Sofa Cinema

Gifts - NEW | Help | Sign in

Hotlists: Rent games; New releases; Coming soon; In cinemas now; Top rated; Most popular; All-time favourites; Divided opinions

Games: DS; GameCube; PS2; PS3; PSP; Wii; Xbox; Xbox 360

Collections: 100 Wild Westerns; 100 Most Wanted; 100 Hot Hits; 100 must-see movies; 100 Big Adventures; 100 Horror Films; 100 Cops & Robbers; 100 Rom-Coms; 100 Swords and Sandals Films

Hi-Def: Blu-ray; HD DVD

Billy Elliot (2000)

Average rating

(72%)

Starring:	Jamie Bell \| Julie Walters \| Gary Lewis \| Jamie Draven \| Jean Heywood \| Stuart Wells \| Nicola Blackwell
Director:	Stephen Daldry
Studio:	UCA
Run time:	106 mins
Genres:	Comedy \| Drama
Languages:	English
Subtitles:	English
Released:	August 11, 2003

Features the films BILLY ELLIOT and SIXTY SIX, which both chronicle an adolescent boy's difficulties with his family.
In BILLY ELLIOT, the titular character (Jamie Bell) is an 11-year-old boy living in north-east England in the mid-1980s. While his gruff father and brother are taking part in a massive coal miners strike, Billy goes to boxing lessons and furtively plays his dead mother's piano out of loneliness. One day Billy notices a ballet class nearby. Intrigued, he begins practicing and taking lessons from Mrs. Wilkinson (Julie Walters), a tough-minded teacher. Billy begins to fall in love with ballet but keeps his lessons a secret from his family, who struggle to put food on the table while the strike drags on. When his father finally learns the truth, a family crisis erupts, and Billy struggles to prove that dancing is more than just a hobby--it's his dream.
SIXTY SIX is set in the summer of 1966 and England is swept by World Cup fever. 12-year-old Bernie Reuben is also excited but for a different reason. He is looking forward to his Bar Mitzvah, the day when he becomes a man. However, the 1966 World Cup Final is scheduled for the very day of his Bar Mitzvah, leading to the possibility of a complete disaster for Bernie.

Screenshots

Rating of 4 stars out of 5

Stage director Stephen Daldry's debut feature is an amiable study of daring to be different in the face of intractable tradition. Comparisons with Brassed Off and Kes come to mind, but the decision to set the story of an 11-year-old north-easterner's bid to become a ballet dancer against the backdrop of the 1984 miners' strike has more emotional resonance than social relevance. It's the heart, not the conscience, that Daldry is keenest to tweak, and he succeeds triumphantly, thanks largely to Jamie Bell's eager performance in the title role (for which he won a Bafta), and the marvellous supporting turns from Gary Lewis as the lad's reactionary dad and Julie Walters as his chain-smoking dance instructor.

Rating of 3 stars out of 5
Halliwell's Film Guide

Ingratiating, uplifting drama, deftly directed and with strong performances that disguise until later how manipulative the narrative is; its feel-good ending, though, is a cheat.

Highest rated reviews

Most recent reviews

Rated 5.0 stars
Possibly the best British movie ever?

paulyb from , 30th December, 2009

I know there is a lot of hype about this film, but after watching it in the winter of 2009, the movie remains a superb piece of British filmmaking in all respects. My wife cried solidly for more than 2 hours, that has never happened before, even in weepy films. The reason for this is that the acting is unparalleled. The father and brother figures are played ferociously during the strike period, but then sink into intense tenderness and love in a way I have never seen in any other movie. There is none of the fake fury that is seen on so-called gritty dramas that the BBC inflicts upon us regularly. The passion goes beyond acting angrily, you feel what is being lost by the miners, whether you supported the union cause or not. While Richard Curtis gets all the british film making accolades today, he has never made a film as good as this, sorry Richard.

Read all recent reviews