A Review of Bully

*Note: I realize I just wrote an article the other day saying I was going to shorten my reviews due to time constraints. However, after watching this film, I found myself oddly wanting to talk a lot about it. So, in this case, the review will be a little lengthy. Just don't expect this length for all of my future reviews*

I've been avoiding director Larry Clark's movies for some time now. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Clark is a controversial photographer turned director who has been putting out disturbing and raw pieces of cinema such as Kids, Ken Park and Bully for years now. Many critics and viewers have accused Clark of being pornographic at times (particularly due to his depiction of teenage sex in Bully) and actress Bijou Philips was very unhappy at Clark's predatory direction and his out-of-the-blue shots of her crotch that appeared in the final cut of the aforementioned film. Still, despite these criticisms, his films have been praised for their unforgiving looks at some truly unsettling aspects of teenagers in modern America.

This past week I decided to bite the bullet and give one of Clark's films a shot. I found the premise of Bully the most intriguing so I gave it a shot. I have to say-- it was one of the most disturbing and unenjoyable film experiences of my life. With this said, it was still quite a powerful film experience that I've only come close to obtaining once before (during the viewing of Requiem for a Dream). By the end of the movie, I felt sick to my stomach and off. To be honest, I kind of hated the world and the kind of people that live in it. That's the kind of movie experience Bully is. It will just turn you inside out and make you hate everything and everyone. But it also made me thankful for my own upbringing and the kind of people that I can call my friends.

Bully tells the real life story of the murder of Bobby Kent, who was killed in Weston, Florida by his best friend Marty Puccio, Jr. and six other teenagers. Despite appearing to be a stand-up citizen and a decent student, Kent frequently bullied Marty both physically and mentally. He not only raped Marty's girlfriend Lisa Connelly but beat and raped Lisa's friend Alice Slay while forcing her to watch gay pornography. Eventually, Lisa talked Marty into killing Kent. On July 15, 1993, Lisa, Marty, Alice and four other teens (most of whom barely knew Kent) lured their victim out into a remote rock pit and brutally murdered him. All the teens were caught soon after and sentenced to various prison sentences. Three are still in prison serving life sentences (Marty Puccio, Donald Semenec and Derek Kaufman).

As one can see, Bully deals with some pretty disturbing real life events. The movie that unfolds is equally as disturbing. The first half of this movie was nearly unwatchable. It basically just consists of many sequences of graphic teenage sex, teenagers bumming around and various means of humiliation and physical torture performed by Kent. As unenjoyable as the first half of the film was, it did serve a point to show just how awful Kent could be and how most of these kids were basically worthless human beings to begin with. Still, some of Clark's voyeuristic takes on their sexuality was a little much at times.

As the film kicks into its second act (which consists of the kids plotting to murder Kent and then following through), things get a little more interesting. It's really bizarre to see a bunch of teens plan out a brutal murder at a local Pizza Hut but there's also something strangely disturbing about it. There were a lot of sequences in this part of the film that really took me back. The scene where the kids meet with the wannabe hitman (played by an amazing Leo Fitzpatrick, a future member of the cast of The Wire) to discuss exactly how they're going to kill Bobby was really interesting. The fact that most of them really don't understand the severity of the situation they are getting into was very eye opening. I also liked how Clark seemed to comment on the fact that the parents of these teens were completely non-responsive to all the warning signs of their children's behavior. This murder could have been completely avoided if just one of them acted but most of them were completely blind to how bad things were getting with their children. 

The murder scene is one of the most graphic and tense sequences I've seen on film. In reality, Bobby Kent was stabbed multiple times, had his throat slit, his head crushed with a baseball bat and then, still clinging to life, was drowned in a swamp. Clark follows the real life fate of Kent and shows most of this on screen. The sequence is filled with confusion, certain kids becoming horrified and chickening out while others turn into monsters and rip Kent apart. The way it's filmed feels very real and is truly a disturbing thing to see unfold. If you want, you can watch the scene here. Just don't say I didn't warn you though-- it's very graphic. 

As the film comes to close, Clark poses many questions to the viewer. It's really hard to decide who was to blame for this awful crime. Was it the parents' fault? Did Bobby have it coming to him? As bad as Bobby Kent seems, Marty Puccio seems just as explosive and horrible at times. Most of the people involved in the crime are people who contribute nothing to society and commit murder just because they really don't have anything better to do. The wannabe hitman joins in because he dreams of becoming a viscous killer one day but at the time being only runs a gang of impressionable juveniles. Literally everyone that appears in this film is incredibly pathetic and it's really just hard to pick sides and decide who's right. In the end, it's nobody.

 

The acting in the film is quite impressive. Nick Stahl makes Bobby Kent seem like a monster at times but also somewhat vulnerable too. He makes the kid really hard to figure out and that makes his brutal murder much harder to watch. Brad Renfro really scared me as Marty Puccio. At times, he almost seemed more out of control than Kent (like when he finds out Lisa is pregnant) and generally a disturbed person. It was hard to feel sorry for his character at times because of this. Rachel Miner makes Lisa Connelly out to be delusional, paranoid and almost as scary as Marty and Bobby. However, Leo Fitzpatrick is the standout in the cast as the wannabe hitman. Fitzpatrick is so self assured and full of himself and his ability to kill that it is kind of comical at times. There's just something unique about his performance. He almost makes you feel like you've meet this guy before somewhere.

Clark's direction is off and on for me in this movie. Although he can make an incredibly tense scene (see the murder scene), the film lacks a visual style of any kind for the movie. When he does try to inject style into the film, it's distracting and seems sloppy (like the scene where he continuously turns his camera in a circle around the teens). I also hated when he seemed to get creepy and voyeuristic with his female cast members (as I have already mentioned). However, he gets some pretty incredible performances out of his ensemble of actors. I also thought his use of Fat Boy Slim's "Song for Shelter" over the ending courtroom scene and the subsequent sentencing images was incredibly haunting (you can see this sequence here if you like). Clark's lack of style also works to make the film seem more real, causing the horrible things that happen have even more impact. 

In the end, it's really hard to rate a movie like Bully. It's one of the least entertaining movies that I've ever watched and it honestly made me feel a little sick afterwards. With that said, I don't regret watching it. It helped put me into a situation that is really hard to understand from the outside. It made me see some really useless human beings living pointless lives that were ruined further by making decisions that could have easily been avoided. As horrible as it was to witness all of this, it was strangely fascinating as well. I cannot recommend watching this for anyone who is remotely squeamish or easily upset but, if you have the stomach and want to be put right into the shoes of horrible people, you may want to give this a shot. I can pretty much guarantee that you will get something powerful out of the film experience but you will most likely never want to watch it again.

6/10