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100
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Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Larry Clark's Bully calls the bluff of movies that pretend to be about murder but are really about entertainment. His film has all the sadness and shabbiness, all the mess and cruelty and thoughtless stupidity of the real thing.
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75
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San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The important thing is that Clark has found a new way to be creepy, which isn't easy. In the process he has created something irresistibly watchable, the kind of original piece that might mean less but reveal more than its creator intended.
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75
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New York Daily News Jami Bernard
That the actors can work under such scrutiny is amazing, and they are superb. The standout is Brad Renfro as Marty, the kid most under the thumb of the neighborhood bully.
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63
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Boston Globe
Nothing new to say, and, in the end, no real point to make.
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58
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Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
With its smooth skinned cast and demonized adults, doesn't feel very authentic.
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50
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Wall Street Journal
My problem is that the lack of narrative structure deprives the film of any suspense, and without suspense the film eventually collapses from its own heat like a soufflé that has been in the oven just a few minutes too long.
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50
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Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Clark denies his audience the catharsis, resolution and renewal of classical tragedy. The film reduces its viewers to helplessness, and I'm not sure that's its intent.
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38
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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.
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30
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Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Whatever his intentions, Clark, in his third outing as a director, has come up with a film that is seriously flawed.
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10
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The New York Times Dana Stevens
It's instructive to compare Bully with Jean-Pierre Ameris's "Bad Company," which tackles similar themes and manages to be explicit without stooping to cheap salaciousness. It's a genuinely disturbing film. Bully, in contrast, is merely disgusting.
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