Rating: 
Summary: An wonderful film, highlight by Jamie Bell`s Performance.
Review: In the Coal-Mining Community in 1984 of Northern England in a Small Town. When a 11 year old boy named Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell) becomes interested in Dancing and he embarrasses his gruff father (Gary Lewis) and his older Brother (Jamie Draven) by abandoning Boxing Lessons for...Ballet.Directed by Stephen Daldry and Written by Lee Rich brings a well made Dramatic Comedy in this Coming of Age film. Which the movie`s only Flaw is Quite Slow Moving at times. Jamie Bell brings a Expectional Performance in this and also Julie Walters shines as Billy`s Chain Smoking Mentor. DVD`s has an clean anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) transfer and an fine Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. This is a Clever, Often Touching film. Grade:A-.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely a winner
Review: Amazingly a film which was profiled as being "The Film of the Year" which actually lived up to its reputation as a powerful, humorous, gritty and sentimental drama about courage, determination and a desire to succeed despite non-conformity. I've seen this film twice and I find something new in it each time, whether it is the stirring scenes with Billy as he struggles for acceptance or the impassioned hatred of those returning to work in what are extremely realistic scenes from the Miners' Strike. Brought up by his father in the harsh back streets of County Durham during the strikes, Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell) is actively encouraged to participate in boxing by his father yet he discovers a new talent ..for ballet. Short of asking outright to be ostracised, Billy fervently pursues his passion with Julie Andrews as his practical and emotional mentor before his father and brother discover what is going on, bringing about a scene of evocative anger, frustration and stubbornness. After applying for trials at the London Ballet School, Billy demonstrates his routine for his friend Michael, the teenager struggling to deal with his homosexuality, but his father walks in on him and is forced to confront his morals, dreams and principles. To go any further would ruin the ending but this is a fantastic picture with a wonderful soundtrack, see it if only for the epic chase scene involving Billy's brother and the police to the tune of London Calling from The Clash. This is truly fantastic and justifies itself as one of the films of the year.
Rating: 
Summary: Lyrical film is both upbeat and offbeat
Review: To me, there are differences between a 'feel good' movie and one that makes you feel good. The phrase 'feel good' implies something shallow, something that touches your emotions in a superficial and often hollow way. You get a little lump in your throat or a smile on your face, but you don't feel anything particularly powerful. But a movie that has the ability to make you feel good is a rare event, and the best ones can connect you with that elusive thing, the human spirit. Billy Elliot is such a movie. Billy Elliot is a twelve year old kid in northern England in 1984 who seems destined for an ordinary life. His dad and his older brother are coal miners, and in the rather dreary town he lives in, it is quietly assumed that Billy will join them one day. Billy is taking a boxing class. One afternoon his instructor asks him to give some keys to Mrs. Wilkerson [Julie Walters], who teaches a ballet class in the same building. She is in no hurry for the keys, so Billy has time to observe the lesson. Something about dancing intrigues Billy, and soon he is secretly attending the classes. Wilkerson is delighted because Billy is easily the most talented pupil she has ever had. It is only a matter of time before Billy is caught by his father and brother, but he is almost mystically drawn to ballet. When he is finally discovered, there is hell to pay. His family is already suffering from the effects of the worst coal miners' strike in British history, and Billy's participation in what they perceive to be an effeminate pursuit just adds to their woes. Billy must now learn how hard it is to follow your heart when it is pulling in two different directions. Jamie Bell is remarkable as Billy. He is the most talented young actor I have seen in years. His command of the role is the more remarkable because this is his first acting assignment. Like his character, he also is from northern England and took dance classes without his friends knowing.
The always excellent Julie Walters plays Mrs. Wilkerson as a disillusioned but kind woman who chain smokes while she teaches and who sees in Billy the talent she never had. She also acts as a mother figure to the boy, who recently lost his own Mom. As Billy's dad, Gary Lewis gives us a man who is hard as nails on the outside but thoughtful on the inside. Beyond his blustering, he sees in Billy's dancing an opportunity he never had, but he resists because ballet is so alien to his world. Billy Elliot is one of the most positive, thoughtful and finely crafted movies I have seen recently. It should prove endearing to all the countless people who have found that they are different from the people around them and who have struggled between trying to fit in and following their true destiny. NOTE: The characters in this movie speak in a British dialect which may be unfamiliar to many viewers. It will be well worth the effort of backing up the DVD a bit in order to catch words and phrases you might have trouble understanding. Rated R for language. The MPAA is going to have to conclude that a certain word beginning with 'f' has been heard a thousand times already by teenagers or else movie makers are going to have to sacrifice that word. I mention this because said word is the one and only reason this film was rated R. It is a perfect film for many teens in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Going to make a dad cry
Review: This film is a real surprise. The adult characters each have their own objectives in life and are so focused on their own needs and their own environment. Billy realizes he has a passion for dancing, particularly the ballet. No, for all the twisted right-wingers, .... In this blue collar coalmining town, his father and older brother are so stuck in their routine existance that they fail to see that there is more beyond their town. Once the father realizes that his son has the passion for dance and a lot of talent for it, he becomes a real father who knows he must go beyond his own selfishness and put the needs/wants of his child first. Once he starts supporting Billy's passion, the brother too realizes that he cannot deny his brother a life different than his own. This is truly a family film showing what real parental and family love is all about. Its a very excellent "feel good" film that you will watch over and over until your DVD can't take it anymore. Get ready for some serious low English accents, big laughs, superb dancing by this young unknown kid, and lots of big tears! I watch it when I need a boost to support my kids' passions for life.
Rating:
Summary: The kid just wants to dance!
Review: When you need a pick me up BILLY really delivers! Beautiful and moving performances by all involved. The little kid (Jamie Bell) in the lead is absolutely stunning! The dance scene on the rooftop with his brother watching is unforgetable. As is the dance scene for his dad in the boxing gym. Billy Elliot is an 11 year old Engish lad who takes boxing classes but really wants to dance ballet with the little girls in the next room of the gym. He's not posh (as the Europeans call gay men) but a youngster who escapes the hectic world around him by getting lost in his dancing. Of course, dad and brother think it's sissy. Luckily a dance teacher notices his gift and helps him move forward despite it all. Uplifting movie magic with a terrific soundtrack to tap your feet by! By the way, forget about the R rating moms and dads. Kids should see such a delightful film showing a little boy following his dreams. Watch along to explain some of the language. Worth the trouble!!
Rating:
Summary: Very fine
Review: Very good movie. Its strongest point is the fact that, even talking about a touching and beautiful history, is is not overly melodramatic or cliched. Very good British movie!!
Rating:
Summary: Billy Elliot
Review: one of the best movies I have seen. It could do with a little less profanity but under the circumstances maybe it is appropriate.
Rating:
Summary: 5 Stars Times 10!
Review: This is one of my favourite movies of all time! It's got the dry British humour, drama, great music (most by T Rex) and dancing. I hope that last part doesn't turn off the guys, it's a great movie. My significant other is about as masculine as they come and he liked it too.
Rating:
Summary: A gritty little tale with a heart of gold
Review: I've read the many excellent reviews here of this movie, and a number of them raise some pertinent criticisms. Yes, as reviewer Neil Carnegie points out, Billy Elliot does tend to reinforce the bleak stereotypes that British movies paint of the Working Classes, and one becomes a little weary of the constant swearing and violence. But then again, the period depicted in this film was one of the most traumatic in living memory for English miners and their families, so perhaps these elements are an understandable - and realistic - inclusion. It's true to say, though, that the film is not entirely original in its basic premise, and there is a certain predictability about many of the scenes. It's also true that the film fails to tidy up a few loose ends along the way, and some reviewers have complained that they regretted the lack of "closure" that they were anticipating. None of the above made the slightest bit of difference to my enjoyment of this outstanding movie. Billy Elliot successfully negotiates a minefield of would-be cliches, emerging as an exhilarating piece of quirky film-making. It has energy, pace, great acting (from all concerned), and packs an emotional wallop when you least expect it. The film also refuses to pander to audience expectations, and dares to undercut a potentially happy moment with a sad one. This is, after all, what life is really like, and while it will bother those who prefer their movies sugar-coated, I found the film more realistic for its lack of saccharine. I also agree with Neil Carnegie that the film-makers treated the sexuality issue in a balanced way, accurately portraying the homophobia of the community depicted, but refusing to give easy answers or pander to similarly homophobic viewers. I guess I'm lucky to be a New Zealander - equally comfortable with both American and British accents - but I feel sorry for US viewers who were reduced to using English subtitles on the DVD version. Do yourselves a favour! Persevere with these "impenetrable" northern accents, and your enjoyment of the film will be all the richer. Subtitles, after all, cannot convey all the nuances and richness of dialogue as distinctive as this. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: EXPRESS YOURSELF!!!
Review: Billy Elliot is the story of an 11-year-old boy (Jamie Bell) brought up in a tough working class environment who attends boxing classes at the behest of his tough mining father (Gary Lewis). Unfortunately for Billy however, not only does he has to wear his grandfathers antique boxing gloves but he has no boxing talent whatsoever. Somewhat reluctantly (and secretly from his father) he is drawn into participating in the local ballet classes that take place in the same village hall. There he is taken under the wing of the teacher, Mrs Wilkinson, played by Julie Walters (Educating Rita) who soon realises that his flourishing talent may just be his ticket out of the poverty and deprivation that surround them. However, this is to the horror of his father, for not only is this dancing, it's not even the masculine dance of Gene Kelly. It is ballet, as his father would have it, only for girls and nancy boys. Set in the north east of England during the British miners strike of 1984-5 Director Stephen Daldry perfectly captures the darkest period of British social history and the poverty suffering and devastation that it brought to so many communities in this extremely heartwarming and uplifting movie. The miners strike was the period in Britain's history when Margaret Thatcher (the Iron Lady as she became known) literally starved the coal miners, who were striking to save their jobs and the pits from closing. It literally turned neighbours against one another, brought enormous economic hardship to families and destroyed communities. And when it was all over they closed all the pits anyway and all hope was stolen from the working classes, perhaps never to be restored again. Billy Elliot is a very good movie but I have one objection with it and all the other 'gritty' British movies and that is the way the working classes are always portrayed. On the basis of Brassed Off, The Full Monty, Little Voice etc., Americans must really pity us poor British in our squalid terraced council houses and working men's clubs, cigarette permanently in one hand, beer permanently in the other, with our conversations littered with obscenities, even when speaking to kids. The reality is somewhat different and it worries me that a stereotype may begin to develop here. I, and all of my friends come from a working class background and many of the people I knew at school had fathers working in the mines. However, none of them came from a family where obscenities, cigarettes and alcohol were the norm. Certainly there is an element of society that lives like that but from my experience they tend to be the never worked, never want to work lowest of the low, who would never fight to keep a job or bring up a family. (Excuse me whilst I get off my soap box)! Ultimately however, this is a film with a lot of charm, a lot of humour, a lot of heart and great acting performances all round (but particularly from Gary Lewis, Julie Walters and the excellent newcomer Jamie Bell as the title character). The movie is full of fine moments including Billy and his teacher performing a powerhouse dance routine to I Love to Boogie by T Rex, or when Mrs Wilkinson's daughter Debbie idly bangs a stick along the row of policemen's perspex riot shields, whilst sauntering down the street and Billy's dance of rage when his father forbids him from dancing again. Stephen Daldry's direction and the screenplay by Lee Hall are both excellent and it is to their credit that they deal with the question of Billy's nascent sexuality, avoiding vulgarity and judgement. Billy Elliot is not a stereotypical male ballet dancer but the question of his sexuality is left open to question and to their credit the filmmakers have avoided the obvious temptation to reassure the audience that the young boy is straight, because it is irrelevant to the triumph against the odds story. Slightly confusing however, is the use of T rex throughout the soundtrack and other obvious references to the seventies, such as the sight of a Spacehopper and the game Ker-Plunk. 1984/5 was more the time of Wham, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Duran Duran and the Spacehopper and fallen from fashion some ten years earlier (although now making a return apparently). However, any criticisms are mere details for Billy Elliot is that annual rarity, a really good British movie, that both inspires and entertains in equal volumes. Highly recommended!
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