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Billy Elliot

A bit of a grittier, less Hollywood-friendly Bend it Like Beckham, only instead of being a story of the triumph of crossing the cultural divide while reconciling with one's family, it's a gender divide.

Billy is an average kid growing up in Thatcher's labour union-torn Britain. His dad and big brother go to picket lines every day to throw rocks at police and he goes to boxing practice.

Seeing a girl's ballet class one day, he can't help his fascination, finds a natural rhythm and after encouragement from the no-nonsense teacher (Walters), finds a love for it. From there the expected tension arises, similar to Beckham but with a touch of violence instead the comical culture clash, and everything swells to a realistically heart warming finish. Powerful, occasionally pretty brutal, but well done.

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