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Billy Elliot
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Metascore
74 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 34 Critics What's this?

User Score
8.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 46 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Starring: Jamie Bell, Julie Walters
  • Summary: The life of 11-year old Billy Elliot (Bell), a coal miner's son in Northern England, is forever changed one day when he stumbles upon a ballet class during his weekly boxing lesson. (Universal Focus)

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 34
  3. Negative: 1 out of 34
  1. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Bob Graham
    100
    People who see it may feel like dancing out of the theater afterward. Go for it.
  2. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    60
    In its determination to overdo sure-fire material, Billy Elliot becomes as impossible to wholeheartedly embrace as it is to completely reject.
  3. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    30
    It orders you to love it. It demands love, which is the best way not to get it.

See all 34 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 22
  3. Negative: 3 out of 22
  1. CorinnaW.
    10
    Really beautiful film. Bell and Waters are simply superb.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. heyitsmegrif4
    9
    Fantastically acted, wonderfully entertaining, funny and just sad enough to make it heartwarming enough to make it one of my favorite movies. I give this movie a great 92%.… Expand
    • 2 of 2 users said yes
  3. DavidH.
    4
    Compelling and funny at sporadic intervals. Otherwise pretty by-the-numbers. Would have given this three or four points if not for Jamie Bell's performance. I got the impression that the film got away with its maudlin sentimentality, cynically constructed melodrama and banal use of montage to the soundtrack of played-to-death British rock "anthems" on the back of it being set in County Durham where of course people talk and act so differently. As a resident of the area myself and having been born in the town that this film was set, I resent that the makers of this film made no attempt to give audiences from elsewhere any idea of what it feels like to live here.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 22 User Reviews

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