Dueling Outsiders: Billy the Kid

The illuminating ["Stranger than Fiction" series] continued on Tuesday night at the IFC Center with Billy the Kid, a disarmingly funny and genuinely poignant documentary that premiered earlier this year at the South by Southwest Film Festival. The movie marks the directorial debut of Jennifer Venditti, whose ability to convey the innocence of youth and the universal anguish of being an outsider suggests a natural ear for the emotional rhythms of growing up. Her subject, the titular fifteen year old, suffers from Asberger's syndrome, which, coupled with the fact that his crack-smoking father abused his mother when Billy was a child, leads to his social alienation—but considering the movie as some sort of psychological investigation would be missing the point entirely.

As Venditti explained during a post-screening Q&A with Stranger than Fiction programmer Thom Powers, her first impulse when she discovered Billy sitting alone in a high school lunchroom was to figure out what was wrong with him. This lead to her personal revelation that the idea of contemplating a problem with someone different from what others consider "normal" primarily reflects the biases of the observer, rather than the condition of the perceived "outsider." It's an important distinction, one that comes through loud and clear in the film's methodical structure.

We're first given unrelated glimpses at Billy's eccentric lifestyle—his hard rock music tastes, his strong desire to be a hero—and then, rather surprisingly, the movie becomes an utterly charming romantic comedy. Billy discovers his "damsel in distress," as Venditti put it: a local girl whose visual affliction gives her a default "other" status in a way that Billy immediately identifies with. In this plot thread and throughout the rest of the running time, the movie's narrative focuses on Billy's perseverance as the world continually tries to shun him. But, by the story's conclusion, his problems don't seem all that different from your average struggling teen.

The impact of the film is sustained by Billy's infectious personality. He's the rare sort who's equally likely to flex in the mirror and cite verses by Robert Frost. Viewers are unlikely to listen to KISS again without picturing Billy's side-splittingly heartfelt cover of "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You II." It was no surprise when Venditti told Tuesday night's audience that Gene Simmons thought the movie rocked.

Billy the Kid will be released by the filmmakers later this year, and screens next weekend at the [Woodstock Film Festival]. To learn more about the production and offer support, click [here](http://www.billythekiddocumentary.com/).

Above: Billy finds his damsel in distress at a local diner. Photo courtesy Isotope Films.