Title: Bully

Director: Lee Hirsch

Ironically, someone should have bullied the filmmakers to do something more with this subject matter. Unless you have no clue about bullying in America, this 99 minute documentary appropriately titled Bully, is just regurgitating the obvious the majority of the time.

The only interesting aspect of this, which never gets explored, is how the camera guys went about capturing the footage without the other kids seemingly knowing; and how they were able to refrain from interfering if their “subject” was being picked on in a harsh manner. Weaving in their testimonials would have made this more compelling, and provided the story with an emotional depth, rather than just having parents and/or kids affected by this deplorable behavior sharing their tales. Frankly, I would advise anyone interested in this subject to just Google “Bully news stories and videos” if you really want to see what the deal is. This documentary barely scratches the surface and feels late to the discussion in some respects.

According to this piece by the way, bullying only occurs in small towns located in the Bible belt. Now if this terrible practice – and it is a practice – was just contained to those areas depicted in the footage, then we as a society almost have this bullying issue whipped. But that’s not the case.

This biggest fail of this doc is that it doesn’t do the sensitive subject matter enough justice. Sure there are a couple of moments where a 13 year-old is getting picked on (punched in the arm, head pushed into the seat, verbal putdowns, etc.) can really get one fired up. There’s also the angle that shows just how casual, and irresponsible, certain school administrators are, as the viewer witnesses their reactions to the accusations of bullying in their respective school district. And one poor assistant principal, well, let’s just say she’ll need to change her address and probably move aboard. She deserves it, too.

Seeing parents, a few who had to deal with the ultimate tragedy brought upon from bullying, articulate their offspring’s story and share their feelings does hit home. But as stated earlier, this “reporting” if you will, feels incomplete and lacks direction. And dated. It’s not that we need to see hardcore video evidence and/or hear a plethora of sad stories; but there needed to be an educational angle to this telling and not just a clipbook of scant details. Of course any reminder is a good one, especially in this case. That being said, the only question one will have after this presentation is why did the filmmakers bother showing us something we already know?

Overall, Bully didn’t do what it should have. While everything you just read may seem incentive, yours truly gets pretty emotional when reading articles about topics this documentary glossed over. Knowing that, my head shook in disgust just one time during this presentation. Personally, I get more out of a World Wrestling Entertainment anti-bullying promo. This should have been a powerful documentary. Sadly, it’s not. And it doesn’t shed any new light on the situation. All this really does it get pushed into the half-assed category of filmmaking.

Technical: C+

Overall: D+