Film
Bully
Other titles called Bully: the 2001 film.
- Drama
- Very dark
Lee Hirsch's documentary follows five young people across America navigating bullying in school, online, and at home. It's a deliberately unflinching portrait of institutional indifference, parental anguish, and the daily terrorism of adolescence. Essential for parents and educators; difficult to watch, sometimes unbearably so.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you want an observant documentary that stays close to kids and their families at school and on the bus, and you would rather be unsettled by real faces than handed a tidy lesson.
Skip it if you need a story with a clear arc and a sense of escalation, since this mostly circles the same painful situations and wears on you through repetition.
What it asks of you: Ninety-two minutes of mostly observation, with long unhurried stretches of watching kids in hallways and at home, and few devices steering how you feel.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Cyberbully2015
MTV film starring the actor Dove Cameron as a girl whose online harassment spirals in real-time. Direct, intimate, and urgent about how digital bullying operates at a different speed than schoolyard cruelty.
But Made for a younger demographic, so the production values and some performances feel slight. The resolution can feel sentimental if you've already wrestled with Bully's refusal to offer easy comfort.
The Mask You Live In2015
From the makers of Miss Representation, this examines toxic masculinity and the specific pressures that turn some boys into bullies and others into victims. Necessary counterpart to Bully's broader scope.
But Focuses primarily on boys and male experience, so it won't speak equally to all viewers. Some arguments veer toward advocacy and away from investigation.
13th2016
Ava DuVernay's documentary about mass incarceration. Not about bullying directly, but about how institutional systems perpetuate violence against the vulnerable—the same machinery operating at a larger scale.
But Dense, historically complex, and demands sustained attention. Three and a half hours. Its scope can overshadow the intimate human cost you feel acutely in Bully.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Bully
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai2011
Both are about systems that value conformity and hierarchy over compassion, and what it costs the people crushed by them. But where Bully demands we fix American schools, Hara-Kiri insists that some hierarchies are unfixable, and the only exit is oblivion.
Masaki Kobayashi's 1962 masterpiece about suicide and institutional cruelty, remade gorgeously by Takashi Miike in 2011. A historical epic about what happens when a rigid hierarchy has no mercy for the weak. A formal, tragic antidote to Bully's documentary urgency.
But Japanese feudal drama in black and white (or elegant color, in the remake). Extremely slow. Not about contemporary American childhood—it's about a completely different culture and era. The violence is stylized but devastating.
More like this (5)
We Need to Talk About Kevin2011
Lynne Ramsay's fractured, haunting film about a mother reckoning with her son's capacity for violence. Explores the moral questions Bully leaves hanging: how does a bullied child become a danger?
But Oblique, non-linear narrative that frustrates viewers seeking clarity. Tilda Swinton's performance is so icy it can feel cold rather than tragic, and the subject matter is genuinely disturbing.
Heart of a Lion2013
Danish documentary following a boy with severe ADHD navigating a mainstream school system that has no idea how to accommodate him. Bully from the perspective of neurodivergence, and the institutional neglect that compounds it.
But Subtitled. Takes time to establish context before the more dramatic moments land. Available primarily through festival circuits and streaming, so it's harder to track down.
Race to Nowhere2009
A documentary about academic pressure that inevitably addresses bullying as one of many ways schools harm their students. Broader critique of achievement culture, which is Bully's institutional context.
But Feels somewhat dated in 2024 and leans toward upper-middle-class anxieties. The film itself became controversial, limiting its reach and rewatchability.
The Hunting Ground2015
Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick's investigation into sexual assault on college campuses. Bullying's older sibling—the same institutional failure to protect, now with legal consequences at stake.
But Contains graphic accounts of trauma. Some of the film's investigative claims have been disputed, which undermines its credibility. Heavy going, and the anger it generates doesn't always resolve into action.
Eighth Grade2018
Bully shows you the predators and the systems. Eighth Grade shows you the prey from the inside—the constant performance, the desperate attempts to signal safety and belonging, the ways you betray yourself to avoid being targeted. It's the interior life Bully documents from the outside.
Bo Burnham's semi-autofictional comedy-drama about a girl surviving her final year of middle school. Excruciatingly accurate about adolescent social performance, anxiety, and the distance between how you feel and how you appear. Funny and sad in ways Bully doesn't have permission to be.
But Classified as a comedy, but it's anxious and sometimes quite dark. The humor comes from discomfort rather than relief. Some viewers find it exhausting to watch because the social anxiety is so vividly rendered. And it offers no moral lessons—just survival and the hope that things change.
People
Cast
- Kirk Smalleyself
Directing
- Lee HirschDirector
Writing
- Cynthia LowenWriter
- Lee HirschWriter
Production
- Sarah FoudyAssociate Producer
- Cindy WaittExecutive Producer
- Cynthia LowenProducer
- Lee HirschProducer
Recommended by
Wonder, Teach You a Lesson, Weak Hero: Class 1, We Live in Public, Monos, The Kill Team, Please Vote for Me, Disconnect, The Comedy, Never Goin' Back, Welcome to Leith, A Girl Like Her, See Spot Run, Waste Land, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes, Try Harder!, The Dirties