GOTTA SEE IT #23 - "BULLY"

“BULLY”

Starring: Brad Renfro, Rachel Miner, Bijou Phillips, Nick Stahl, Michael Pitt, Leo Fitzpatrick, Kelli Garner, Daniel Franzese, Natalie Paulding.
Written by: Jim Schutze (book), David Mckenna, Roger Pullis
Directed by: Larry Clark
Colour – 2001
113 mins
U.S.A.

In sports, it can be risky bringing a promising young athlete into the pro leagues before he’s ready. The shock of competing at a higher level can shatter his confidence and leave him second guessing himself into failure. Hopefully, he eventually hits his stride and finds his way, but sometimes, the damage is permanent and he never recovers and a once future superstar is done in by self-doubt and just done period. In life, the equivalent is rushing a child into adulthood before they are ready to deal with the responsibilities that come with sexual awareness, readily available drugs and alcohol and the cool belief that one is beyond the crushing boulder of consequence. Master at documenting the wild ways of American teens is director Larry Clark’s forte and, in "Bully", he has taken a real life story as the inspiration for his finest, most disturbing film to date.

The real story is how a group of high school friends planned and then carried out the brutal murder of a bully who was tormenting them. This flesh and blood portrait - you don’t know how appropriate those words are until you see the film - of this tragic real life incident is, in one way, straight forward, but its’ much more than just the story of the killing of a High School bully. It’s about children at play in an adult world - high and oversexed, disconnected from consequence, fantasizing about violent retribution without realizing just what that means and how it will feel when it all goes down.

In Larry Clark’s work, there’s a feeling of hyper-reality, of a world in which he traps the truth like some wild dog and then unleashes it in his own sweet time and in his own unique way. He adds something of his very own to what are essentially docu-dramas. And its’ this addition that gives his films a fire that burns them into your memory – leaving it charred and smoking for days afterward. He doesn’t pull his punches. He doesn’t soften any landings. He doesn’t sugarcoat a single stinkin’ speck. He strips sentiment and tastefulness from his films like skin from a bone - all that’s left is for that wild dog to gnaw on.

The other night I watched a modern Hollywood film - big name cast and budget - which seemed to be made as if the 70s and Scorcese, Peckinpah, Coppola and all had never happened. Watching this dull, phony, pointless and expensive exercise in photographed dress-up, I was amazed at how much it resembled those stale, past their due date Hollywood dramas that preceded the truly great, passionate, gripping works of realism of New Hollywood - films such as, “Scarecrow", The Conversation" and “Taxi Driver." Then I realized that there are still a few current filmmakers who are continuing in that bold tradition and, yes, I count Larry Clark as one of them. He’s making films that are alive with energy and anger and truth. They are not decorated with cop-out niceties to make all the ugliness more palatable, but free of all that polite wrapping – raw, naked, brutal living, breathing things.

Now, there is explicit sex throughout, with plenty of bare bodies twisting and writhing on soaked sheets, yes, but the bruised and beaten heart of this film is its’ truly astonishing murder scene that chills as it details the mixed reactions of the assembled teens - their confused, emotionally messy execution exposing them for the terrified and lost kids that they are underneath all that bogus boasting.

The entire cast is remarkable, but Nick Stahl muddies his hands a bit more than the others to dig up the cruel, sadistic, self-hating soul of Bobby - smearing his way into every shot with a kind of grotesque grace.

One dimensionally depicted parents aside, “Bully” is one jarring ride. See it with someone you love, because onscreen, it’s in short supply.