Bully 2001

Critics score:
54 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: Fixated on young flesh, it never really get us inside the skins it keeps stripping naked. Read more

Ebert & Roeper: Read more

Jane Sumner, Dallas Morning News: Attention must be paid, because this story of middle-class suburban teens who murder one of their own is all true. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A needy movie made by a needy director, peopled with actors who come off as mindless blanks. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Clark's probing camera leers, but it also reflects truth, providing visions of a hard reality most of us would be unable to comprehend and unwilling to face. Read more

New York Times: Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Some of his detractors have called Mr. Clark a pornographer, but this is an insult to honest smut-peddlers, who treat their subjects with more respect than he does. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Some call it realism; I'd call it exploitation. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: A riot of sleazy camera moves, bad acting, and maladroit profane dialogue. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: It becomes disturbingly clear that Clark is himself exploiting his young people, ogling their unblemished bodies. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: Clark pokes his lenses where they don't belong; and though the actresses both are 21, they look young enough that the film edges uncomfortably close to child pornography. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The movie's brew of exploitation and guilt is messagey in the worst way. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Neither killers nor victim are drawn from life, just from lurid teen-exploitation pictures past. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: Brilliantly unsettling. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Exposes us to the true horror of what's going on in these kids' lives. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Clark is not some objectified, outside adult observer making an after-school special, but an artist who has made a leap into this teenage mindscape. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: If you stick with Bully through its seemingly endless repetition of themes and its hurl-inducing hand-held camerawork, it does build a crude, indefinable power. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: An honest piece of work by a filmmaker who has found his level. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Read more

Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: One has to wonder about the mind-set of a middle-aged filmmaker who repeatedly seeks out material about amoral and promiscuous teenagers with little to say. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: Read more

Benjamin Mercer, Village Voice: Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Even more voyeuristic than Kids. Read more