All Critics (126)
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Top Critics (37)
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Fresh (108)
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Rotten (17)
Bully is less a checklist plan for eliminating abusive behavior than an emotionally powerful wake-up call for a society too long in denial.
Bully" is smart and compassionate about the pain of its wounded subjects and the frustration felt by their parents, seemingly abandoned by the system. What the powerful film lacks is insight into bullying.
Hirsch seldom gets face time with any bullies or their parents, and he tends to ignore the complicated social and psychological patterns that feed the problem.
For a film that understandably only scratches the surface of its topic, Bully carries a devastating emotional punch.
It would have been nice if the film had reflected its title a bit more and looked at the bullies themselves - what drives one kid to torture another? Is it a reaction to home life, is it fear, is it innate awfulness?
"Bully" doesn't need research or great filmmaking or narrative focus, per se. It needs only the shaming power of its relentlessness and a young audience open to sharing in that shame.
One of the ten best films of 2012.
A difficult film with no real answers to the dilemmas it poses...
An intense look at bullying from the perspective of the victims.
Bully is not perfect, but everyone should see it.
This documentary asks more questions than it answers, but what Bully clearly demonstrates is that no one should suffer in silence.
Is it fair to criticize a documentary for being too persuasive when the subject matter is not only genuinely tragic - and tragically widespread - but also so rarely brought into the public domain? That's the question I struggle with.
Bully is all heart, no brain - which makes it an easily palatable doc to sit through.
For all its good intentions...the film does not fight hard enough to rise above the emotions of the issue to explore real solutions.
It's eye-opening to look at the "bad" schools but I was also hoping to see the "good" schools and learn about the initiatives that they've taken to address the issue.
What should have been blindingly effectual is lessened by - ironically - a lack of killer instinct.
By exposing audiences to the stark realities of bullying, Bully just might encourage people to take it seriously instead of perpetuating the old adage "it's just kids being kids".
Bully is a solid documentary but one that's built to garner a specific reaction. In doing so Lee Hirsch has missed an opportunity to go deeper into the issue, offering a faceless enemy to protest against.
There's something seriously wrong with life in our schools. And Hirsch clearly believes the world must be shown the harsh realities of it.
Hirsch's treatment does not especially engage us nor allow an emotional connection - surprising, considering the subject matter
[Hirsch] overplays the modern documentary trait to fill the final half-hour with website prompts and movement preaching, but one can hardly blame him given the closeness he obviously shared with his subjects.
Hirsch's portrait imbues his everyday heroes with a dignity and grace that their tormenters obviously are too short-sighted to see and which shines in every frame of the film.
It got fairly dusty fairly often for this critic, despite my misgivings about the picture's craftsmanship.
Bully's unobtrusive and poetic style, subtly but surgically uncovers the prison-like social hierarchical structure cultivated in US schools ... It's an affective, powerful, honest voice that demands to be heard.
Concentrates on the dire consequences it has for the victims.
Weinstein was right - 'Bully' should be seen.
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Top Critic
