A brilliant film that helped define a genre

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Whatever one would think a documentary should be, it need only serve one purpose and that is to document. This movie does that."Billy the Kid" shows a difficult time in a teenage boy's life.. The awkwardness, the desire for acceptance, independence and an intimate relationship. We are lucky that Billy was able to put it right out there and for Jennifer Venditti to document it for us to see.Billy's courting of Heather was very sweet and innocent. He definitely didn't have a perfect social grace, but he is honest and genuine. In the end, his heart was (mildly) broken from his puppy dog love and he learned a life lesson.Though the camera may have prevented others from acting how they would normally act, the signs of annoyance and disregard for Billy were still apparent. There seemed to be an air of some laughing behind his back, but Billy pressed on and I think the camera gave Billy a chance to interact with others. A chance that 'different' people do not always get in this cynical world.Best of luck, Billy. You too Jennifer. ;)

Without making any arbitrary comparisons or dropping names (check previous review).This documentary provides thoughtful insight into an unusual and interesting life. Only a cynic would not be charmed by Billy , he is innocent, candid and bright. If only there were more 15 year olds like Billy. The only issues I would have with the film is that it only documents a short time-span in Billy's life and perhaps ends a bit abruptly. Also, I can imagine that the presence of the camera sometimes inhibited how people really would've really acted towards Billy. I don't think that the step-dad of the girl Billy fancied would have reacted so politely to the karate-kit clad boy naming his favourite slasher flicks off-camera.

Billy is not that different from the rest of the world who happen to also be fifteen years old. He has an active fantasy life, he wants a girlfriend, he wants to know he has a place in the world, somewhere. He is fortunate enough to have an extremely supportive and loving mother who says that they are 'best friends' and the evidence of that is clear, once you see how they relate to one another. His life is not that fascinating but whose is at that age. There are moments of extreme boredom and many of happiness, too. Billy become interested in a girl who works at a local diner whose name is Heather. She does not have much to say, or maybe she just does not have that much to say while she's on camera. Not everyone in the world is completely at ease under those circumstances..I know I wouldn't be. But Billy seems to be, and he tries to charm Heather and at first it works and then it kind of doesn't. They break up and he is not too happy, but he pushes on. The best moment in the movie is when he asks her out, off-camera, and then gets a round of applause from some guys who happen to be hanging out near the diner. Billy is an interesting guy. I'm three times his age, plus some, and I can relate to much of what he feels. I wouldn't mind knowing what happens to him next. 8/10.

Hypnotic and simple, this low tech gem is a genre busting documentary that achieves non-fictionally what virtually all of cinema has attempted fictionally: get the boy a soul. Boys in film, from Elliot in ET to the title character in Pixote to Porky's to The Shining's Danny are archetypes searching past Mom and Dad for a little individuality through some form of psychic mayhem. The capstone (tombstone) is the dead Haley Joel Osmet in Sixth Sense. Look carefully, culture uses these kids as rites-of-passage stand-ins, and they endure almost obscene amounts of fear and pain to ascend. News media showcases these boys in real life mostly as hooligans with guns: we reflect on troubled youth as a result of careful CNN headwashing in the aftermath of Columbine and Virginia Tech. Billy is the first documentary film I've ever seen that exhibits a narrative interface with a boy who is clearly from this archetype closet. Billy's polarizing, somewhat fearless and game for any self exploration. In the wrong hands he's a loose cannon, but here he reflects, jokes, espouses and in the lynch-pin moment, gathers the courage to ask a girl out and as we watch the exploration of first love, we realize even as we know this love is momentary, that he's done it, he can never run back to a blank world of just heavy metal and violence. Two women left their beautiful mark on Billy, one was the girl he fell for the other is the director. Truffaut (that made Small Change) and Spielberg wish they had made this.