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| Nick Stahl and Brad Renfro in Bully |
Cast: Brad Renfro, Bijou Phillips, Rachel Miner, Nick Stahl, Michael Pitt, Leo Fitzpatrick, Kelli Garner, Daniel Franzese, Natalie Paulding, Jessica Sutta, Ed Amatrudo, Steve Raulerson, Judy Clayton, Alan Lilly, Irene B. Colletti. Screenplay: David McKenna, Roger Pullis, based on a book by Jim Schutze. Cinematography: Steve Gainer. Production design: Linda Burton. Film editing: Andrew Hafitz.
For some viewers, Larry Clark's Bully is sleazy exploitation, while for others it's a dark tragicomedy. That it might be both suggests a failure of the filmmakers to maintain a consistent tone. The first part of the film clearly seems designed to shock and titillate, as we get to know the coterie of teenagers that has formed around Bobby (Nick Stahl) and his so-called best friend, Marty (Brad Renfro), who are locked in a sadomasochistic relationship. Blasting hard-core rap on their radios, they cruise their Florida neighborhoods in search of sex and drugs, and they find a lot of both. The sex is generously depicted on screen. But then the film turns in another direction, as Marty's girlfriend, Lisa (Rachel Miner), begins to see Bobby as a threat to her relationship with Marty and takes the process of eliminating that threat to its extreme: murder. It's then that the film tilts into black comedy, as the inept, drug-addled gang develops a plot to off Bobby. The film veers back into something like reality when the plot succeeds and the members of the gang suddenly find themselves aware of what they've done. I think Bully would have been received more generously if Clark had treated the sex scenes more discreetly, but given that the film is based on an actual case, it still has the power to disturb.
