Review: Billy Was a Deaf Kid (2009)

[Steve Rhodes]

BILLY WAS A DEAF KID
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2009 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****):  **

The problem with stupid movies is that they can be, well, stupid.  So it is 
with BILLY WAS A DEAF KID, a movie that plays like a home movie of a couple 
of young adults horsing around.

Archie (Rhett Lewis) and Sophie (Candyce Foster) are the two kids, about 
twenty years old, who are the stars of the picture.  Zachary Christian, in 
the title role of Billy, and the movie's old and ubiquitous sofa are the 
film's wallpaper.  They are always there but serve little purpose.

Playing like a long ad lib comedy routine, the movie is one big goof, with 
Archie and Sophie clowning around.  The surprising part of the movie has to 
be how well the actors captured the way people of that age are so silly that 
they are sometimes like grown-up toddlers.  I could easily see my son and 
his girlfriend hamming it up just like Archie and Sophie.

But just because something rings true doesn't mean you want to watch it on 
the big screen for an hour and half.  And, while these very likable actors 
clearly had a really good time with their characters' high jinks, I rarely 
did.

While BILLY WAS A DEAF KID had crazy stunts like riding the sofa down a 
steep road or riding it through a car wash, I never cared about the movie's 
characters, but my feelings about the two leads were very different.  As I 
told them after the screening, I didn't like the movie or the script, but I 
would love to see them in a different movie.  They clearly have talent, even 
if this film masked it.

BILLY WAS A DEAF KID runs a long 1:29.

The film is being shown as part of San Jose's Cinequest Film Festival 
(www.Cinequest.org), which runs February 25-March 8, 2009.

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