Set in the 1980s during the miners’ strike, the film follows a young boy as he finds a new love for ballet, going against his familys working-class traditions.
Such is the case with 'Persepolis', which is based on Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel (Satrapi wrote and directed theadaptation). Billy Elliot is one of the most critically acclaimed and culturally significant British movies of the past several decades. The three leads give dazzling performances, and the story is completely engrossing.Īnimation can often portray stories in ways that live action can’t.
#Movies like billy elliot plus#
Plus its soundtrack is class.īased on Stephen Chbosky’s novel (who also wrote and directed the film), The Perks of Being a Wallflower depicts the experiences of junior high school student Charlie (Logan Lerman) when he befriends two senior students named Sam (Emma Watson) and Patrick (Ezra Miller). Simmons, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman, all of whom give top-notch performances, 'Juno' is funny and touching, quirky yet relatable. Out on the road with the band, William does a hell of a lot of growing up.īreathless in pace and littered with genuine, flawed, human characters, 'Almost Famous' stays with you long after viewing. Inspired by ' Eighth Grade', out in cinemas this weekend, here are seven such movies released from the year 2000 on, which whether you feel young for your age or old, you should really make it your business to see:ġ5-year-old William wants to be a rock journalist and he gets a golden opportunity when he meets the band Stillwater, who he becomes enthralled by, and Rolling Stone magazine hires him to write an article about them. They may not be 18 yet but they have ‘come of age’. We see a young protagonist mature out of an age of innocence, as they learn some darker truth about life and enter maturity. It’s been a popular narrative of books (aka the bildungsroman) that has adapted to films quite well. But the 2000s and 2010s have provided us with some great coming of age stories as well. Bell is fine, too, but Daldry overuses the dance as a metaphor for escape and frustration, and choreographer Peter Darling's grandstanding ballet numbers sit a little uneasily, given the realist comedy pitch.We had James Dean in the '50s and John Hughes in the '80s. Compared to manipulative tearjerkers like Pay It Forward or Men of Honor, Billy Elliot is a model of restraint, one that earns its warmth the hard way. Walters is first rate when she checks her tendency to mannerism and harnesses her natural emotionalism. Billy lives in a coal-mining town in England, during the 198485 coal miners' strike. But that’s precisely why you should watch it again. Mrs Wilkinson is a dispirited soul who finds as much genuine pleasure in nurturing the talent and hope of this 11-year-old as he does in the discipline and support of her surrogacy. When a boy trades boxing school for ballet lessons, he may take his newfound talent all the way to. A story like Billy Elliot shouldn’t have to be timeless. That said, the film's real heart - the relationship that Billy (Jamie Bell) strikes up with his dance teacher Mrs Wilkinson (Walters) - provides the conventional dramatic arc with a supple emotional springboard. Regrettably, the unsentimental depiction of the working class Northeast in Lee Hall's semi-autobiographical script has been tinged with caricature in stage director Daldry's first feature. During the miners' strike of 1984, a motherless boy from a pit village takes up dancing against the wishes of his collier dad and older brother.