Post by StevePulaski on Jun 14, 2012 22:02:37 GMT -5
The gang in Larry Clark's Bully.
Rating: ★★★★
The kind of teenagers depicted in both Larry Clark's Bully and his previous effort Kids are the kind that make my skin crawl. Idiotic, rebellious deviants that believe everything revolves around them and that nothing could possibly ever go wrong for themselves or their friends. Despite these despicable characteristics, Clark has made Bully a strangely sympathetic picture, putting viewers in a position to connect with the characters, learn a bit about them, and buckles them in to stick by them as they go along for this absurd and profound ride of sheer rawness.
The film is an absolute adrenaline rush, combined with primitive, realistic editing, slick writing, a ton of heavily built up tension, and performances around the clock by actors you've never heard of, all blended together to create a reenactment of a chilling true story. The film centers around Marty Puccio (the late Brad Renfro) who is best friends with Bobby Kent (Nick Stahl). Bobby is a physically, verbally, and sexually abusive neanderthal Marty has been friends with since birth. The picture suggests he could be a repressed homosexual by producing homosexual porn and forcing Marty to dance at a male dance club, but such assumptions aren't the prime focus here.
Marty and Bobby double date with Lisa Connelly and Ali Willis (Rachel Miner and Bijou Phillips), two young girls they met at their sandwich shop. Bobby and Ali seemingly connect, while Marty and Lisa strike a deeper friendship, one build on lust and sex. And there is a lot of it. Rather than jumping to the conclusion that director Larry Clark is a pervert, if one were to do research on the actual case of Marty Puccio, they would learn that the teens in question were always having sex, possibly to breed purpose in their empty, dirty lifestyles.
When Bobby winds up raping and beating Ali, her, Marty, and Lisa come up with the idea to murder him. They band together a few of their friends, and hire an alleged hitman (Leo Fitzpatrick of Clark's Kids) and decide to carry on. The consequences, regret, and mental stress that is birthed because of this decision is unlike any of them could've expected, and what follows is a series of suspenseful shots all leading up to the breakneck, sinister conclusion.
Some will say that the idea to kill their friend because he is an obnoxious narcissist is stupid and pointless. Because it is. Instead of talking to Bobby's parents, bringing this up with the authorities, or talking to their own parents about it, they devise such an ingenious plan to kill the offender making themselves just as bad as the rapist teen. This is what the film is all about; showing how warped in a world of nihilism and ridiculous gratification these kids were - a recurring theme in Clark's pictures. While Clark's Kids is on another level when compared to Bully (it played more like a documentary on doomed degenerates rather than a true film) it's the depiction of instant, impulsive satisfaction on the teenagers' part that still acts as one of the central focuses. Their desire to feed inner demons, never considering the consequential repercussions of their actions. They do not contemplate their parents' reactions or how society will view them as a whole. The only thing that matters is when and where the event will take place and if beer and marijuana will be served.
The film explodes with performances all over the board, from Brad Renfro's enthusiastic portrayal of Marty Puccio, to Rachel Miner's "good girl gone bad" Lisa, and, let's not forget, the wonderful explosion from Bijou Phillips that never tends to become unbelievable or overdone.
After watching both this and Kids in the same week, I almost feel trounced in my optimism for the youth of today. Larry Clark has made two brilliant pictures depicting the disheartening corruption of teenagers, and has left few bright spots along the way. Bully is a disturbing picture, yet like Kids, one of many high points and of many high, high points. It again shows what harm the lack of parenting and artistic exposure will have on kids. The building blocks for a hopelessly lost adolescence is being raised without ever being exposed to challenging mediums, testing your mind and opinions, having careless, uninvolved parents who do not care what you're doing until something is clearly, seriously wrong, and mixing in the feeling of true worthlessness. The writing, again, is beyond commendable and at the end, you're left crippled, shaken, and possibly scarred. Larry Clark is a filmmaker for those craving a slice of honest pie.
Starring: Brad Renfro, Nick Stahl, Bijou Phillips, Rachel Miner, Michael Pitt, Kelli Garner, and Leo Fitzpatrick. Directed by: Larry Clark.