn't offer as much spontaneous energy as some of the earlier live footage where the Topps' alter-egos are in full flight before audiences of strangers needing to be won over.

But win us over, all over again is what

Untouchable Girls

does. A Topp effort, all round.

Russell Baillie

Director:

Leanne Pooley

Rating:

M (offensive language, sexual references)

Running time:

84 mins