Something to watch tonight: Tuesday 23 July
The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls (Pooley, 2009)
Back in April 2009, I felt good predicting box office triumph for this picture and I was not wrong.
I’m not normally one to make box office predictions but I have a gut feeling that The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls is going to be massive. It’s an inspiring New Zealand story, well told with plenty of humour and music, and the literally irrepressible Topps’ lust for life shines like a beacon throughout. Using plenty of archival footage and photos, Leanne Pooley’s documentary follows the Twins from idyllic rural Calf Club Days, through the rough and tumble protests of the 80s, to their current status as living legends.
I recommend you take your kids so they can see how much of what’s good about New Zealand (that we take for granted) was fought for by these strong and principled women, who also just happen to be beloved family entertainers.
Also in that Capital Times column: Monsters Vs. Aliens (“More a premise than an actual movie …”), supernatural horror The Uninvited (“This reviewer is normally the annoying person who shushes the talkers in movies, but early on I decided to leave my neighbours alone as what they had to say was infinitely more interesting than anything on the screen …”), my first experience of wrestler John Cena on the big screen in 12 Rounds, The Pink Panther 2 (“… a situationist prank rather than a genuine attempt at entertainment”), and martial arts franchise-starter Ip Man: “The Japanese in this film are so awful they make the Germans in Schindler’s List look like The Wiggles – it’s an ugly, stereotypical representation which leaves a sour taste.”
Where to watch The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls
Aotearoa and Australia: Streaming on DocPlay and Beamafilm (free with some library cards)
Rest of the world: Not currently available online which is a bit sad
Comment of the day
Subscriber AD wrote to thank me for helping find the documentary Brats which is streaming on Disney+ so, to save me a job, here’s his review of it:
Brats is meta, because they’re all in another film together. Like last time you saw him, Andrew McCarthy is troubled. There’s hand-wringing about what being grouped in the Brat Pack did to his emerging sense of self, liver, or career. McCarthy’s wife warns him that this film will be good for his humility. Molly sends notice that she is looking forward, not back. But Emilio, Rob Lowe, and Demi are available to sprinkle stardust. McCarthy confesses his 80s crush to Ally Sheedy. ‘Ducky’ (Jon Cryer) gets recognition as a cultural touchstone, even if you wouldn’t recognise Cryer anymore. We also meet Pretty in Pink’s producer, director, casting agent, and camera person. Finally McCarthy confronts the quipping journalist who coined the term. Did the Brat Pack change culture? Could F.r.i.e.n.d.s have existed without them? Much like the group therapy of the Breakfast Club it’s by communing, that McCarthy can bloom.