Bully

Description:  Bully is a documentary about four middle school students who were bullied. One of them is dead. Another, Ja'Maya pulled a gun on her adversaries, Kelbe is gay and lives in a small southern town; and Alex has physical and emotional issues that make him seem odd to others. The film's end shows parents getting involved in protests and political events against bullying. link to imdb   photos

Review: Bully is thought-provoking, and we meet some interesting people. That is the best part.

It focuses on the victims in the beginning and leads to a call-to-action at the end. The call-to-action is stilted and uninspiring.  They should have stuck with victims and their stories, especially how their situations were resolved in those cases where they were. 

 For a Weinstein film, Bully is very poorly edited and the video is awful. A true amateur job. Honestly the teaser before the credits was impossible to watch because it is so fuzzy and shakes so much. Really, I closed my eyes. Shaking hand-held camera work does not make movies trendy and realistic -- it shows disrespect for the viewers.

The message of the film is hidden by the bad production. This documentary might have made a better radio show than movie. Certainly in a radio show, they could have edited the dialog to make it faster. Some of the parents were from the South, and they just talk so slow. 

Everyone watching this movie thinks about his or her own growing up. Most people get bullied some and most people did some teasing and bullying too. I know that institutions like schools could stop bullying with extreme discipline like only walking in single file and without talking. Perhaps that is better -- I don't know.  There was this one guy who picked on me; but I used to tease him when I was bored.

Directed by: Lee Hirsch

Rating:   2.0 stars:  A worthy topic, but very poorly made. It is a good conversation starter.

More: Kelbe is cool. I like her. 

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