Bully
Larry Clark goes above and beyond for this film, blowing Kids and Ken Park out of the water with how good this was.
Ever since I watched this, I've been trying to understand why people like Kids more than something like this. Clark takes everything he learned from Kids and turns up the temperature while still keeping the same feeling. Even its idea (even though it's from a true story) can connect to almost anyone while making you question your own feelings.
Everyone in this film is unrelenting. We are constantly forced to think about each of the characters differently as the film goes on, abandoning the trust of the audience, which only heightens the emotions. You are forced only to trust your emotions which is what led this group to what they did. At first, we are expected to feel bad for Marty, but as the film goes on, you see how Marty is bariley a good person too.
When you are met with Bobby, you hate him and want to see his downfall. But when the seed of killing him was planted, there was a tension that was added to the film, to where when the plans are in action, you don't want to see him dead. Why do I want to see him live? How do we determine when someone needs to die? Does anyone deserve to die? It gives you a whole different perspective on how you preserve these insane situations.
The depravity in this film is so prevalent that it almost becomes second nature. Almost anything will warrant a reaction of stupidity or violence. Everyone in this film we see isn't a role model, antagonist, or a protagonist; we see the true state of them all as a group not separated into categories. It's everywhere, from Bobby's abuse to Derek's incompetence to stand up.
Bully's visual quality rides the line between bad and clear, which almost grounds the whole film deeper in reality. It fully encapsulates how that small town would actually feel in reality. The camera spins around, zooms in on little details, and almost acts on its own, being its own observer upon everyone. It almost looks like an old advert about bullying or drugs, which gives its own sense of familiarity.
The ending is absolutely amazing. The feeling that you get throughout the whole film gets flipped on its head when you start to see the sentencing. The music starts to loop and become eerie, and after you see all of them almost breaking your met with old videos of them, the quality makes it almost creepy which left me with an anxious feeling until it turned to black.
This also leads to another question of how the public sees Bobby now. To go all the way and kill him to force him out of their lives will lead the public to see Bobby as a victim. Now I'm not saying he isn't, but it's either everyone is a victim or no one is. The group responded in their own form of abuse, which only makes them the same as Bobby.
If you want to watch Kids, don't, and watch Bully.