Billy Elliot [M]

Young Billy Elliot is 11 years old and the son of a coal miner on strike. One day, during his weekly boxing lesson, Billy stumbles into Mrs. Wilkinson’s ballet lesson and before long he becomes immersed in ballet, showing a raw talent for dance that he never knew he had. Soon, Billy is reaching for the stars, overcoming adversity from his father, brother, and every other person in town who thinks that ballet is for poofs. 

Aw, I love this movie. Admittedly I haven’t watched it for quite some time, since adding it to the collection for the sole purpose of study for the HSC and, of course, by then I had seen it so many times it had lost all meaning. But now, years later, I can watch it again and feel all the emotional swells and throws that it affords. It’s really a lovely little film, with the heart of Blow Dry and the wit and drama of Educating Rita. 

Young Billy Elliot is 11 years old and the son of a coal miner on strike in Northern England in the 80s. One day, during his weekly boxing lesson, Billy stumbles into Mrs. Wilkinson’s ballet lesson and before long he becomes immersed in ballet, showing a raw talent for dance that he never knew he had. Soon, Billy is reaching for a dream of dance, overcoming adversity from his father, brother, and every other person in town who thinks that ballet is for poofs. 

This is really just a wonderful story of defiance and overcoming adversity, in all forms. We don’t just see battle with the social stereotype of what makes a man macho or gay, but we also see social struggles, sexual struggles, class conflicts, and economic struggles. All forms of drama and conflict are covered here and it’s wonderful to see this single character with a dream of being himself bring all these barriers crashing down and opening people’s minds. People who are well above his maturity level too,… which just adds that emotional clout. Oh, it’s just lovely. 

Jaime Bell stars as young Billy and he was absolutely brilliant. Delivering a performance that was vibrant, frustrated, aggressive, uncertain, and wonderfully emotive, Jaime just grabs the audience around the waist and waltzes with them throughout the film, not letting them go until the credits begin to roll. 

Starring Julie Walters, Gary Lewis, Jean Heywood, Jamie Draven, Stuart Wells, and Nicola Blackwell, Billy Elliot is a wonderful film that’s filled with heart, ambition, conflict, dreams, and defiance. Not to mention the fact that it’s backed by a rocking soundtrack featuring songs by T-Rex, The Jam, and The Clash. It’s really a gorgeous film that’s completely captivating from start to finish.