'Billy The Kid' Provides Honest Look Into Life Of Troubled Teen

Taylor Ingraham
2.11.08

Jennifer Venditti's independent film “Billy the Kid” is an amusing portrait of Billy, a 15-year-old outsider growing up in small-town Maine.

He is just like a typical teenager in many different ways; he is into heavy metal music and dreams of being a rock star. He also is unique, though his troubled past and ongoing behavioral issues have left him marked. Billy doesn’t apologize about his personality and refuses to be victimized. Billy is funny, sharp, as well as strangely wise for his age.

Billy wears his heart on his sleeve. Billy describes the sins of his biological father that left him to grow up in a doublewide trailer home with his mother and radio announcer stepfather who is consistently absent. For some reason, he idolizes his stepfather.

In the movie, Billy seems witty and is always quoting bits and pieces from the movie “The Terminator” and poet Robert Frost. However, you can tell there is
something more behind what Billy physically displays. You can see it in his eyes. His eyes are always moving and shifting from one place to another.

The realness that Vendetti captured through her film just opens the eyes of people. Billy, who seems abnormal because of his shifty and odd mannerisms, is just another teenager going through things that most of us do.

While I enjoyed the film a lot, I really wish the viewer could have met the stepfather, who really shaped the movie. I believe Billy is the way he is because of the absence of the father figure in his life. If we could have met the stepfather, some of the questions as to why he idolizes someone who is never there, could have been answered. It could have been a great addition to the film and revealed a lot.

“Billy the Kid” was a different way to look at life as a troubled teen, and new look into independent filmmaking. Very well done and it conveyed a lot about the actual struggles teens go through today.

Image from cinematical.com