Bully: Critic Reviews

The moral wasteland of suburban youth has been examined, earlier and better, in The River's Edge. Clark's leering leads nowhere: In Bully, he has nothing new to say, and, in the end, no real point to make.

Clark pokes his lenses where they don't belong; and though the actresses both are 21, they look young enough that the film edges uncomfortably close to child pornography.

Attention must be paid, because this story of middle-class suburban teens who murder one of their own is all true.

Closer to teen pornography than to teen tragedy.

Clark's probing camera leers, but it also reflects truth, providing visions of a hard reality most of us would be unable to comprehend and unwilling to face.

Neither killers nor victim are drawn from life, just from lurid teen-exploitation pictures past.

If you stick with Bully through its seemingly endless repetition of themes and its hurl-inducing hand-held camerawork, it does build a crude, indefinable power.

Exposes us to the true horror of what's going on in these kids' lives.

...an exploitation teen movie in the pejorative sense of the word.

Clark is not a moralist, which is good, but he is not much of a dramatist either. You get the impression that the fascination with youth in his movies, just like in his photos, provides an excuse for voyeurism.

A bit long and repetitive.

An extremely disturbing tale of escalating peer pressure.

'Bully' demands attention for the way in which it forces us to watch and digest a dark slice of American society. American beauty this ain't.

Thanks, Larry Clark, for this festering little slice of suburban life: a perfect respite from 2001's summer of predictable Hollywood programming.

hose involved in the real life story this film is based on should be disgusted -- for both sides were truly cheated out of the respect they deserved.

A brutal, though darkly humorous film.

Bully is a well-made film about an ugly incident. It deserves to be seen.

The first 45 minutes or so of Bully is so similar to Kids, with the teens doing absolutely nothing except having sex and getting high, that it almost negates the effectiveness of the rest of the film.

This time tough, as Clark indulges once more in voyeuristically displaying underage sexuality and amoral behaviour, I can't let it pass.

Whatever the motivations are that fuel director Clark, his movie can't be so easily dismissed as trash.

It's Larry Clark who's the bully, a cinematic bovver boy who just can't help himself.

La cinta peca en crudeza y no logra verosimilitud. Bully no alcanza la infame pero gloriosa fama de Kids.

If such material and the pessimism accompanying it make some people uncomfortable, maybe they're starting to get the point.

Joins the list of great American films about killing

A bleak and unrelenting picture of suburban teenage anomie.