Bully

Larry Clark's Bully (2001) masquerades as a naturalistic based on a real story revenge narrative about teens who decide to murder a bully who has tormented and abused those closest to him. In terms of documenting the cyclical nature of violence, this is an interesting story. In terms of being a good film, it is not.

Billy (Nick Stahl) constantly derides and ridicules his best friend, Marty (Brad Renfro). When Marty gets a new girlfriend, Lisa (Rachel Miner), however, Billy begins to reveal his level of dominance and possession. Billy physically abuses Marty and rapes Lisa, and weeks later Marty and Lisa concoct a plan to terminate Billy's abuse. Recruiting several of their friends, they plan out the execution of Billy.

Unfortunately, that first hour, with its "naturalistic" take on getting high, screwing, and simple love was cringeworthy and mindnumbing. Characters are so uneducated and thoughtless in their decision-making here that IQs literally drop throughout the film. If the lesson to be learned is that uneducated teens cannot plan, execute, and manage life after murdering a fellow human, then the film succeeds. However, if the film is meant to portray the internalized guilt and repercussions that follow from such an act, then the film clearly fails. Lacking anything that even bears a resemblance of subtlety, Clark and his screenwriters instead pummel the audience with insipid dialogue and attempts at profundity.

As a result, Bully becomes nothing more than a misstep, and an attempt at documenting the fallout from a shared traumatic experience. The inability to achieve anything resembling depth ultimately damns this film to mediocrity, and those few strong moments in the middle of the film as the pace and intelligence of the characters picks up are revealed to be small aberrations.

Bully: 4/10