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Bully (2001)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 5.6/10
Reviews Counted: 83
Fresh: 42 | Rotten: 41

With its lingering shots of naked teenage bodies, Bully feels more sordidly exploitative than realistic.

Average Rating: 4.9/10
Critic Reviews: 22
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 13

With its lingering shots of naked teenage bodies, Bully feels more sordidly exploitative than realistic.

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Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 22,068

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Movie Info

Photographer and filmmaker Larry Clark, who made a controversial feature debut with the disturbing drama Kids, returns with another disquieting look at amoral and sexually precocious youth. Bobby (Nick Stahl) is a high school student growing up in southern Florida in the early '90s. Bobby is also a borderline psychotic; he frequently lashes out with brutal violence against those around him and especially enjoys humiliating his best friend Marty (Brad Renfro). While Bobby professes to hate and

R, 1 hr. 51 min.

Art House & International, Drama

Directed By: Larry Clark

Written By: David McKenna

In Theaters: Jul 13, 2001 Wide

On DVD: Jan 29, 2002

Lions Gate Films

Bully Trailer & Photos

More Photos (5)

Cast

Brad Renfro
Marty Puccio
Rachel Miner
Lisa Connelly
Nick Stahl
Bobby Kent
Bijou Phillips
Ali Willis
Michael Pitt
Donny Semenec
Kelli Garner
Heather Swaller
Daniel Franzese
Derek Dzvirko
Leo Fitzpatrick
Hitman

Critic Reviews for Bully

All Critics (93) | Top Critics (26) | Fresh (42) | Rotten (41) | DVD (13)

A sad, bracing -- and often great -- film.

September 28, 2001 Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee

| Comment

Joe Baltake

Sacramento Bee

Top Critic

The moral wasteland of suburban youth has been examined, earlier and better, in The River's Edge. Clark's leering leads nowhere: In Bully, he has nothing new to say, and, in the end, no real point to make.

September 14, 2001 Comment

Loren King

Boston Globe

Top Critic

Closer to teen pornography than to teen tragedy.

September 6, 2001 Comment

Carrie Rickey

Philadelphia Inquirer

Top Critic

—

A needy movie made by a needy director, peopled with actors who come off as mindless blanks.

August 31, 2001 Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

| Comment

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Top Critic

Clark's probing camera leers, but it also reflects truth, providing visions of a hard reality most of us would be unable to comprehend and unwilling to face.

August 17, 2001 Full Review Source: Toronto Star

| Comment

Peter Howell

Toronto Star

Top Critic

Neither killers nor victim are drawn from life, just from lurid teen-exploitation pictures past.

August 17, 2001 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail

| Comment

Liam Lacey

Globe and Mail

Top Critic

...an exploitation teen movie in the pejorative sense of the word.

July 19, 2009 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com

| Comment

Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

Clark is not a moralist, which is good, but he is not much of a dramatist either. You get the impression that the fascination with youth in his movies, just like in his photos, provides an excuse for voyeurism.

May 10, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

| Comment

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

A bit long and repetitive.

March 7, 2004 Full Review Source: Blunt Review

| Comment

Emily Blunt

Blunt Review

An extremely disturbing tale of escalating peer pressure.

October 16, 2003 Full Review Source: About.com

| Comment

Jurgen Fauth

About.com

'Bully' demands attention for the way in which it forces us to watch and digest a dark slice of American society. American beauty this ain't.

February 13, 2003 Full Review Source: RTE Interactive (Dublin, Ireland)

| Comment

Tom Grealis

RTE Interactive (Dublin, Ireland) Source: RTE Interactive (Dublin, Ireland)

hose involved in the real life story this film is based on should be disgusted -- for both sides were truly cheated out of the respect they deserved.

December 8, 2002 Full Review Source: Film Threat

| Comment

Heather Wadowski

Film Threat

Thanks, Larry Clark, for this festering little slice of suburban life: a perfect respite from 2001's summer of predictable Hollywood programming.

December 8, 2002 Full Review Source: Film Threat

| Comment

David Williams

Film Threat

A brutal, though darkly humorous film.

October 30, 2002 Full Review Source: ViewLondon

| Comment

Brian Walker

ViewLondon

Bully is a well-made film about an ugly incident. It deserves to be seen.

October 21, 2002 Full Review Source: San Diego Metropolitan

| Comment

Jean Lowerison

San Diego Metropolitan

The first 45 minutes or so of Bully is so similar to Kids, with the teens doing absolutely nothing except having sex and getting high, that it almost negates the effectiveness of the rest of the film.

September 26, 2002 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews

| Comments (4)

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

This time tough, as Clark indulges once more in voyeuristically displaying underage sexuality and amoral behaviour, I can't let it pass.

September 10, 2002 Full Review Source: Montreal Film Journal

| Comment

Kevin N. Laforest

Montreal Film Journal

Whatever the motivations are that fuel director Clark, his movie can't be so easily dismissed as trash.

August 23, 2002 Full Review Source: Lawrence Journal-World

| Comments (2)

Jon Niccum

Lawrence Journal-World

It's Larry Clark who's the bully, a cinematic bovver boy who just can't help himself.

July 18, 2002 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile

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Urban Cinefile Critics

Urban Cinefile

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Audience Reviews for Bully

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I watched this movie to see if Larry Clark managed to bring in some of the darker elements that I felt were missing from his previous movie Kids. I honestly enjoyed seeing this movie had done just so, encorporating some of the more twisted pieces of the teenage psyche and pulling it off with class. The only reason this

August 29, 2011