--- title: "Billy Elliot: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/billy-elliot/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/billy-elliot" critics_score: 70 critics_reviews: 10 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Billy Elliot (2000): what the critics said Critics' score 70 from 10 reviews: 6 positive, 3 mixed, 1 negative. Most critics respond warmly to Billy Elliot, with praise centred on Jamie Bell’s natural performance and the pleasure of watching him dance. The reviews also value the humour and warmth of the family story, while several single out Julie Walters and the relationship between Billy and his teacher. For its admirers, Stephen Daldry’s handling of the young cast and the energetic dance sequences gives a familiar story of ambition enough feeling and specificity to carry it. The spread is wide, with sentimentality and predictability dividing the reviews most sharply. Some accept the melodrama as part of the film’s appeal; others find the characters stereotyped and the emotions pushed too hard. Sight and Sound admires its treatment of childhood and masculinity but finds its strike politics evasive, while The AV Club offers a firmer rejection, finding the film cloying and sluggish despite some entertaining dancing. ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Rating 4/4. 13 October 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. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/billy-elliot-2000) ## Empire — Caroline Westbrook Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. 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. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/billy-elliot-review/) ## Total Film Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 29 September 2000. 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. [Read the review](https://www.gamesradar.com/billy-elliot-review/) ## Sight and Sound — Claire Monk Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 1 October 2000. 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. [Read the review](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/309) ## The Independent Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 28 September 2000. 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. [Read the review](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dance-of-a-working-class-hero-701751.html) ## The New York Times — A. O. Scott Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 13 October 2000. 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. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/13/movies/film-review-escaping-a-miner-s-life-for-a-career-in-ballet.html) ## Time Out — WH Fi1m's normalised score 60/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 2012. 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. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/billy-elliot) ## IndieWire Fi1m's normalised score 55/100 (inferred from the text). 12 October 2000. 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. [Read the review](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/culture/review-mixed-steps-pleasing-and-predictable-billy-elliot-81347/) ## The AV Club — Scott Tobias Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 12 October 2000. 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. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/billy-elliot-1798192500) ## Los Angeles Times — Kenneth Turan 13 October 2000. 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. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-oct-13-ca-35698-story.html) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw 29 September 2000. 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. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/sep/29/1) ## Eye for Film — Angus Wolfe Murray Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 19 January 2001. 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. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/billy-elliot-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/billy-elliot.md