BULLY
Shun this trash.
Running time: 111 minutes. Not rated (explicit sex, much nudity, violence, profanity). At the Angelika, Houston and Broome streets.
EXPLOITATION reaches new depths in Larry Clark’s “Bully,” which sensationalizes the already-lurid murder of a Florida teenager by his peers with scant dramatic justification.
Near-porn masquerading as social commentary, it’s a haphazard dramatization of the events surrounding the death of Bobby Kent, who was stabbed and bludgeoned to death by a group of fed-up pals and pals of pals one night in July 1993 in Hollywood, Fla.
Bullies are in the news right now, but there is scant insight into exactly how Bobby (played by the scrawny Nick Stahl) could continually make life hell for these middle-class kids – especially his longtime buddy and lead killer Marty Puccio.
Marty (played none too convincingly by Brad Renfro, who is much bigger and more muscular than Stahl) puts up with physical, emotional and possibly sexual abuse from his buddy, who forces him to perform in a gay porn tape and beats him up on a regular basis.
When Bobby date rapes his wanton pal Ali (Bijou Phillips), Marty’s pregnant girlfriend Lisa (Rachel Miner) has had enough.
Instead of simply shunning this scum, Lisa, Marty and their friends casually plot to kill Bobby – though no one in this group of high school dopers seems capable of planning anything as complicated as a murder.
The group turns to a slightly older, self-styled gangster (Leo Patrick), who quickly realizes these dolts are dangerously oblivious to the risks of crime but inexplicably decides to help them anyway.
Almost none of this true story, adapted by Zachary Long and Roger Pulis from a nonfiction book by Jim Schultz, rings true as drama. The performances are erratic and the direction by Larry Clark (“Kids”) is unfocused.
Mostly Clark seems interested in presenting his attractive cast members in various states of undress. There is much utterly gratuitous nudity, ostensibly trying to make the point these kids have a lot of unprotected sex.
“Bully” is a truly repulsive piece of trash that says far more about the absence of values from contemporary filmmaking than the waywardness of teens. I’m no prude, but it almost made me wish the old Legion of Decency were still around to give Mr. Clark a thrashing.