Billy Elliot

2000 • 1h 51m •

Drama Comedy Music

MOVIEVIBE Rating

★ 7.6/10

4,168 reviews

Your Rating

County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.

"Inside every one of us is a special talent waiting to come out. The trick is finding it."

Top Billed Cast

Jamie Bell

Billy Elliot

Gary Lewis

Jackie Elliot

Julie Walters

Mrs Wilkinson

Jean Heywood

Grandma

Jamie Draven

Tony Elliot

Stuart Wells

Michael Caffrey

Mike Elliot

George Watson

Billy Fane

Mr Braithwaite

Detailed Critic & Audience Reviews

C CinemaSerf Verified TMDB Critic

2023-10-21

I hadn't seen this film since it was released when it was shown recently as a part of the Glasgow Youth Film Festival. The fact that it was chosen by the kids of today in what would have been just as unlikely a setting for this film as the North of England speaks volumes as to it's effect on challenging and breaking the stereotypical moulds that the British working class in the early 1980s was steeped in. The sylph-like "Billy" (the hugely engaging Jamie Bell) goes to boxing class each week but is soon more preoccupied by the adjacent dancing class of the no-nonsense "Mrs. Wilkinson" (Julie Wa...