Larry Clark stirred up controversy with Kids, his debut film about a group of streetwise teenagers partying hard and fooling around. Well, it’s tame in comparison to the sex, drugs and teenage mayhem found in Bully. Marty (Brad Renfro) and Bobby (Nick Stahl) have been buds since the days of finger painting and inflatable wading pools. Bobby says they are best friends, but Marty would beg to differ. Bobby is the leader and Marty the follower. Bobby’s abusive, Marty’s the perennial target. But Bobby’s troubling attitude doesn’t stop with his pal. His thirst for dominance extends to everyone around him. Bobby goes as far as rape in his quest to be the ultimate master. The boy has troubles, but his friends are not ready for forgiveness. Led by Marty’s new girlfriend Lisa (Rachel Miner), the group hatches a plan to kill Bobby.

Only once every couple of years does a film come along with the impact of Bully. Each of the characters is based on a grim reality of growing up with nothing much to do. They’re all middle-class teens flirting with their emerging adulthood. Unlike Kids where poverty leads to daily struggles, everyone in Bully has ample food in the fridge and a house with a nicely kept lawn in front. That’s what makes their harsh actions all the more disturbing and fascinating to watch. Clark has a feel for the pulse of the darker side of adolescence, reaching for the demons most of us face growing up. The ensemble cast’s performance perfectly compliments the film’s intense nature, nailing contemporary dialogue, swaggers and, most importantly, attitude.

Clark seems to have a voyeuristic fetish for the teenage body. Kids had its share of steamy scenes, but not to the same extent as Bully, in which the first 30 minutes hardly leaves the bedroom and when it does it’s in the backseat of a car. It’s not so much the sex that’s bothersome, but Clark’s meandering eye. He doesn’t just scan over an exposed thigh or zoom in on a girl’s cleavage. Clark does everything he can to actually get under the thin layer of clothes he dresses his stars in. He makes his point known, but then takes it a step further and finds himself crossing the line of decency. This is a movie about teenagers and zooming in on their crotches isn’t exactly tasteful.

Although the actors are adults, their on-screen personas are in the middle of the tumultuous time known as high school, the westernized rite of passage to adulthood. They drink, do drugs and have sex. Some of it they enjoy, while other times they realize their mistakes. For them it’s just a way of killing time, something to do. Under the immense pressure of trying to fit in, they all become disillusioned. Each has their unique hurt. Whether it’s a father who’s too overbearing, a father who doesn’t listen, or the fact that there’s no father around at all, Clark places a lot of the blame on inept parenting skills.

Love it or despise it, there is no doubt that that those who witness Bully will feel strong emotions toward it. On the one-hand it’s a hard-hitting coming-of-age tragedy where young people are driven to extremes to rid themselves of a dangerous and abusive predator. On the other hand, the perverse voyeuristic gaze of the camera could easily be interpreted as soft porn. Very few movies leave me feeling sick, but none have left me feeling as ill as Bully did. Take out the gratuitous teen-oriented smut and you’ve got something of a masterpiece.

Ryan Cracknell

DVD version:

The Bully DVD comes packaged with a nice, although not spectacular, selection of special features. The bulk of the added material comes from interviews with director Larry Clark and the film’s ensemble cast. Clark has nothing but six minutes of praise for his stars. The cast interviews are divided into several sections, each touching on a different subject. They talk about their roles, the crew, working with Clark and how they got their roles (this section is particularly funny). Mug shots and web links are given for background on the people the movie was based on. The disc also has a trailer and a music-only track that isolates the film’s hip hop and rock-inspired soundtrack. The film is shown in sharp widescreen with 5.1 Dolby digital audio and optional English and Spanish subtitles.

Directed by Larry Clark (I)
Stars Brad Renfro, Rachel Miner, Nick Stahl, Bijou Phillips, Michael Pitt (II), Kelli Garner, Daniel Franzese, Leo Fitzpatrick, Deborah Smith Ford, Larry Clark (I), Jeanne Orr, Alan Lilly, Elizabeth Dimon, Nathalie Paulding, Al Quinn, Sam Steele
Studio/distributor: Lion's Gate