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Poster for Billy the Kid

Billy the Kid

2007 · 1h 24m · N/A Documentary
Directed by Jennifer Venditti

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Overview

"I'm not black, I'm not white, not foreign, just different in the mind. Different brains, that's all," explains 15-year-old Billy in Jennifer Venditti's provocative coming of age film. Following Billy as he bicycles through the quiet streets of small town Maine, we watch him traverse the frustrating gap between imagination and reality, grappling with isolation and first-time young love. By turns exhilarating and disturbing, we see the world from the intimate view of an expressive and seemingly fearless outsider.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
83%
Tomatometer
Fresh

The best documentaries take you places you don't normally have access to.

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press
Fresh

A raw, touching, unfiltered look at the teenage angst that Hollywood usually turns into brain-dead comedy.

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Fresh

Billy's resilience, though, is nothing short of amazing. Not to mention part of growing up.

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times
Fresh

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.

Ernest Hardy, L.A. Weekly
Fresh

Billy the Kid, a movie that's as interesting as it is dewy-eyed, may be the rare snapshot of an adolescent 'outcast' who is really the guy made for fame, with a built-in radar for how to present himself in front of the camera.

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

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