The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls: They’ll Double Your Kiwi Fun

Argot/Vendetta

They know how to shear sheep, too.

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Runs at Grand Illusion, Fri., May 20– Thurs., May 26. Not rated. 84 minutes.

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Resistance is futile. Don't even try not falling for these adorable twin lesbian political-activist farmer/folksinger/comedians from New Zealand. "On paper, they should not work," says one talking head in this doc about Jools and Lynda Topp, who sing like the Everly Brothers, look like kd lang (in plaid flannel), crusade like Joan Baez, and bring to life onstage a flock of campily satirical, Little Britain–style characters—when they're not working the family farm they were raised on. Some of those characters, like drag-king everyguys Ken & Ken or socialites Dilly and Prue Ramsbottom, sometimes take over, appearing at county fairs and charity teas and fooling people who might not know the Topps' shtick. If NZ's a reasonably gay-friendly country now, it was a hard-won battle; part of the victory is due to the Topps, on the ramparts for decades, and their "healthy, rural, cheerful cowgirl image." A gay who can wrangle sheep is a gay every Kiwi can relate to, and their out-and-proud act has filled meeting halls in the tiniest towns. A few questions Leanne Pooley's film doesn't answer: How/why did they leap from farming to performing in the first place? What's it like being in a relationship (both Topps are partnered) with two sisters so twin-close? And if the country's once thundering intolerance was transformed in a few short years into "Who cares?" acceptance, then what the fuck is America's problem?