Billy Elliot

4.25
    Billy Elliot
    2000

    Synopsis

    County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.

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    Cast

    • Jamie BellBilly Elliot
    • Gary LewisJackie Elliot
    • Julie WaltersMrs Wilkinson
    • Jean HeywoodGrandma
    • Jamie DravenTony Elliot
    • Stuart WellsMichael Caffrey
    • Mike ElliotGeorge Watson
    • Billy FaneMr Braithwaite
    • Nicola BlackwellDebbie Wilkinson
    • Carol McGuiganLibrarian

    Recommendations

    • 91

      Portland Oregonian

      An exquisite, ecstatic film, crude in its characterizations and plotting, yes, but extraordinary in its capacity for elation and its hard-earned sentimentality.
    • 90

      Rolling Stone

      Bell explodes onscreen in a performance that cuts to the heart without sham tearjerking. Look for Billy to blast off.
    • 88

      USA Today

      You'd be hard-pressed to find a purer expression of rapture in a film this year than the one that opens Billy Elliot.
    • 88

      Chicago Tribune

      A triumph that deserves a broad audience.
    • 88

      Boston Globe

      Bell is utterly persuasive as the boy literally yearning to leap beyond the oppressively apparent confines of his world.
    • 80

      Film.com

      Director Stephen Daldry gets it right.
    • 75

      New York Post

      An uplifting, crowd-pleasing film in the tradition of "The Full Monty" that could easily win Oscar nominations for both its 11-year-old star, Jamie Bell, and first-time director, Stephen Daldry.
    • 75

      Miami Herald

      Compared to manipulative tearjerkers like "Pay It Forward" or "Men of Honor," Billy Elliot is a model of restraint, one that earns its warmth the hard way -- by making us care about the people who are going through familiar steps.

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