Bully (2001)

reviewed by
Harvey S. Karten


BULLY

Reviewed by Harvey Karten Lions Gate Films/StudioCanal Director: Larry Clark Writer: Zachary Long, Roger Pullis, nobel by Jim Schutze Cast: Brad Renfro, Nick Stahl, Rachel Miner, Bijou Phillips, Michael Pitt, Kelli Garner, Leo Fitzpatrick, Daniel Franzese, Deborah Smith Ford

Some years back a New Yorker named Bernhard Goetz was surrounded in a subway car by four young men armed with screwdrivers. They encircled him, though I don't believe they had produced weapons, and demanded money. Goetz surprised them by pulling out a small pistol, putting a round into each of the muggers. While one was on the floor, he pumped yet another round into him, saying, "You don't look too bad...have another." Goetz is white and the young men are black. The black community in New York almost unanimously condemned the action while perhaps a majority of whites thought he was justified in shooting the bullies.

Should Goetz have followed the protocol advised by the New York City police department, quickly handing over his cash to avoid greater violence? Or, just how far should we go in dealing with bullies--people who browbeat others, often with no real motive, just to demonstrate their power? Pretty darn far, according to seven teens who inhabit the story of "Bully," based on a true story made into a novel by Jim Schutze from a murder that took place in 1993. The titled bully of the story in which actual names are used, Bobby Kent (Nick Stahl), is not the sweetest fella around though in fact he may be no worse than any of the four screwdriver-carrying muggers who had a strange encounter with Bernhard Goetz. Unlike the hapless four, Bobby has things going for him. His dad is supportive, giving him tough love and encouraging him to go to college and then into a family business. His best friend Marty Puccio (Brad Renfro), on the other hand, is a high-school dropout who spends his days riding around in convertibles, smoking weed, dropping acid, and probably resents the better future that Bobby seems to have in store. Having received one hard punch in the nose too much from the excitable Bobby (after putting a minor dent in the latter's car), he asks his girl Lisa Connelly (Rachel Miner) for advice. "Kill him," is the reply--two words that echo from the recent high-school killings in Columbine, Colorado, the Matthew Sheppard case, and even I suppose from Japan where a knife-wielding psycho slashed several elementary school youngsters to death.

Movie buffs will immediately pick up the Larry Clark signature, which is scrawled all over this harrowing movie. Clark, whose astonishing filmmaking debut "Kids" in 1995 gazed at a group of skateboarding, aimless teens in New York City centering on a young man with a knack for deflowering virgins, moved to the actual South Florida suburb that was the locus of the actual story. Once again Clark uses the cinema verite style to give the step-by- step account the feeling of reality, in one case watching his cameraman Steve Gainer encircle a row of plotting post- pubescents so repeatedly that some of the audience couldn't be blamed for acquring a sudden case of vertigo worse than what they experienced while watching "The Blair Witch Project." While you can dodge the giddy feeling by closing your eyes at that point, you won't be able to take your eyes from the screen for the remainder of the agonizing work, which not only graphically illustrates the murder at a 'gator-filled Florida swamp to which the unwitting victim is driven but focuses close-up on the promiscuous sex engaged in by comely adolescents, some of whom would not be out of place in a Calvin Klein ad.

Clark is intent on eliciting a psychological study as well to a killing that appears virtually without motive--given the alternative that the victims of Bobby's bullying to enjoin his teasing by simply talking to him, in a group if need be. Most alarming is the case of Lisa who seems like a quiet enough person when we first meet her, in fact speechless when together with her own best pal Ali Willis (Bijou Phillips)--allowing Ali to do all the flirting with Marty and Bobby. A suburban girl, bored almost to the point of caricature, she goads the man she believes she loves ("I would do anything for you, Marty") into plotting the assassination partly because Bobby at times appears to threaten her relationship with her lover-boy but mainly, I think, because she gets an almost orgasmic charge from playing the Iago role. Watch this fine young actress as a smile crosses her face from time to time just as she is expressing her hatred of Mr. Kent.

The rest of the teens, played largely by performers who may just make a name for themselves as did Chloe Sevigny from her role in "Kids," perform admirably as well. Brad Renfro is a pudgy Marty who becomes surprisingly aggressive when given the chance to play Brutus, and Leo Fitzpatrick as "Hitman" takes charge for the first time after having convinced the gang falsely that he was an actual mafia killer.

The sex scenes are among the most graphic ever displayed on the commercial screen which is why, if the movie gets a NC-17 rating, the very youngsters who should see this film as a warning may not be able to. Perhaps the film will remind you of your own adolescence, a time that your hormones raced and you did some naughty things without the slightest regard for consequences-- only to feel intense regret and even to point an accusatory finger to your best buddy if such an action would alleviate your guilt. The director has made excellent use of Zachary Long and Roger Pullis's challenging screenplay--which itself was adopted from Jim Schutze's novel, handing us once again a hardhitting, realistic and even didactic drama. Bully for Larry Clark.

Running time: 106 minutes. (C) 2001 by Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com


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