Films like Larry Clarks 'Bully' seem to be becoming more and more popular. Unknown actors and the 'fly on the wall' style is now considered an 'arty' form of film making, and I'm all for trying out different styles and ideas. I'm also all for films that challenge the audience, make us feel uncomfortable, and don't gloss over the truth with happy ever afters.
However, this film far exceeds all of the above. It is grotesque, horrendous, and UN -beleivably painful to watch. I bought it because i had seen 'Kids' (another film of Clarks) which i thought was superb. This took everything that was good about that film, added 50 scenes of animalistic sex, explicit language, graphic violence, and more. There is absolutely no point to this film. It isn't entertaining, in fact, its the exact opposite. I finished watching it and had this immense need to stress how awful it is.. It doesn't teach us anything, we have absolutely NO feelings with any of the characters, and its repetitive need to focus on sex is boring.
We don't have to enjoy films to make them good, thats obvious. Bully has absolutely nothing about it that i could use to encourage one to watch it. The ONLY positive is the acting, again, like in Kids, the young people used in the film are incredibly believable. Even so, you can't help feeling like some kind of voyeuristic 'peeping Tom' just by watching 10 minutes of this film.
However, this film far exceeds all of the above. It is grotesque, horrendous, and UN -beleivably painful to watch. I bought it because i had seen 'Kids' (another film of Clarks) which i thought was superb. This took everything that was good about that film, added 50 scenes of animalistic sex, explicit language, graphic violence, and more. There is absolutely no point to this film. It isn't entertaining, in fact, its the exact opposite. I finished watching it and had this immense need to stress how awful it is.. It doesn't teach us anything, we have absolutely NO feelings with any of the characters, and its repetitive need to focus on sex is boring.
We don't have to enjoy films to make them good, thats obvious. Bully has absolutely nothing about it that i could use to encourage one to watch it. The ONLY positive is the acting, again, like in Kids, the young people used in the film are incredibly believable. Even so, you can't help feeling like some kind of voyeuristic 'peeping Tom' just by watching 10 minutes of this film.