A young boy called Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell) is torn between his love of dancing and family expectations during the miners’ strike in the early 1980s. It also stars Gary Lewis as Billy’s father, and Julie Walters as Mrs Wilkinson, Billy’s dance teacher.
I remember that I watched some of this film when I was much younger, and this was also one of the films that I studied during my British cinema module in second year of university, and I saw the West End musical production of Billy Elliot on a school trip in college. That being said, this film goes out of its way to project a certain perception of toxic masculinity, mostly built from social-political backgrounds and environments, familial hardships, and pre-perceived gender roles (boys must be tough, must dislike dancing of any kind, but they must enjoy contact sports like boxing, but girls must like ballet), from an incredibly young age. It goes without saying that children pick up and adapt from the environment where they’re raised and from what they’re led to believe.
The soundtrack- featuring the likes of songs such as Town Called Malice by the Jam, and I Love to Boogie by T-Rex, is authentically British (realistically British, not the castles and monarchs narrative that Americans and tourists see), and captures the struggle between passion for your craft and social struggles in a deprived mining town. This film is also not just about telling a story, but the atmosphere almost comes across as being its own character as well.
As for Jamie Bell, I have since seen him in a variety of other films (notably Filth), but here, he shows promise for a blossoming career, as his character chooses between his passion for ballet, and trying not to become a product of his home environment but encapsulates an angry pre-pubescent perfectly, who is part of this ever-changing world, but cannot do anything about it. Julie Walters’ character is also an excellent psuedo-motherly figure towards him, whose no-nonsense teaching style is a reflection of her own struggles.
Overall, a charming but authentic contempoary film about challenging expectations and gender standards to your family, even if you’re a child.
****/*****
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