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Bully (2001)
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Reviews Counted:84
Fresh:43
Rotten:41
Average Rating:5.6/10
Consensus: With its lingering shots of naked teenage bodies, Bully feels more sordidly exploitative than realistic.
Theatrical Release:Jul 13, 2001 Limited
Synopsis: Bobby Kent (Nick Stahl) is not a nice guy. He beats up his "best friend" Marty every chance he gets, he abuses Marty's girlfriend Lisa, and he rapes Lisa's friend Ali. From director Larry Clark... Bobby Kent (Nick Stahl) is not a nice guy. He beats up his "best friend" Marty every chance he gets, he abuses Marty's girlfriend Lisa, and he rapes Lisa's friend Ali. From director Larry Clark (KIDS) and screenwriter David McKenna (AMERICAN HISTORY X) comes this gruelling thriller based on the true story of Bobby Kent, a bossy Florida teenager who was beaten to death by a group of his peers. There isn't a lot to do in the suburban Florida town that Bobby and his "friends" inhabit. They play violent shoot-em-up video games, they work at the Pizza Hut, they go surfing at the beach, and they cruise in their hot rods. But mostly, Bobby and his friends have lots of sex. The film is drenched in graphic shots of barely legal naked teenagers. (This has been Clark's favorite subject matter since his days as a photographer, as illustrated in his 1997 book TEENAGE LUST.) Sexual identity is an undercurrent in Bobby's story: he watches gay porn while he rapes Ali, and he forces Marty to dance with him at a gay club. Some of the other teenagers think that Bobby and Marty are a couple. But this is a minor issue. They decide to kill Bobby because he's a bully who has hurt and angered them; and because they're bored and desensitized to violence. In BULLY, Clark provides another hard look at the hard lives of American teenagers, in all their confusion. It isn't pretty. [More]
Starring: Nick Stahl, Bijou Phillips, Brad Renfro, Leo Fitzpatrick
Starring: Nick Stahl, Bijou Phillips, Brad Renfro, Leo Fitzpatrick, Rachel Miner, Kelli Garner, Michael Pitt
Director: Larry Clark
Director: Larry Clark
Screenwriter: David McKenna
Producer: Jordan Gertner, Chris Hanley, David McKenna
Studio: Lions Gate Films
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Reviews for Bully
If you stick with Bully through its seemingly endless repetition of themes and its hurl-inducing hand-held camerawork, it does build a crude, indefinable power.
there is a certain grizzled truth here, and once you get past the visual splendor of the bare thespians, you might just get a bit horrified—and isn't that what art's about?
Clark pulls no punches and never panders to the Moral Majority; he simply makes his point, over and over again: This is what your children think is acceptable behavior.
Thanks, Larry Clark, for this festering little slice of suburban life: a perfect respite from 2001's summer of predictable Hollywood programming.
[Clark's] portrayal of teens lulled into utter amorality by false consciousness is genuinely compelling.
Raised on sex and drugs, video games and violence, these adolescents don’t understand what they’ve done.
A harrowing film based on the true story of the murder of a teenager in South Florida in 1993.
Exposes us to the true horror of what's going on in these kids' lives.
Attention must be paid, because this story of middle-class suburban teens who murder one of their own is all true.
Bully is a well-made film about an ugly incident. It deserves to be seen.
The result is that these astonishing, pathetic kids are so true that we believe them.
Latest News for Bully
January 17, 2008:
Brad Renfro: 1982-2008
Brad Renfro, star of The Client and Apt Pupil, passed away Tuesday of unknown causes. He was 25. More...
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