Review Summary

“I know I’m unique,” announces Billy, an opinionated 10th grader and the willing subject of Jennifer Venditti’s sly documentary, “Billy the Kid.” Delivered almost apologetically, the comment is without arrogance. But as one candid confession follows another, the camera’s role in their solicitation becomes difficult to overlook. Filming for eight days during the summer and winter of 2005, Ms. Venditti follows Billy as he navigates his close-knit community, Lisbon Falls, Me. A seemingly normal teenager who likes girls (“but I’m not a jerk about it”) and loves heavy metal, Billy also struggles with a volatile temper and the disconcerting tendency to say exactly what he means. Both traits have isolated him from his peers, inflamed the local bullies and driven him more deeply into a mind that may or may not conceal more serious psychological problems. Presenting neither an argument for medication nor its rejection, “Billy the Kid” is a deceptively simple portrait of a shockingly self-aware and articulate young man. — Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times