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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Billy Elliot
Universal Focus / USA Films


7.7

based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 33 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for language

Starring Julie Walters, Gary Lewis, Jamie Draven, Jean Heywood, and Jamie Bell

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)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Lee Hall
DIRECTED BY:	Stephen Daldry
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 17, 2001 Video: April 17, 2001 Theatrical: October 13, 2000
RUNNING TIME:	110 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK

Picked up three 2001 Oscar nominations: Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress (Walters).

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

People who see it may feel like dancing out of the theater afterward. Go for it.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

An exquisite, ecstatic film, crude in its characterizations and plotting, yes, but extraordinary in its capacity for elation and its hard-earned sentimentality.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Bell explodes onscreen in a performance that cuts to the heart without sham tearjerking. Look for Billy to blast off.

Newsweek David Ansen

This delightful film, with its surprising depth charges of emotion, has the feel of a movie that's going to lodge itself in the public's affections for a long time to come.

Variety David Rooney

Strikes a delicate balance of comedy and pathos with an uplifting final act that delivers a resoundingly satisfying emotional payoff.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

It's not just a movie about an underdog who fights the odds, it's about following one's heart -- despite the obstacles.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Best of all, Billy (Jamie Bell) is that rarity in a film distributed by Hollywood: a real boy, confused at 11 about almost everything.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

You'd be hard-pressed to find a purer expression of rapture in a film this year than the one that opens Billy Elliot.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

A triumph that deserves a broad audience.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Bell is utterly persuasive as the boy literally yearning to leap beyond the oppressively apparent confines of his world.

Film.com Robert Horton

Director Stephen Daldry gets it right.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

This is such seductive entertainment that you might as well stop grousing and give in.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

A delicate balance of fantasy and realism, caricature and character study that isn't driven primarily by its plot or even the development of its protagonist.

Village Voice Leslie Camhi

By setting this intimate conflict against a wider social drama, Daldry makes his portrait of a dancer all the more compelling.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

Can be as howlingly funny as it is touching.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

An exhilarating, funny and deeply sad story of growing pains that works on two levels; it's a feel-good story that quietly undermines the notion of gain without loss.

Salon.com Mary Elizabeth Williams

A surprisingly wise and funny meditation on the nature of what it truly means to be a man.

Film.com Peter Brunette

You'll feel moved and uplifted after watching this well-written, funny movie.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Anchors its melodramatic formula in tough, heartfelt realism.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

An adrenaline-pumping, post-musical musical.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

One of those movies where it's impossible not to find yourself cheering for the scruffy underdog hero.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

As much parable and fantasy as it is realistic.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Trumpets the worthwhile message that ballet is just as manly and athletic as any other masculine activity - and maybe a touch more so, if you have to defy an uncomprehending community in order to pursue it.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

An uplifting, crowd-pleasing film in the tradition of "The Full Monty" that could easily win Oscar nominations for both its 11-year-old star, Jamie Bell, and first-time director, Stephen Daldry.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Compared to manipulative tearjerkers like "Pay It Forward" or "Men of Honor," Billy Elliot is a model of restraint, one that earns its warmth the hard way -- by making us care about the people who are going through familiar steps.

TNT RoughCut Susannah Breslin

It's the triumph of the human spirit in its never-ending quest to be an original no matter what the establishment says.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Good, colorful fun, and by virtue of its emphasis on escape through individual initiative rather than class solidarity, more likely to succeed with American audience.s

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Even as the director, Stephen Daldry, places his star front and center, he doesn't know how to highlight him.

Slate David Edelstein

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.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

There's actually a lot going on in this little movie, and first-time feature director Stephen Daldry, turning his talents from the theater, handles all of it deftly.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

In its determination to overdo sure-fire material, Billy Elliot becomes as impossible to wholeheartedly embrace as it is to completely reject.

Time Richard Corliss

The better class of moviegoers will love Billy Elliot. And I loved hating it.

Baltimore Sun Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

The performances of Bell, Walters and Lewis make this movie worth seeing - as long as you silence your cynical side and bring some Kleenex.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It orders you to love it. It demands love, which is the best way not to get it.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 33 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Corinna W. gave it a10:
Really beautiful film. Bell and Waters are simply superb.

David H. gave it a4:
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.

Sean gave it an8:
great story, great dancing. although not as good as the musical in London

Craig B gave it a2:
"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.

Samantha B. gave it a 9:
Such a feel good film, made me feel like dancing! Great performances from a top class cast.

Mike M. gave it a 9:
Having never known a thing about the art of ballet, this movie inspired me to delve into its history, heritage, and amazing athleticism. Would like to have seen more of Adam Cooper, who's incredible talent is wasted insofar as he is given only a cameo appearance. A great ending, but Cooper was given short shrift in my opinion...

[Anonymous] gave it a 10:
This was one of the best movies I have seen!

Billy Elliot Universal Focus / USA Films

Billy Elliot
Universal Focus / USA Films