Documentary, Billy the Kid

Watching a pretty good documentary called Billy the Kid, about a 15-year-old named Billy. He lives with his mother and step-father. His biological father took off after committing a large theft.

Billy seems sweet and very candid, but slightly odd. He sees himself as tougher than he comes across. He talks about his purple belt in karate and the time he tried to protect his mother by pulling a steak knife on his abusive father. It isn't mentioned in the movie, but he's been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome.

He hangs around a little restaurant and talks with the teenage girl working there. He talks and talks. They go for a walk together.

"Will you be my girlfriend?"

"Sure," she says.

She later regrets this. She is interviewed by the filmmakers. It was rather sudden. He was nice, but she really didn't know him. I don't know how the presence of the film crew affected events. I think she may have meant, "Well, sure, hypothetically."

Billy regrets it in part. There's an answering machine message from his mother telling the filmmakers that he would like some of the stuff he said removed...the part where he said he would give his life for his new girlfriend.

I watched it on Hulu. It's available on DVD on Netflix with extras, an interview with the filmmaker and with Billy himself looking back on it a year later.