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Bully
Lions Gate Films Inc.

Bully reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 45 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.4 out of 10
based on 26 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 34 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Brad Renfro, Nick Stahl, Rachel Miner, and Bijou Phillips

A film based on the true story of the brutal 1993 murder of high school student Bobby Kent.


GENRE(S): Drama  
WRITTEN BY: David McKenna
Roger Pullis
Jim Schutze (book)
 
DIRECTED BY: Larry Clark  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: January 22, 2002 
Video: January 22, 2002 
Theatrical: July 13, 2001 
RUNNING TIME: 106 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Larry Clark's Bully calls the bluff of movies that pretend to be about murder but are really about entertainment. His film has all the sadness and shabbiness, all the mess and cruelty and thoughtless stupidity of the real thing.
Read Full Review
80
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
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.
Read Full Review
80
Newsweek David Ansen
Ferocious and sometimes creepily funny, Bully is a raunchy suburban "Crime and Punishment."
Read Full Review
80
Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
The tone -- a combination of earnestness and gallows humor -- is strangely appropriate.
Read Full Review
75
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The movie's somber message is worth heeding, and the acting is mostly excellent.
Read Full Review
75
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
That the actors can work under such scrutiny is amazing, and they are superb. The standout is Brad Renfro as Marty, the kid most under the thumb of the neighborhood bully.
Read Full Review
75
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
There's a terrible beauty to the work of Larry Clark, the controversial photographer turned filmmaker, that transcends chic nihilism.
Read Full Review
75
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The important thing is that Clark has found a new way to be creepy, which isn't easy. In the process he has created something irresistibly watchable, the kind of original piece that might mean less but reveal more than its creator intended.
Read Full Review
63
Boston Globe Loren King
Nothing new to say, and, in the end, no real point to make.
58
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
With its smooth skinned cast and demonized adults, doesn't feel very authentic.
Read Full Review
50
TV Guide Ken Fox
Unpleasant stuff, and Clark pounces on the material with his usual relish and a discomfiting combination of moralizing and prurience.
Read Full Review
50
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Clark denies his audience the catharsis, resolution and renewal of classical tragedy. The film reduces its viewers to helplessness, and I'm not sure that's its intent.
Read Full Review
50
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
It feels like a peek into the closet of a pedophile and it's genuinely discomforting.
Read Full Review
50
Wall Street Journal Ed Epstein
My problem is that the lack of narrative structure deprives the film of any suspense, and without suspense the film eventually collapses from its own heat like a soufflé that has been in the oven just a few minutes too long.
50
LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
The film's start-and-go rhythm can be as maddening as the characters' amorality and sheer wallowing stupidity, but Clark has an uncanny talent for putting atmosphere on celluloid.
Read Full Review
50
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
If it weren't so rivetingly realistic, it would be an easy film to dismiss. And if it weren't so easily dismissible, it would be an easy film to defend.
Read Full Review
40
Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
Oddly, Bully's only moments of power come at the film's end, after the crime takes place.
38
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Just withers compared with many older, better movies about teen alienation and nihilism, from "Rebel Without a Cause" to "River's Edge."
38
USA Today Claudia Puig
One has to wonder about the mind-set of a middle-aged filmmaker who repeatedly seeks out material about amoral and promiscuous teenagers with little to say.
Read Full Review
30
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Whatever his intentions, Clark, in his third outing as a director, has come up with a film that is seriously flawed.
Read Full Review
30
New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson
Like the recent "Baise-moi," Bully is a whole lot of shock and titillation trying to pretend it's saying something. Unlike the French import, however, there's no awareness of its own absurdity, nor anything for the audience to care about in the slightest.
Read Full Review
25
New York Post Lou Lumenick
A truly repulsive piece of trash that says far more about the absence of values from contemporary filmmaking than the waywardness of teens.
20
Village Voice J. Hoberman
The script is worse than slack, and despite its lurid premise, Bully doesn't have "Kids" tabloid immediacy.
Read Full Review
20
Slate David Edelstein
A riot of sleazy camera moves, bad acting, and maladroit profane dialogue.
Read Full Review
10
The New York Times Dana Stevens
It's instructive to compare Bully with Jean-Pierre Ameris's "Bad Company," which tackles similar themes and manages to be explicit without stooping to cheap salaciousness. It's a genuinely disturbing film. Bully, in contrast, is merely disgusting.
Read Full Review
10
Variety Dennis Harvey
By turns turgid, embarrassing and plain off-putting.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 34 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Dr. S. gave it an8:
I still find this story fascinating and disturbing. The movie did give some gratuitous "clark" shots, but face up; some teens drink, do drugs and have sex. South Florida has been a decadent wonderland since Jackie Gleason owned Miami Beach. Factor in our greed-driven economy which forces a two-parent income and then wonder why there is no teen supervision. The gloss of the movie combined with the grit of the true story makes this flick get your attention!

L P. gave it an8:
Pretty good, VERY disturbing movie. Though the literary license adds/omits various realities, and many people criticize the film for this...one cannot deny how close to true this scenario is.

Derek F. gave it a7:
I feel this movie was pretty wacked. It made you think, that there are people out there who are capable of killing someone just because they can't take thier abuse.

Libi gave it a3:
The movie was OK, but its not all true. Marty didnt dance in gay clubs. All that was fabricated. This I know from corresponding with Marty myself. Makes for a good movie but as a real life story, they should have said "loosely based on..."

penns gave it a9:
While I can see some of the detractors points about the flaws in this movie, the people who say it is trash just do not GET IT. Grab a clue, people.

Kuo T. gave it a4:
As a documentary, it is a nice film. The story itself is simply meaningless and repetitive, a story that has been told many times in many ways. Bully just does not stand out among them.

Andrew M. gave it an 8:
A loose, immoral film, both nasty and innocent at the same time. I don't know if I agree with Clark's directorial style (they'll be arguing that one until the end of time!) but it's effective and certainly provokes response and reaction, and I suppose that's the point. The "kids" in this film act superbly, really focusing on their characters and making them real. The unfortunate thing is that none of them are really likeable! But then, it's not really a likeable story either! Based on a true story, it's one of neglect, misdirection, misunderstanding and, I suppose, a little evil. What the film really succeeds at is depicting teenagers as they really are, showing their real sides, their real needs, their real desires, and what can really happen when they go astray.

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