Stars: Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, Gary Lewis, Jamie Draven, Jean Heywood, Gregg Sulkin, Eddie Marsan, Helena Bonham-Carter, Stephen Rea, Catherine Tate, Peter Serafinowicz

Director: Paul Weiland

Summary: Features the films BILLY ELLIOT and SIXTY SIX, which both chronicle an adolescent boy's difficulties with his family.

Features the films BILLY ELLIOT and SIXTY SIX, which both chronicle an adolescent boy's difficulties with his family.
In BILLY ELLIOT, the titular character (Jamie Bell) is an 11-year-old boy living in north-east England in the mid-1980s. While his gruff father and brother are taking part in a massive coal miners strike, Billy goes to boxing lessons and furtively plays his dead mother's piano out of loneliness. One day Billy notices a ballet class nearby. Intrigued, he begins practicing and taking lessons from Mrs. Wilkinson (Julie Walters), a tough-minded teacher. Billy begins to fall in love with ballet but keeps his lessons a secret from his family, who struggle to put food on the table while the strike drags on. When his father finally learns the truth, a family crisis erupts, and Billy struggles to prove that dancing is more than just a hobby--it's his dream.
SIXTY SIX is set in the summer of 1966 and England is swept by World Cup fever. 12-year-old Bernie Reuben is also excited but for a different reason. He is looking forward to his Bar Mitzvah, the day when he becomes a man. However, the 1966 World Cup Final is scheduled for the very day of his Bar Mitzvah, leading to the possibility of a complete disaster for Bernie.

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Foursquare in the gritty-but-heartwarming tradition of Brassed Off and The Full Monty comes Billy Elliot, the first film from noted British theatrical director Stephen Daldry. The setting is County Durham in 1984, and things "up north" are even grimmer than usual: the miners' strike is in full rancorous swing, and 11-year-old Billy's dad and older brother, miners both, are on the picket lines. Billy's got problems of his own. His dad has scraped together the fees to send him to boxing lessons, but Billy has discovered a different aptitude: a genius for ballet dancing. Since admitting to such an activity is tantamount, in this fiercely macho culture, to holding up a sign reading "I Am Gay," Billy keeps it quiet. But his teacher, Mrs. Wilkinson (Julie Walters, wearily undaunted), thinks he should audition for ballet school in London. Family ructions are inevitable.

Daldry's film sidesteps some of the politics, both sexual and otherwise, but scores with its laconic dialogue (credit to screenwriter Lee Hall) and a cracking performance from newcomer Jamie Bell as Billy. His powerhouse dance routines, more Gene Kelly than Nureyev, carry an irresistible sense of exhilaration and self-discovery. Among a flawless supporting cast, Stuart Wells stands out as Billy's sweet gay friend Michael. And if the miners' strike serves largely as background color, the brief episode when visored and truncheon-wielding cops rampage through neat little terraced houses captures one of the most spiteful episodes in recent British history. --Philip Kemp

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Director's commentary, Cast and film biographies, Featurette, Interactive production notes, Theatrical trailer
Year:	2000
Release Date:	March 10, 2008
Runtime:	196 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	8254852
Keywords:	Billy, Six, English, Comedy, Sixty, Drama, Elliot
Genre:	Drama