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100
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San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham
People who see it may feel like dancing out of the theater afterward. Go for it.
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90
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Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Bell explodes onscreen in a performance that cuts to the heart without sham tearjerking. Look for Billy to blast off.
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88
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USA Today Susan Wloszczyna
You'd be hard-pressed to find a purer expression of rapture in a film this year than the one that opens Billy Elliot.
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88
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Boston Globe Jay Carr
Bell is utterly persuasive as the boy literally yearning to leap beyond the oppressively apparent confines of his world.
|
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80
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The New York Times Dana Stevens
Anchors its melodramatic formula in tough, heartfelt realism.
|
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75
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Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
As much parable and fantasy as it is realistic.
|
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67
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Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Even as the director, Stephen Daldry, places his star front and center, he doesn't know how to highlight him.
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60
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Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
In its determination to overdo sure-fire material, Billy Elliot becomes as impossible to wholeheartedly embrace as it is to completely reject.
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60
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Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
There's actually a lot going on in this little movie, and first-time feature director Stephen Daldry, turning his talents from the theater, handles all of it deftly.
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30
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Washington Post Stephen Hunter
It orders you to love it. It demands love, which is the best way not to get it.
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