Many of us wince when we think back to our school days. There was some jerkâ┚¬â€Âor severalâ┚¬â€Âwho made every moment a living Hell. Why? It could've been because we were gay, or fat, or tall, or just that we were different.
Bully director Lee Hirsch finds five harrowing, heart-breaking stories, letting them get personal. He shows how parents and teachers can be blind to these secret daily wars. In one case, he even shows how community bias implicitly encourages mistreatment. Bully also questions many of the approaches we currently take to countering this problem.
With teenage suicide and bullying at the national forefront, this film feels like required viewing for all students. (The MPAA initially gave this film an R-rating for too many F-bombs, but recently lowered it to PG-13 because of the importance of the subject.)
There are a few small snags. Hirsch doesn't really examine the perpetrators themselves. We don't know why or how these children became this way. I assume they learn their biases at home, and they're too myopic to realize the danger of their parents' prejudice turned into their own power plays. Secondly, because Hirsch only picks people in conservative areas, we could assume this is a problem the erudite, educated and cultured people on the coasts don't have to worry about.
Stillâ┚¬â€Âfor its overwhelming emotional impactâ┚¬â€Âthis is a film worth seeing. A second film might be how bullies, after viewing such destruction, adjust their perspectives.
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Whoever thought we'd see Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson and Sean Hayesâ┚¬â€ÂJack of Will & Graceâ┚¬â€Âin a film by the Farrelly brothers (the pair behind Dumb and Dumber)? Yet, the original Stooges, with their slapstick idiocy, always did inspire wild glee in both adults and eight-year-olds.
So does it work in 2012? If you still like elaborate bitch-slap fights and baby pee jokes, sure!
Larry, Moe, and Curley are all here (Hayes, Diamantopoulos, and Sasso, respectively). They've grown up in Sister Lynch and Sister Hudson's orphanage. The boys' moronic, dangerous behaviors have not only left them unadopted, it's also driven the orphanage to bankruptcy. To save the only home they've known, the Stooges get embroiled in a stupid murder plot with sexy Columbian Vergara (of Modern Family).
The casting is ideal, and the Farrellys do understand the humor and the pacing. The film is formulated in three smaller segments, like the old Stooge shorts used to be. Finally, the slapstick is explained to kids, so our progeny won't go poking each other in the eyes or shoving live lobsters down each other's Pull-Ups.However, I keep feeling it could've been more. Even today, it's fine if the Stooges are violent simpletonsâ┚¬â€Âthey always were.
However, if the plot around them had been clevererâ┚¬â€Âthink the Marx brothers in Duck Soupâ┚¬â€Âthis goofy comedy would've also been something the Stooges never were: surprising.
Brilliant producer/writer Josh Whedonâ┚¬â€Âthe creator behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Fireflyâ┚¬â€Âimpresses fanboys and critics alike. Here is his version of a scary movie. TCITW possesses a typical horror movie plot: five prototypical young people who find themselves abandoned in the wilderness end up fighting for their lives among some gore or grossness like zombies or werewolves or murderous ghosts. However, Whedon and writer/director friend Drew Goddard turn this mythology on its ear.
Is TCITW too smart for its own good? Yes, sometimes it does seem to be entirely too self-aware. However, how often can we say that a horror movie is smart? Is TCITW fun? It's a blast!
At this cabin are the Jock, the Brain, and the Virgin. They â┚¬Å”transgressâ┚¬Â in ways like having sex or drinking or just being jerks, and then they get slaughtered for their sins. Why is it this way? This movie has a cute explanation, a sort of â┚¬Å”man behind the curtainâ┚¬Â answer.
Whedon's approach does mean he has to give away a little very earlyâ┚¬â€Âin fact, in the first scene of the film. It robs the film of some fear but ups the comedy, oddly enough. This also has the added bonus of making a horror film for audiences who dislike horror films.
Am I being deliberately vague? Yes. I want you to be as surprised and delighted as I was.
