Bully
Directed by Larry Clark
2001
Just for the record, I liked Kids. I never thought it was a masterpiece like some people did, but I have to admit it was pretty unforgettable and original in it's own way. There was some good acting here and there, and actually some worthwhile cinematography to be seen. I have seen two other Larry Clark movies as well, Gummo and Wassup Rockers, both of which made me want to drink 8 bottles of cranberry juice and eat 3 whole cabbages just to take a nice big stinky piss on the DVD's before returning them to the store. So needless to say, I'm not what you would call a Larry Clark fan. But everyone kept telling me that I was missing the boat, saying "you have to see Bully. Forget all those other ones, that's his best. If you liked Kids, you'll LOVE Bully".
Like I said, I did enjoy Kids for what it was. So I took their word for it and expected to like this one on a similar level, just based on the recommendations of more than one person whose taste in movies I respect. RespectED, that is.
What a worthless experience.
After watching Bully, I realized what I hate about Larry Clark movies the most, pedophilia aside of course. It was a tough decision. So many things to choose from, but I finally did it. What I hate most is the fact that he's so great at capturing how kids really talk in real life. That might sound like a compliment, but it's definitely not, because it just makes you remember that listening to real kids talk is like nails on a chalkboard, if the chalkboard was inside your head and the nails were a shotgun. It's something you usually avoid at all costs in your daily life, or at least you would if you valued your short time on this earth. In other words it's just irritating dialogue, and not worth filming or watching. Only in rare cases can that kind of teen-talk realism be pulled off with any watchable success (Elephant), and even then, it has to rest on some pretty amazing cinematography, mood, and tension, all of which Bully just doesn't have.
Besides all of that, this movie contains what is probably one of the worst cases of bad camera-work that I've ever ever EVER seen in a (non-student) hollywood movie. I'm talking about the scene where the gang of would-be murderers are all in a circle outside the "hitman's" house discussing the plan, and the camera is panning around while they talk. That is easily one of the shittiest miscarriages of direction I've seen on film in years. It was frustrating to watch. I literally had to pause the movie and get a glass of water. Why? I couldn't even tell you. I can only imagine how fried on peyote the editing team must have been to decide it was a smart move to leave that shot in the movie, instead of re-shooting it, or just cutting it out completely for that matter. But more importantly, the fact that Larry Clark can be THAT weak of a technical director at times, and still receive neverending praise from critics and movie geeks alike, just proves that people don't watch Larry Clark movies for the direction, or the acting, or the screenplay. They watch his movies to see people get raped and murdered. Period. They know it's going to happen sooner or later, because they've heard it from 10 other people just like I did. So they watch these 2-hour movies just to see maybe 10 minutes worth of vaginal and head trauma. And that's fine with me, I won't judge anybody. That's just not my thing.
Because I'm mentally stable.
This movie definitely has some kind of muddled message, and above all, it obviously does want to be a psychological study of these admittedly fascinating characters, but it's painfully clear that those ambitions are far beyond Clark's capabilities as a filmmaker to reach them. As usual.
No comments:
Post a Comment