Bully

Released 2001
Stars Brad Renfro, Rachel Miner, Nick Stahl, Bijou Phillips, Michael Pitt, Kelli Garner, Daniel Franzese, Leo Fitzpatrick
Directed by Larry Clark

What a bunch of despicable white suburban trash. I don't understand how kids who have opportunities to do something instead decide to do nothing but drugs and casual sex. That may sound like fun when you're 20, but it shouldn't when you're 30. Unfortunately for most of the kids in this fact-based movie, they didn't get to decide what to do at 30 because they were either in jail for life or on death row. The movie tells the story of high-schooler Bobby Kent (Nick Stahl) and his friends who later killed him. Bobby was a punk-ass bully who beat and raped different members of the group, so what they did wasn't exactly surprising. The murder wasn't exactly warranted either, but they weren't bright enough to think of an alternative. It was also a classic example of a mob mentality. None of these kids could have done it by themselves, but once they started talking about it, it seemed to make sense in their collective drug-addled brains.

Director Larry Clark brings his Kids style to this story, and it's successful. What's really weird, though, is how he injects so much gratuitous full frontal nudity by his young actresses. There are also salacious crotch shots of Ali (Bijou Phillips) in different situations (the car, the hairdresser) that make no sense. I remember hearing about this case in the news, but for a while I thought I was watching a different story. It felt like a cross between a gritty cautionary tale and a teenage exploitation film. Larry Clark could have shot this footage for his personal library if he was abusing his role as director, so what his his vision here? I think it was confused. I'll give him credit for creating a vastly superior film version of this murder than the story of a similar murder in "River's Edge," but he could have really made something great. He had the story and performances, but his vision was a little off.

Summary by Bill Alward, October 18, 2003