Review of Bully (2011) by Jeff H — 13 Mar 2016
Extremely faithful to Jim Schutze's book of the same name, Bully succeeds where Larry Clark's first film, Kids, failed, by being unflinchingly truthful and real and never resorting to cheap sensationalism.
Bully looks at the emptiness at the core of middle class, consumerist American society, with this true story of white suburban teens who decide to murder one of their mates, who, it has to be said, is a sociopathic asshole.
The teens' parents feature more prominently in the book than they do in the film, but their conspicuous absence helps to underscore Larry Clark's vision of spoilt teens run amok in a haze of sex and drugs and shopping malls without moral or parental guidance.
A disturbing and important work.
This review of Bully (2011) was written by Jeff H on 13 Mar 2016.
Bully has generally received positive reviews.
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