BULLY

This weekend I watched Larry Clark's film Bully twice in one day. I really like Larry Clark's work, Kids, and Ken Park are some of my favorite films, even if that is kind of cliche. Anyways I watched Bully once through and I really really really enjoyed it. I thought it was perfect. The characters were all so sad and hopeless, it was a fascinating film to watch. I thought the details within each of the characters lives and personas were extremely fitting and realistic. There didn't seem to be anything fake about it, and you didn't really get the sense that you were "watching a movie". However, the second time I watched it, which was a few hours later, I felt completely differently. The way it was shot had emulated the feeling of a Lifetime, made for TV movie or something. The gang of tiny adolescent boys drinking 40s didn't really make sense. The second time through I actually had to turn it off because it was bothering me so much.
At this point I'm not quite sure how I feel about the film. I might need to watch it a third time to really get a sense of what works and what doesn't. Upon further reflection I really just ended up becoming frusterated with Larry Clark. Bully is one of his more recent films and I almost feel like the work he makes is totally forced into this whole idea of what a Larry Clark film should be like. Kids and Ken Park really stand out but the rest kind of blend together in a cheesy teen exploitation way that's totally irrellevant and dull.