“Bully has good intentions, but terrible execution”

By: Juan Barquin/Columnist

life@fiusm.com

Photo Courtesy of thebullyproject.com

Bullying is a disturbing issue that affects people of all ages, and often those who suffer the most are left in silence. In comes the Weinstein Company, on the highest of horses, to bring the world a documentary that declares “it’s time to take a stand” as its tagline. Unfortunately, “Bully” does not even come close to offering a realistic look at bullying in the U.S.

The feature documentary “Bully” shows how different students and families from around America have been affected by bullying. The main focus is a 12-year-old boy named Alex from Iowa. He suffers regularly from teasing and even physical violence while his encounters with other students, his family and the administration are followed closely by the camera.

Alex’s story is not the only one told in the film, as audiences are given a look into the lives of a number of other children. Ja’Meya is a young girl who was sent to juvenile hall after being tormented so much that she had to resort to bringing a gun aboard her school bus.

Another young girl, Kelby, has been ostracized by her community after coming out as lesbian and is attempting to deal with it through the support of her friends and family. Also featured are stories of parents who have lost children due to suicide and who have even launched the organization Stand for the Silent, which is dedicated to preventing school bullying and youth suicide.

The film’s greatest issue is that every story that does not relate to Alex is left to die after being established. Both Ja’Meya and Kelby’s stories have key issues other than bullying that are important for today’s generation, including gun violence, race and sexuality. It is disappointing that a film like this allows these two well-established stories to dissolve into a series of landscape shots and a lot of walking around with friends and families where nobody speaks.

The touchy, but equally important, subject of suicide is handled slightly better, but barely touches anything that would indicate why these kids would take their lives aside from the big bad word “bullying” without actually placing a face on this threat. While some of these stories are genuinely sad, the film relies on getting as many people to cry on screen as often as possible, allowing for the emotional manipulation of audiences everywhere.

As if the unevenness of the film was not bad enough, some of the camera work makes one wonder how anyone ever gave a camera to director Lee Hirsch. There are one too many landscape shots, as well as shots of teens staring off into the distance, and the amount of times that the camera purposely goes out of focus for no reason is obnoxiously distracting. Many of the bullying incidents with Alex on his bus route feel entirely staged and would have benefited from using archival footage from the bus itself, as with Ja’Meya’s incident.

“Bully” just feels like multiple after-school specials. There is the one about bullying with a bunch of reenactments that will not admit to being staged, the one about youth suicide, and the one about how flawed the school administration is. If you poorly edited together those three with a BBC nature documentary and tried to limit yourself to under 100 minutes, “Bully” would be your result.

One would think with all the time spent attempting to lower the film’s MPAA rating from R to PG-13 for the benefit of students, “Bully” would actually be geared toward a younger audience. It is hard to believe, but those who will probably be most impacted by this film are the susceptible parents who will practically eat up anything.

The few students who actually end up paying money to watch this movie will likely find themselves as restless as the ones in my theater. They will be the ones who end up walking out with just as little knowledge on the effects of bullying as before.

Maybe it is because I have experienced bullying in my past, but I expect more from a documentary tackling something that causes as much suffering as this. Every child, parent, student and friend in this movie deserves better. Every person who this film is meant to reach out to deserves better.

Anyone interested in The Bully Project should explore their website, as the intent behind the documentary is truly good-hearted. Everyone deserves a chance to tell their story, and you can read about hundreds of others online. For those who want to spend $10 on a poorly made documentary, “Bully” is now playing at AMC Sunset Place.

Rating: 2/5

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