Billy T: Te Movie: Blu Ray Review
Billy T: Te Movie
Rating: PG
Released by Sony Home Ent
"His mark on comedy is like a pen mark on a shirt - by a Vivid pen
- it's indelible."
So a doco about the irrepressible and much loved Kiwi comic icon
Billy T James finally hits the small screen.
Te Movie is more about Billy T's life and draws inevitable
parallels with Leanne Pooley's Topp Twins Untouchable Girls in
terms of how it's put together. Using archive performance footage,
past interviews and current day recollections and reconstructions
from colleagues, friends but no immediate family, this piece by Ian
Mune is a sensitive, relatively rounded portrait of the man who
clearly set the standard for Kiwi comedy (and whose groundbreaking
talent and natural showmanship have yet to be matched from what I
can tell.)
Ian Mune uses footage of him truly rocking the house and reducing
everyone to laughter to show what a talent he was - and what a
stellar performer he was once he overcame his initial shyness and
found his stride in the Maori Volcanics group.
He's also wisely chosen to adopt a somewhat matey approach to
interviewing friends and colleagues of Billy T - a trio of bros is
interviewed in a field in Auckland, quite a few other mates are
interviewed near a cowshed - there's a very uniquely Kiwi and
casual approach to putting together this film. Contributions also
come from long term Billy T cohort Peter Rowley as you'd
expect.
But it's telling that there's no real comment - other than archival
footage - from immediate family and that's the one real hole and
glaring omission which truly stops this from feeling like a rounded
and full portrait of the man.
Ultimately, because of the lack of immediate family, Billy T: Te
Movie falls just short of greatness; don't get me wrong - Ian
Mune's pieced together a warmly fitting tribute to the man who made
such a difference to entertainment and Maori/ Pakeha
relations.
And quite frankly, decades on, Billy T still has what it takes to
reduce audiences to laughter - no matter how old or young they are
in this charming doco which will have you giggling like Billy
T.
Rating: 6/10
