Search - Bully on DVD

Content Advisory: Violence, Nudity, Adult Situations, Strong Sexual Content, Rape & Sexual Abuse, Not For Children, Adult Language Movie Release: 2001 DVD Release: 01/22/2002 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 55 mins Studio: Lions Gate Members Wishing: 10 Genres: Drama, Psychological Drama, Juvenile Delinquency Film

Photographer and filmmaker Larry Clark, who made a controversial feature debut with the disturbing drama Kids, returns with another disquieting look at amoral and sexually precocious youth. Bobby (Nick Stahl) is a high school student growing up in southern Florida in the early '90s. Bobby is also a borderline psychotic; he frequently lashes out with brutal violence against those around him and especially enjoys humiliating his best friend Marty (Brad Renfro). While Bobby professes to hate and fear homosexuals, he goads Marty into performing phone sex with men, makes Marty and his friends watch hardcore gay porn films with him, and may have sexually abused Marty. But Marty is hardly the only victim of Bobby's abuse; Bobby has sexually assaulted Marty's girlfriend Lisa (Rachel Miner) and more than once has barged in on the couple while they were making love. Lisa's best friend Ali (Bijou Phillips) has also been raped by Bobby, and he has mistreated nearly everyone in their circle of friends. One night, Marty, Lisa, Ali, and several others decide Bobby's cycle of abuse must stop. But their solution is as ugly as the problem -- the teens stab Bobby, slit his throat, crush his head with a baseball bat, and throw his body into the bay, where the remains will be eaten by alligators. Bully is based on a book by journalist Jim Schutze, which recounted the facts of the 1993 murder of Bobby Kent, who after years of abusing his friends and classmates, was killed by seven of his acquaintances in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. As with Kids, Larry Clark's startlingly graphic depiction of sex, violence, and drug use among teenagers crossed the boundaries of what the MPAA could permit in an R-rated film, and the picture's distributors chose to release the film without a rating. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Brad Renfro - Marty Puccio
Rachel Miner - Lisa Connelly
Nick Stahl - Bobby Kent
Bijou Phillips - Ali Willis
Michael Pitt - Donny Semenec

Bully takes a hard-hitting look at teenagers, sex, and murder. The film is featured in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and looks very nice for its low-budget origins. This transfer appears crisp, detailed, and void of any edge enhancement or artifacting. The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround and is very adequate for the film it supports. While there are some instances of directional use in this mix (usually with the gangster rap soundtrack), the bulk of the track tends to come from the center and front speakers only. Also included on this disc is a music-only soundtrack, as well as subtitles in English and Spanish. The extra features on this disc start with an engaging interview with director Larry Clark that sadly lasts only around five minutes. Next up are some fairly long interviews with the young cast discussing their characters and the screenplay. "How the Actors Landed Their Roles" is a comedic interview with each cast member joking about how they slept with the director to be in the movie (which, in a roundabout way, is sort of creepy). Finally there's a picture gallery of the real people this movie is based on, and a theatrical trailer for the film. ~ Patrick Naugle, All Movie Guide