Billy Elliot (2000)

The film is sweeter than its counterpart Girlfight, following a boy who wants to be a ballet dancer despite opposition from his macho father and brother in a mining town. It features engaging performances, especially from Jamie Bell, and illustrates differences in how children and adults see the world.

The critic credits Daldry with creating the first genuinely exhilarating Brit flick of the new millennium, a no-holds-barred triumph that eschews dance-movie clichés for a deceptive simplicity focused on overcoming family opposition amid the miners' strike, with strong comedy, emotional dance sequences set to 80s hits, and a star-making turn from Jamie Bell.

The critic describes it as a heartwarming, toe-tapping delight from Daldry's joyous working-class fairytale that splices miners' strike grit with exuberant dance routines, praising the rare talent for extracting unforced performances from the young cast and the gut-busting pleasure of the dance sequences to glam-rock tracks, while noting some unease with the shift to sentimentality and a coded gay parable.

The critic finds the film truer to authentic experience than similar British hits like The Full Monty, crediting Jamie Bell's standout performance as Billy and its quirky take on childhood and masculinity, but notes it is politically circumspect and evasive about the miners' strike and class conflicts.

The critic notes that hype around Daldry's debut makes it easy to resist the film's heart-string tugging and jaunty soundtrack, but ultimately praises its more complicated message, hair-raising strike scenes, and near-perfect cast, especially Jamie Bell's energy, Julie Walters' droll performance, and Gary Lewis avoiding clichés. It is called raw escapism akin to Ratcatcher with the i's dotted and t's crossed.

The story of an 11-year-old boy in a northern England mining town who dreams of ballet during the 1984 strike anchors its melodramatic formula in tough, heartfelt realism. It mirrors Girlfight but uses the accents and setting of its characters to explore escaping working-class confines.

The review criticizes the film for adding caricature to Lee Hall's script and overusing dance as metaphor, but singles out the warm central relationship between Billy and his teacher Mrs Wilkinson, along with strong performances from Jamie Bell and Julie Walters, as its emotional core.

Billy Elliot offers pleasing but predictable and mixed steps in its story of a boy discovering ballet amid a mining strike, leaning on familiar crowd-pleasing elements without much innovation.

The film is cloying and sluggish despite some entertaining dancing scenes, relying too heavily on melodramatic clichés and a syrupy script about a boy's escape through ballet during the miners' strike.

The crowd-pleasing story of a boy pursuing ballet has genuine appeal in Jamie Bell's natural performance and scenes of pure movement, but overdoes sentimentality and clichés, making it hard to wholeheartedly embrace. The filmmakers push the material too hard with heavy-handed emotional manipulation.

The film is a bold, attractive and emotionally generous debut from stage director Stephen Daldry about a boy discovering his talent for dance amid the 1984 miners' strike. It has charm, humour and heart, with intelligent handling of the boy's sexuality and a freshness that makes it a pleasure to watch.

The critic finds it impossible not to like the film due to the boy's courage but criticizes it for being conventional, predictable, and relying on stereotypes of working-class northern life. He praises the performances, especially Jamie Bell's, but notes it rings false compared to films like Kes.