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Bully
Lions Gate Films Inc.


7.4

based on 26 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 35 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

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.

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.

Newsweek David Ansen

Ferocious and sometimes creepily funny, Bully is a raunchy suburban "Crime and Punishment."

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

The tone -- a combination of earnestness and gallows humor -- is strangely appropriate.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The movie's somber message is worth heeding, and the acting is mostly excellent.

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.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

There's a terrible beauty to the work of Larry Clark, the controversial photographer turned filmmaker, that transcends chic nihilism.

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.

Boston Globe Loren King

Nothing new to say, and, in the end, no real point to make.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

With its smooth skinned cast and demonized adults, doesn't feel very authentic.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Unpleasant stuff, and Clark pounces on the material with his usual relish and a discomfiting combination of moralizing and prurience.

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It feels like a peek into the closet of a pedophile and it's genuinely discomforting.

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.

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.

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.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Oddly, Bully's only moments of power come at the film's end, after the crime takes place.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

The script is worse than slack, and despite its lurid premise, Bully doesn't have "Kids" tabloid immediacy.

Slate David Edelstein

A riot of sleazy camera moves, bad acting, and maladroit profane dialogue.

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.

Variety Dennis Harvey

By turns turgid, embarrassing and plain off-putting.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 35 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Robert N. gave it a10:
I followed the court case and i feel although the characters might not have been portrayed as they looked and for the most part as they felt. Larry Clark did a wonderful job making them real. Every actor and actress in that movie was amazing. I am sorry to see so called "movie critics" cant see that

Teal H. gave it a3:
While it's true that Bully resembles some of the nitty gritty stuff of angsts working class teens, the myriad of flaws tip the scales and make the movie just awful. I expected MUCH better acting from Brad Renfro, who I'm usually a huge fan of. If someone had told me that this film was made by a couple of freshman college film students, I'd believe it unquestioningly. Creepy, often dull, and if it makes any sense, this movie is just plain senselessly mean. No chemistry between characters, no suspense, no point.

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.

Bully Lions Gate Films Inc.

Bully
Lions Gate Films Inc.