Review: Bully (2012)

A documentary showing the horrible epidemic of bullying in schools, and the ways students, parents, and schools try to deal with the situation. It ain’t pretty, folks. Bullying, especially bullying in schools is one of those issues that I have very deep, personal views on. I was not bullied a whole helluva lot myself, but I’ve been around such behaviour (I’ve probably had my own moments of being mean, to be honest) being in a rather unpopular circle of friends at school. The issue has always as it does now, angered me to no end. It’s a serious cancer on society that I sincerely wish one could find a cure for. High school in particular sucks for everyone, and no one has the right to make someone else’s high school experience even worse through bullying of any kind. It makes my frigging blood boil.

 

So why didn’t this 2012 documentary (which only aired on Aussie cable in 2015, by the way) on the subject from director Lee Hirsch move me more? It’s not just because the film only focuses on the bullied than the bullies, a complaint I’ve read several times. That didn’t bother me at all, in fact I didn’t even think about it until the film was over. It’s perhaps because it’s a film with moments that outraged me, but overall never really enlightened me, and therefore kept me at more of an emotional distance than I was expecting (So perhaps there is something to be said for including the bullies in the film. But who would consent to that? Surely the parents of bullies would never want to show their kids in a bad light). The issue is much more worthy than the film, basically. It’s not a great documentary. And yet, I absolutely want everyone to see this film, purely because of the issues involved, not because of any artistic merit. It may not have told me anything I didn’t already know, and that may have pulled me out of it a bit, but I still think its message needs to be heard, heard loudly, and heard yet again.

 

We start off with an excellent decision to show a school choir version of ‘Teenage Dirtbag’, which just seems to fit the film if you ask me. Like “American Teen”, it seems a stretch that these kids would legitimately misbehave in the presence of cameras, but I won’t call bullshit on it. We live in the era of selfies, viral videos etc. It’s the reality TV/YouTube era and people do all kinds of mean and dumb stuff on camera, with not all of it being fake. The moments of outrage in this film for me were the either misguided and naïve, or just plain fucking horrible behaviour of teachers and faculty. There’s the misguided idea by a teacher to ask the class how many friends they each have. This is a minor infraction all things considered, and hopefully no kid is dumb enough to admit they have no friends, but still it could’ve gone really wrong. It’s the one moment in the film that reminded me of my own experiences with ignorant teachers, especially my absolutely revolting First Grade teacher (Don’t even get me started on that woman!).

 

One of the most likeable on-screen subjects in the film is a teenage lesbian named Kelby, seemingly a very lovely girl who says she has tried to kill herself three times already. School isn’t even over. Wow. This is so wrong, people. Bullying needs to stop. It has the potential to kill our kids, or at least scar them emotionally. Kelby relates how even teachers have gotten in on the act. This is in Iowa, of course, but what if it’s not just Iowa? I mean, it’s bad enough that it is happening in Iowa. Please let kids pass as safely as possible through this awkward and difficult part of their life, I implore everyone. However, the worst example of faculty/adults behaving badly comes at the expense of poor Alex Libby. Alex is one of those kids who just don’t have much of a chance, because he looks a bit different and hasn’t got the social skills necessary to navigate his way successfully through school, especially when bullies see him as such easy pickings. Although some have been critical of them, I actually really felt for Alex’s parents here. Yes, his dad seems clueless, but he and especially Alex’s mother clearly love him. It’s heartbreaking to watch Alex’s mother try in vain to get Alex to open up about what is happening to him at school. The problem is, Alex himself doesn’t seem fully aware of it. I’m not sure if he’s just gullible or immature, or if he has some kind of intellectual disability, but he just doesn’t seem to realise that his ‘friends’ aren’t really his friends, and he barely seems to register that his mother is trying to talk to him sometimes. She can’t help him if he won’t let her in. Some have suggested that his mother is blaming him or picking on him, which is absolutely untrue. She is trying to get answers from him so that she has a better understanding of what is going on so that she can help.

 

However, the real issue here is not Alex, it’s what’s going on at the school. If the faculty at his school weren’t so inept and wrong-headed in their handling of Alex’s situation (at least from what we see in the film), he might’ve been having a better time of it. The scene where Alex’s mother goes to meet the Assistant Principal Kim Lockwood is just jaw-dropping in her complete ignorance to the situation and the awfulness of her own behaviour. This woman is seemingly so clueless, that she has the gall to meet Alex’s mother’s complaints (not to mention video evidence supplied by the documentarians!) with photos of her own grandkids because…um, no I have no idea why she shows photos of her own family. That’s insane. Ms. Lockwood has apparently since apologised for the way she comes off here, but wow. Just wow. Another attempt at mediation by Lockwood, is less alarming but similarly naïve as she rightly tries to teach kids that two wrongs don’t make a right, but when she gets a bully and his victim to shake hands, you just know the bully is merely playing nice in front of an adult. The bullying will likely continue.

 

One of the film’s strengths for me was that although it’s very easy to point fingers of blame, the film shows just how complex this issue is. It’s easy to blame the bully, and indeed you should blame them. However, quite often they have been bullied themselves, so one must be careful in how you deal with them. These are kids, after all. It’s easy to blame the parents, but what can they do if their kids won’t communicate with them? And yes, it’s easy to blame the teachers and faculty, especially when they’re as shockingly inept as Ms. Lockwood…but can they be around to watch the kids all day every day? Meanwhile, one must also concede that bullied kids who retaliate in kind are also not helping the situation. However, I think we can all agree that the biggest problem here is bullying and bullies are at fault. The film also shows just how important it is for you to find yourself a group of friends and never take them for granted or sell them out in an attempt to look cool. Even if your social group as at the lowest end of the totem pole, there’s safety in numbers. It would also, on evidence in this film, seem to be a good idea if you also don’t ride the bus. Wow, I’m glad I never had to endure that hell ride.

 

The film stops short of being memorable, despite being based on an issue of vital importance in my opinion. It’s a film of affecting moments, but it ends up slightly underwhelming as a whole. Perhaps it would’ve been better to have just focussed solely on Alex’s story, as it’s clearly the most interesting. I never quite got as emotionally invested as I would’ve liked, perhaps because I wasn’t getting enough from each of the stories. Yes, I liked Kelby, and my heart really went out to the parents of the bullied kid who killed himself, and how they still seem shell-shocked and at a loss as to how to move on. That was really moving stuff. But a streamlined narrative I think would’ve made for an even stronger film. Also, it’s really only at the end that the film addresses some of the possible answers to the problem of bullying, I would’ve liked more on that (We see some stuff, and of course it’s the amazing parents who are at the front of this heroic crusade). Still, this is a film that needs to be seen. Lessons need to be learned. Problems need to be solved. Bullying needs to be stopped. Our kids’ lives depend on it.

 

Rating: B-