Review of Bully

Introduction

Bobby (Nick Stahl) and Marty (Brad Renfro) are friends and have been since they were practically born. As they`ve grown up Bobby has become the dominant partner in their friendship and this leads to verbal and physical abuse. Bobby doesn`t seem to realise what he`s doing to Marty, his supposed best friend, and their relationship goes unchecked until they meet Ali (Bijou Philips) and Lisa (Rachel Miner). These girls get the abuse too and it`s sickening to let this go without taking some action.

Lisa suggests to Marty that they kill Bobby, and after a few moments of doubt, he buys into it. They persuade some of their willing and unwilling friends to help out and gather round for clandestine meetings, in Pizza Hut, amongst other places. They also enlist the help of a local gang member.

These kids aren`t older than about 16 or 17 and are going to kill someone. Are they ready for the repercussions?

Video

Presented with a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, Bully looks quite good. The contrast seems a little higher than expected with more gain than is usually present giving the film some grain too. It`s not bad and might be a stylistic thing. There`s little dirt or signs of compression and the film is very watchable.

Audio

This comes with a DD5.1 soundtrack but the dialogue for a few scenes seemed to get drowned out and I couldn`t make out what was being said. The music comes across without any problems and utilises a very wide soundfield with dialogue coming mainly from the centre but I had to pump up the sound louder than usual. This is mainly a dialogue driven piece so it`s a shame better attention wasn`t paid to it. This is where subtitles would have been good, but there aren`t any.

Features

With clean and static menus, we get interviews, B-Roll footage and trailers. The filmed interviews with cast and director Larry Clark is one of the most tedious extras I`ve sat through in a long time. It all runs for around 57 minutes and is broken down into nine separate interviews. Each interview is then broken down into individual questions, asked off camera without the interviewer`s voice. Questions such as: "About his character (a), About his character (b), Traying to create their own reality (no, that`s not a spelling error) and About Larry`s work". All questions come up on screen, and they don`t even change the gender to match who`s being interviewed. This is sloppily done and very dull. With the exception of perhaps Bijou Philips, the cast seem a little lifeless, and sadly watching paint dry has never been more interesting...

B-Roll footage lasts about 17 minutes and is actually interesting to see, more of this would have been better than the staid interviews. Lastly there are anamorphic trailers for five FilmFour films, Bully, Warrior, Late Night Shopping, Monsoon Wedding and Croupier. There are no subtitles here which is a poor omission. It`s not as if there wasn`t enough space on the disc! Come on VCI, this is becoming all too common on your discs.

Conclusion

Bully is based on the book by Jim Shutze and has been condensed down into what we see here. I`ve not read the book, so I can`t comment on how well the ideas have been picked up on for the film, but I think there are elements missing. I`m not familiar with director Larry Clark`s previous film Kids, but it seems he likes to be visually graphic.

Most of us at some time in our lives know what it`s like to be picked on and this is a serious issue, but I think it needs a delicate hand to be able to balance both the violence and psychological effects of bullying as well as a sympathetic side. We get a flavour of the bullying that takes place between Bobby and Marty but I don`t feel that it`s handled deftly enough.

Where are the adults that listen or ignore? Where are the pleas for help? I find it hard to believe that a jump from conspiring to commit murder and the actual act itself goes ahead without any judgment in between. I know these are 16 year olds we`re talking about, but don`t they have any moral upbringing?

I couldn`t care less about the characters here and they deserve to go to gaol. I feel sorry that they`ve been driven to do what they do, but without any sound intervention on their part it`s hard to say they don`t get what they deserve. There are scenes after the murder taking place where their conscience starts to come to the fore, but this isn`t developed enough and has the feeling of being tacked on for the sake of emoting some sympathy. I don`t think it works though, or maybe I`m taking this film too seriously. Any film that claims to be based upon a true story is purporting truth, even if it is given some poetic licence.

We don`t get much of an insight into why Bobby`s as sadistic as he is, though we suspect he gets it from his domineering father. Bobby is a victim too and as sympathetic as we`re not allowed to feel for him, this isn`t an area covered by the story. He needs help, not to be knocked off. I can understand Marty`s frustration at being bullied since he was knee high and maybe he can`t see the wood for the trees, but as for the others that conspire to murder, there`s no excuse. How can they rationalise what they`re going to do? Put it down to naive kids then, shall we?

I`m not looking for a sugar coated film, but I was expecting something with a bit more thought to it. There`s a fair amount of promiscuity and nudity here, nothing shocking, but it seemed a little gratuitous at times and overshadows the main theme. Is this really how 16/17 year old Florida teenagers behave? Or is it director Larry Clark`s accurate reflection of the youth scene? Things really have changed a lot since I was a 16 year old. All in all, I think Bully remains a hollow and sensationalist film with very little interesting to say.

The region 2 disc seems to be uncut since I`m not sure what else could be missing from what we see here and I think Bully is worth a rental just to see the film for yourselves, beyond this though I don`t think it makes for repeated play so it`s not worth buying.