The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls

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

The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, New Zealand, 2009

Director: Leanne Pooley
Producer: Arania Cuthbert
Cinematography: Leon Narbey, Wayne Vinten

Starring: Jools Topp, Lynda Topp

M-offensive language & sexual references, 84 minutes

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

Visit the Topp Twins official website 

“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, New Zealand Herald

“A documentary that has you falling in love with two of the crazier people you've never met, The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls could well add Jools and Lynda Topp to a list that includes spring lamb and Lord of the Rings – that is, gifts from New Zealand to a world that usually doesn't pay it any attention. Specialty distribution, with an emphasis on the gay and expat Kiwi markets, seems a no-brainer for a film that's pure fun, very musical and a can of mixed nuts. The Topps defy logic. "On paper," says their comedy-writer friend, Paul Horan, "yodeling lesbian twins don't really work." But for the better part of three decades, the Topp sisters have been gleefully defying accepted wisdom about mainstream entertainment and homophobia, and have become crew-cut demi-goddesses in a country where the national character includes a warped sense of humor. "We're not comedians," Lynda Topp says. "We're singers who are funny." But their cast of characters – beery farmers Ken Smythe and Ken Moller in their bad polyester, or the Posh Socialites Prue and Dilly Ramsbottom – are so fully realized and such a part of New Zealand pop culture that Lynda Topp's disclaimer has to be chalked up to modesty. Someone dubs them "an anarchist variety act," and that's a good description. Musically, the pair resemble those American pop icons Phil and Don Everly, inasmuch as they sound like one voice harmonizing with itself. During an 80s period in which they wore slicked hair and suits, they actually looked like the Everlys. They attain a similar vocal purity only siblings seem able to achieve, which gives their Country-flavored music a keening, aching quality. It makes the Topps a real double threat: Their audience can choke up, or choke with laughter. Helmer Leanne Pooley tells the sisters' life story – from their farm-girl days to their work on behalf of Kiwi gay rights; from their 80s appearances at anti-Springbok rallies (protesting the tour of the rugby team from what was then apartheid South Africa) to their relationship with their parents, who dealt with their two daughters' homosexuality (a son is gay, too) with total support. Without belaboring it, Pooley lays the evidence before us and lets us draw our own conclusion: that the indefatigably cheery and witty Topp Twins got that way through love. Which they spread around, most generously through those comedic characterizations, which both puncture and massage various elements of New Zealand identity, but never without affection. The Topps are shown onstage in various incarnations, but they also re-create their various personae directly for Pooley's camera, which then morphs them back into themselves. What we see are transformations worthy of world-class actresses, which the Topps certainly are, regardless of any denials they might issue – either as themselves, or as Belle and Bell Gingham, the hilarious Camp Mother and Camp Leader, or the Bowling Ladies. Production values are top-shelf, notably the sound mix by Terry King, Chris Burt and Stefan Brough, and the lensing by Leon Narbey and Wayne Vinten.” — John Anderson, Variety, 12 September 2009

View the trailer at www.flicks.co.nz

Screenings: The Topp Twins screened on 10-13 November 2010 during a Leanne Pooley documentary seminar; and on 3-5 February 2010 supporting Gay Pride week.