Bully (2001)
Directed by Larry Clark
A group of teenagers in South Florida enact a murder plot against their mutual bully, Bobby, who has emotionally, physically, and sexually abused them for years.
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What critics say influenced Bully
That's the plot in a nutshell, familiar to anyone who's seen the superior River's Edge.
When the film doesn't � as in its aimless early scenes � it plays like an updating of the black comedy "River's Edge," with the same amount of irritating characters but none of the humor.
As a result, Clark undercuts whatever aspirations he may have had in attempting to make a movie of the level of Jonathan Kaplan's "Over the Edge" or Tim Hunter's "River's Edge," two classic studies of lethally disaffected suburban youth.
It's more like a porny and gruesomely didactic fusion of ''River's Edge,'' ''Lord of the Flies,'' and ''I Know What You Did Last Summer.''
Several years after its release, Larry Clark’s Bully continues to be seen as just another in a long list of titles from a perceived smut and exploitation peddler, while Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause remains an acknowledged classic for its star-making performances by James Dean, Natalie Wood, and Sal Mineo.
As a result, Clark undercuts whatever aspirations he may have had in attempting to make a movie of the level of Jonathan Kaplan's "Over the Edge" or Tim Hunter's "River's Edge," two classic studies of lethally disaffected suburban youth.
Shot with an excellent cast on the South Florida locations where the real Bobby Kent was killed, it comes across in its better moments like a 'slacker' version of In Cold Blood.
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"Bully" is the latest from Larry Clark, who had been working as a photograph for decades documenting visually wasted youths before he made "Kids" in 1995.
Clark is the guy responsible for Kids and Another Day in Paradise, the former an exceedingly tedious and plotless diatribe on the state of teenagers today.
Former photographer Larry Clark left scars on movie screens in 1995 with his astonishing, unforgettable Kids, written by Harmony Korine.
1. Is it brave of Larry Clark to explore the "dark underside of youth culture" in films like Kids and Bully, or does that surface controversy exist to disguise his impulse to get young, skinny boys and girls to strip off their clothes for his whims?
The director, Larry Clark (who also brought us the ominous " Kids " in '95) gets over zealous with the trash le Blanc on trash le Blanc sex scenes.
You would expect no less from director Larry Clark, whose still photographs and narrative films (including 1995's incendiary Kids) are portrayals of youth at its most ripely depraved.
The parents don't come across to well, either, being shown as clueless, too, with their children operating beyond the pale of any reasonable authority - they are kind of like juvenile versions of Colonel Kurtz in "Apocalypse Now."
What??? They're rich white young males who get to hang on the Florida beaches, drive new cars and date gorgeous girls, not black ghetto kids caught in a circle of violence (re: "Menace II Society") or poor white trash kids who don't know better (re: "Boys Don't Cry").
Rachel Miner ( "Joe the King," "Henry Fool") plays the pivotal role of 16-year-old Lisa Connelly, a vapid laggard who loses her virginity to Marty Puccio (Brad Renfro), a vulgar misogynistic 17-year-old who has spent his life as the punching bag of Bobby Kent (Nick Stahl), the title character.
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Clark is the guy responsible for Kids and Another Day in Paradise, the former an exceedingly tedious and plotless diatribe on the state of teenagers today.
A few years later, he toned himself down, taking on a generic crime movie, Another Day in Paradise , and spicing it up with a few doses of meanness and acid, plus a fiery performance by James Woods.
Then Larry Clark, notorious director of Kids and Another Day in Paradise, stepped in.
But, as was the case with his two previous films, "Kids" and "Another Day in Paradise," the connection is mostly implausible.
"Bully" is an exploitation movie, a true-crime sleaze bath, as entertaining as Clark's second film, "Another Day in Paradise" (with James Woods), and yet even more willing to scrape the pan.
It's more like a porny and gruesomely didactic fusion of ''River's Edge,'' ''Lord of the Flies,'' and ''I Know What You Did Last Summer.''