Word: elliot
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...Billy Elliot, the new British film about an 11-year-old from a coal-mining town who wants to be a ballet dancer, is a prime example of elevated kitsch. Written by playwright Lee Hall, Billy echoes most of the manipulative inspirational films of the past 20 years. The movie could be called Chariots of Flashdance, Strictly Ballet, Smile--Life Is Beautiful! Audience members, already primed to love a losers-win story about a poor boy with big dreams, don't have to bring anything to the film, because director Stephen Daldry does all the work for them. Sentimental movies...
This is the first feature for stage director Daldry (An Inspector Calls), yet he displays an awesome instinct for cinematic manipulation. He loads every image with emotive propaganda (this character noble, this one morally myopic) and lards it with music that cues you to weeping or cheering. Billy Elliot is about as open to unforced feeling as Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will...
...bank on my Hit Detector. The better class of moviegoers will love Billy Elliot. And I loved hating...
...actioner than to the good intentions of a warm-'n'-fuzzy plea for brother- and sisterhood. It's not the politics that rankles so much as the piety. That's where The Contender, Rod Lurie's new Washington drama, stumbles. It has surface smarts but a soft head. Billy Elliot appeals to liberal emotions, The Contender to liberal righteousness...
...Elliot Ravetz...