Bully

"You've never seen Bully?" Mrs. Film Geek asked. The movie came up during a conversation about movies that give me The Danny Gut. I explained I'd missed it somehow, most likely because I was watching some really bad horror flick she chose to Netflix.

"You gotta see it," she said. "It will leave you disturbed for days."


She was right.

Larry Clark's take on the real-life murder of bully Bobby Kent provides insight into the decay and individual selfishness of American society. While Kent was more than a bully--he often behaved violently toward his friends, and raped two women in the movie--Clark's film really focuses on Kent's friends, who decided as a group to kill him. None of them had the guts to act alone, and none had the insight to reach out to an authority figure for help to stop Kent's bullying. Very simply, these shallow, pleasure-seeking teens wanted Kent gone, and wanted him gone quickly.

So they immediately jumped to murder.

Bully is raw, well acted and not for the squeamish. Mrs. Film Geek was right; it is a movie that gave me The Danny Gut. But it's also a well written insight into a culture of wasted youth.

And it's brilliant.