Bully 2011

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: A documentary as vivid as any horror film, as heartbreaking as any Oscar-worthy drama. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: "Bully" is essential to see, whether you're a parent or a kid, whether you've been on the giving or receiving end of such increasingly pervasive cruelty. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: "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. Read more

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: It is hard to not respect anything that asks us to respect the stories of the dead, and asks us how we might help the living. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: "Bully" forces you to confront not the cruelty of specific children - who have their own problems, and their good sides as well - but rather the extent to which that cruelty is embedded in our schools and therefore in our society as a whole. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Bully is repetitive and not especially artful, but children who allow themselves to see the world through the eyes of the film's victims will never be the same. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: What "Bully" says about our species is dismaying, if unsurprising ... What it says about some educators in positions of power is troubling. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: "Bully" presents so many devastating moments that it's hard to pick the most powerful one. Read more

Sam Adams, AV Club: Physical superiority and popularity are no longer prerequisites for grinding someone else down, which makes understanding bullying as essential as stigmatizing it. We are all bullies now. Read more

Barbara VanDenburgh, Arizona Republic: Heartbreaking as these stories are, "Bully" is too narrow in scope to be anything approaching definitive. Most notably absent from the film are the bullies themselves. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: 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. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The best Hirsch's film can do, in the end, is remind us that bullying means more than we admit, and its effects aren't always immediately clear, even to loved ones. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: 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. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: 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? Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: This is an urgent and moral movie; there shouldn't be a puritanical roadblock standing between it and its audience. Read more

Amanda Mae Meyncke, Film.com: Bully doesn't offer solutions, it raises awareness, and does so remarkably well. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: Focusing on the experiences of five families, filmmaker Lee Hirsch offers simple, direct and eloquent testimony supporting the need for individual and group action against bullying. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: If you feel like you've already read quite a bit about the documentary "Bully," you have. But that still won't prepare you for the experience of seeing it. Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: It presents a dramatic case for creating supportive communities that will stand up to those being bullied in the world. Now the onus is on all of us to play our part in making it happen. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: For a film that understandably only scratches the surface of its topic, Bully carries a devastating emotional punch. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: A deeply moving but highly selective look at the effects of bullying on children and teenagers. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: [The directors] avoid charts and graphs, talking heads and sociology. Their approach is more direct and, perhaps, more effective. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The access varies widely, there's far too much music telling us what to feel, and at the end its focus begins to drift. If it at least gets people talking, though, that's a good thing. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: Bully is a wrenching, potentially transformative look at an epidemic of adolescent cruelty and adult paralysis in the nation's public schools. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Should be considered required viewing for every parent, teacher and teenager in America. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: A powerful piece of work that might make a difference if enough people see it. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Lee Hirsch is certainly one who is making a difference. I endorse him and his brave, powerful movie and urge you to see it for yourself. You might leave Bully with rage, but you will not leave Bully with indifference. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Bully is sufficiently powerful to impact a viewer regardless of age, but this should be mandatory viewing for kids between 10 and 17. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: There's no doubt 'Bully' should be required viewing in every classroom in America Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: We feel sympathy for the victims, and their parents or friends, but the film helplessly seems to treat bullying as a problem without a solution. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: The best social documents on film do more than show you what's wrong in the world - they make it personal. Bully does that with a passion. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Bully is less a checklist plan for eliminating abusive behavior than an emotionally powerful wake-up call for a society too long in denial. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Bully" is a good start to a necessary conversation, but its loving voice is likely to be drowned out by haters who hide their own wounded hearts behind Internet pseudonyms and broadcast microphones. Read more

Ian Buckwalter, The Atlantic: What Bully does is offer viewers the potential to connect a growing network of like-minded people, and does so with elegant storytelling. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Tackles this headline-heavy topic by mixing moments of raw emotional power with intervals of somewhat suspect manipulation. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: This is the kind of subject matter that can be enraging or moving in the hands of the right director, but Hirsch fails to connect with either the heart or the head. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Suddenly, the sneaking suspicion that you've merely been watching an extended PSA for the grassroots organization (Stand for the Silent) starts to take hold. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Hirsch's documentary truly shocks by the two sets of outrageous bureaucrats it exposes: one cowers on-screen, and the other hides in the offices of the MPAA, America's movie censor. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: An insightful and moving documentary. Read more

Ronnie Scheib, Variety: It follows, over the course of a year, five sobering case histories of unrelenting schoolyard persecution. Read more

Benjamin Mercer, Village Voice: It has a clear and calm approach to storytelling and some interest in the quality of its handheld images. Read more