The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls

Not familiar with the Topp Twins, I chose to review their film, The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls because of its poster. Pictured are New Zealand’s Jools and Lynda Topp, dressed in outfits which could easily be seen worn by a couple of country ladies from Nashville. The times I have visited the country music capital of the world, I have seen oodles of these kinds of ladies in shopping centres, banks, airports, etc. in their ‘uniforms’, the extremely colourful sweaters (or neon get ups), with adorning patches of Christmas trees, doggies and kittens. Yes, I was drawn to a film by a gaudy jumper. The poster ‘promised’ a good laugh, and laugh I did.

The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls is a documentary, piecing together a patchwork of vignettes from the lives of the Topp Twins past and present; two women, I can’t believe that I did NOT hear of earlier in my life… I truly have been living under a rock, having missed such amazing performers.

The film is directed by Helmer Leanne Pooley, who shows them in a very honest light and as they truly are: farm girls, country singers, comedians, actresses, yodelers and… lesbians. To put it in their comedy writer friend Paul Horan’s words, “they defy logic ‘on paper’, yodeling lesbian twins don’t really work.” They sing in the music genre which is liked by the very type of people who would hate them for being lesbians. And yet, for almost three decades, the sisters have been happily defying the mainstream entertainment world and homophobia. They have become ‘wholesome entertainers’ (as per a TV report from 1982 featured in film) accepted by, well… everyone who comes in contact with them.

The Topp sisters are not just silly, happy-go-lucky women yodeling their way through life, and the director manages to show the audience ‘the flip side of the coin’ as well: their dedication to Kiwi gay rights; their participation in an anti-apartheid rally during a South African rugby match, and the activism to keep the Maori land from being taken away by developers.

During the ‘80s the sisters slicked back their hair and wore suits, and resembled the Everly Brothers. They strummed their guitars the same way, and had that special vocal harmony – sounding like one voice – like only siblings seem able to achieve.

They sing country songs, tugging at heart strings evoking emotions, and then they have the wonderful ability of turning things completely around, and cracking the audience up, provoking tears of laughter while impersonating a wide variety of characters (among them the sweater clad women featured on their poster) which they have developed for their vaudevillian styled act.

The film’s depiction of the Topp sisters’ lives is sincere and down to earth. It was like taking a stroll in a scrap book created by the two, and hearing the explanation or the reasons behind a photo or a concert’s ticket stub. It was a biography which I enjoyed watching, recommend to others and earnestly hope that others will watch and enjoy as much as I did… frilly sweater and all.

The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls