Billy Elliot
User Score
8.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 56 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 49 out of 56
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 56
  3. Negative: 4 out of 56

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  1. DavidH.
    Jul 23, 2006
    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
  2. [Anonymous]
    May 31, 2001
    0
    There are, surprisingly, some good British films -- ones that aren't even set during the miners strike -- and there are many naff ones: this is the naffest of the naff. Predictably manipulative.
  3. RyanM.
    May 26, 2001
    1
    "Billy" is pretentious and boring, plodding and formulated and any other bad term you can ponder upon.
  4. ColeL.
    Nov 22, 2001
    4
    This young actor may dance but he cannot act. It's agonizing to watch this boy being beaten and ridiculed by his father making the movie more monotonous. This scottish movie really did not have what it takes to be a brilliant movie.
  5. CraigB
    May 11, 2005
    2
    "Billy Elliot" is every bit as cloying and smarmy as you think it's going to be. The movie is little more than a tarted up remake of "Flashdance" or "Showgirls" or any of a hundred other movies where a plucky, unschooled main character tries to dance his or her way to fame. I feel less intelligent for having seen this movie.

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
74 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 34 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 34
  3. Negative: 1 out of 34
  1. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    60
    There's too much miserable reality and not a lot of transcendent dance, and the director, Stephen Daldry, doesn't cover the action from enough angles.
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  2. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Robert Horton
    80
    Director Stephen Daldry gets it right.
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  3. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Susan Wloszczyna
    88
    You'd be hard-pressed to find a purer expression of rapture in a film this year than the one that opens Billy Elliot.
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