Contains a gay stereotype that's so tired it's at home and in bed...

Rating: 5/10 (1 June 2004)

Sure, Billy Elliot can be considered an endearing drama, and you do want to root for Billy to succeed. The story of a boy going against the male-ego dominated society in Northern England and fulfilling his dream of becoming a dancer is charming indeed. BUT...a subplot involving Billy's gay friend is ridiculous. While so many on here have gone sugary over Billy Elliot's charms, I'm concentrating here on a major problem:
The writers in movie-world have this idea that all gay male characters (in this case, Billy's friend) HAVE to be cross-dressers and have a desire to be like women. That whole subplot was unnecessary and just takes a huge step backward for intelligence. They must be listening to too much Howard Stern. Yes, we know Billy is heterosexual, and in order to have him pursue his "non-masculine" dream of dancing and come off looking respectable, the actual gay character is portrayed as a stereotype, dressing up in his mother's clothes (shades of that character of Billy Crystal's in "Soap"). By the end of the film he shows up at Billy's big dance debut looking straight out of Queer Eye with an equally prissy black man, who has an expression on his face like he just dined on a very sour lemon. Face the facts, movie writers: the majority of cross-dressers are heterosexual, not gay. If you're going to establish that the young boy is going to be gay as an adult, show us other things instead of the usual tired stereotypes. If the character were a lesbian instead, you can bet she'd be "hot," talk like any other woman, and not have any butch mannerisms. I don't know who the writers keep learning what they know about gay culture from, but all the gay men I know are quite blue collar and definitely not FABulous. I'm really sick of filmmakers and TV folks who only know how to show things ONE way, instead of showing the truth or at least showing a variety.
If the ridiculous gay subplot were not in the film, I'd have highly recommended Billy Elliot to friends. Sorry though, I just get annoyed with his friend's portrayal as a cliché stereotype, so many points are taken off for that one. Think of it this way, any youngster that might have thoughts he/she might be gay and see this portrayal in the film, it would really screw up his idea of what being gay is.....
OK, now you folks can read all the other reviews of praise on IMDb, just understand how little things in a film like what I mentioned can hold back any true progress for some people overall.