If this was aimed at appealing to young people who bully others, it won't. It's long, drawn-out and is basically preaching to the choir throughout most of the movie. So much of the "emotion" seems staged and forced, almost to the point of whoring out the people involved.
Basically, this disjointed documentary follows the lives of a handful of families effected by bullying, all in backwoods towns. Never once do they show any factual statistics, nor do they have any experts giving opinions. It's very dry, and feels as dull as the dusty bible-belt towns they're filming in.
If they really wanted to stop the bullying, then they'd:
1. Make the film interesting. It really is not for 90% of the film, unless you find emotional hemorrhaging entertaining.
2. Show hidden camera footage of what these kids really have to go through to burn it in the minds of the viewers. As it stands, you get little clips of kids being mean, but as someone who was bullied as a child quite often, I can tell you that what was shown is a watered down version that pales in comparison to what most kids go through.
3. Give out statistics to show how the problem is significant and effects a large number of people. (it does)
4. Get inside the psyche of not only the bullied, but the bullies themselves. To fix bullies, you first have to find the causes and how to motivate them to stop.
5. Have experts give testimony as to how to solve the problems, and give advice on what works and doesn't work.
As it stands, this film is emotional masturbation for the families victimized by bullying, and that doesn't serve any real purpose other than their own catharsis. If you show this to kids, they'll either roll their eyes or fall asleep. This film, if it was honestly aimed at starting some sort of movement, was a joke.
Basically, this disjointed documentary follows the lives of a handful of families effected by bullying, all in backwoods towns. Never once do they show any factual statistics, nor do they have any experts giving opinions. It's very dry, and feels as dull as the dusty bible-belt towns they're filming in.
If they really wanted to stop the bullying, then they'd:
1. Make the film interesting. It really is not for 90% of the film, unless you find emotional hemorrhaging entertaining.
2. Show hidden camera footage of what these kids really have to go through to burn it in the minds of the viewers. As it stands, you get little clips of kids being mean, but as someone who was bullied as a child quite often, I can tell you that what was shown is a watered down version that pales in comparison to what most kids go through.
3. Give out statistics to show how the problem is significant and effects a large number of people. (it does)
4. Get inside the psyche of not only the bullied, but the bullies themselves. To fix bullies, you first have to find the causes and how to motivate them to stop.
5. Have experts give testimony as to how to solve the problems, and give advice on what works and doesn't work.
As it stands, this film is emotional masturbation for the families victimized by bullying, and that doesn't serve any real purpose other than their own catharsis. If you show this to kids, they'll either roll their eyes or fall asleep. This film, if it was honestly aimed at starting some sort of movement, was a joke.