October 19–26, 2000
movie shorts
Billy Elliot
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recommended
Mixing elements of social realism and song-and-dance films, Billy Elliot treads a fine line between clever and dreadful. Set in a British coal mining village during the catastrophic strike of 1984, it’s got anguish to burn, enough that 11-year-old Billy (Jamie Bell) turns to dance as a way to escape. His dad (Orphans’ Gary Lewis) has sent the young lad out for boxing lessons, but when a strikers’ meeting forces a girls’ dance class upstairs, he’s inexplicably drawn in. Director Stephen Daldry keeps the starry-eyed moments to a minimum, but the T. Rex music which blasts off the soundtrack vividly conjures a reality outside the coal-blackened streets of Billy’s hometown. Daldry keeps it simple, though; the setting never changes, even at the height of Billy’s rapture. It’s that restraint that makes Billy Elliot work; it charges right up to every potentially manipulative moment, then pulls back. (When Billy’s asked about his dead mother, he says simply, "She was me mum.") Julie Walters, who played a troubled hausfrau in Titanic Town, gets to cut loose here as Billy’s salty dance instructor.
(See Sam Adams’ interview with director Stephen Daldry and actress Julie Walters.)
