Film

Bully

Other titles called Bully: the 2011 film.

Larry Clark's *Bully* follows a group of Florida teenagers who plan and execute a murder to escape their abusive, predatory peer. It's a searing, unflinching look at how trauma compounds in closed groups, rendered in Clark's signature style: raw, sensory, unblinking. Bleak and occasionally nauseating, this is for viewers ready to sit with genuine ugliness.

TMDb rating3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you respond to unflinching, naturalistic films that let moral rot build in plain sight, and you don't need a likable hero to stay gripped.

Skip it if you find cruelty grinding on screen hard to sit through, since it stays unrelenting with little relief and the story lingers in ugly, repetitive scenes.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a slow, claustrophobic runtime of under two hours, with long scenes that refuse to cut away from discomfort and rarely offer a breather.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Heavyweights1995

Also about teenage cruelty and power dynamics, but told through comedy and heart. Shows how the same social machinery that produces Bobby's victims can be broken by intervention and compassion.

But It's a family film that doesn't match *Bully*'s intensity. If you're seeking something equally dark, this might feel too gentle.

Heavyweights poster

River's Edge1986

An earlier Larry Clark film exploring how teenagers process violence and moral transgression. Quieter than *Bully*, more interested in numbness than action; essential viewing for understanding Clark's worldview.

But Even slower-paced than *Bully*, and deliberately ambiguous about the characters' interiority. Some find it frustratingly distant.

River's Edge poster

Kids1995

Also written by Harmony Korine, also directed by Larry Clark. Captures the same suffocating atmosphere of teenage predation and group dynamics, though focused on disease transmission rather than murder.

But The sexual content is graphic and extremely disturbing. Many viewers find it exploitative rather than illuminating.

Kids poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Bully

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Gerry2002

Both films are obsessed with how teenage boys bond through shared transgression. *Gerry* asks what happens when the transgression is against the self rather than another person.

Gus Van Sant's 110-minute meditation on two young men walking into the wilderness. Like *Bully*, it's about teenage male friendship in its most intimate form—but instead of violence, it explores how connection can become erasure.

But Almost nothing happens. It's intentionally boring as form—long takes of hiking, minimal dialogue. Many find it unwatchable rather than profound.

Gerry poster
More like this (7)

We Need to Talk About Kevin2011

Explores how trauma, alienation, and group psychology create violent outcomes. More formally inventive than *Bully*, and Tilda Swinton's performance adds complexity to the investigation of culpability.

But It's deliberately fragmented and abstract. The central act is even worse than murder, which may exceed what you're willing to watch.

We Need to Talk About Kevin poster

A Prophet2009

Focuses on how institutional violence and trauma shape personality. Confined, claustrophobic, and genuinely tense. Shows power dynamics in extremis with stunning clarity.

But It's set in a French prison and in French. Subtitles plus relentless grimness can exhaust viewers.

A Prophet poster

Swallowed2022

Body horror and sexual predation meet capsule drugs; explores vulnerability and predatory older men. Deeply uncomfortable and very current—what *Bully* does for physical violence, this does for sexual threat.

But Extremely graphic sexual and bodily transgression. Far more abstract and avant-garde than *Bully*, which frustrates those seeking traditional narrative clarity.

Swallowed poster

Donnie Darko2001

Released the same year as *Bully*; similarly explores alienation, male rage, and suburban numbness. Less brutal but far more poetic about why teenagers break.

But It's oblique, dreamy, and intentionally difficult to parse. If you want clarity about *why* things happen, this will frustrate you.

Donnie Darko poster

Thirteen2003

Captures adolescent group psychology and self-destruction with *Bully*'s unflinching intensity but from the inside. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke with raw, improvisational energy.

But Focuses on girls and spirals into drug use and sexual recklessness rather than violent crime. The moral landscape is messier and less clearly delineated.

Thirteen poster

The Virgin Suicides2000

Both film the landscape of American teenage despair. *Bully* shows the predator and the prey; *Virgin Suicides* shows what happens when there's nowhere to run.

Sofia Coppola's lush, dreamlike film about suburban despair focuses on girls rather than boys, but shares *Bully*'s sense that American teen life can be suffocating and fatal. Beautiful where *Bully* is brutal.

But It's contemplative and stylized rather than documentary-real. Some find it too pretty to take seriously, or too distant from its subject matter.

The Virgin Suicides poster

Winter Light1963

Both are about the failure of community to protect the vulnerable. *Bully* shows it happening in Florida suburbs; Bergman shows it in the human condition itself.

Bergman's brutal interrogation of faith, community, and isolation. Not about teenagers, but about how groups normalize cruelty and indifference. Formal and philosophical where *Bully* is visceral, but the moral diagnosis is identical.

But Swedish, 1963, severely abstract. No plot, no catharsis, and the atmosphere of spiritual emptiness may feel pretentious rather than powerful.

Winter Light poster

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Recommended by

The Rules of Attraction, River's Edge, Foxfire, Mean Creek, The Doom Generation, Crime + Punishment in Suburbia, Elephant, Still Life, All About Lily Chou-Chou, Fun, A Room for Romeo Brass