[ Friday, November 15, 2002 ]
Bully
It's strange how this movie balances out. On the one hand, it's so intensely real. The camera shots are real. There's this wicked scene where all characters are around a circle talking about the imminent murder and the camera is in the middle, panning around at all the faces. It mirrors what a real person could have seen had he been in the actual scene. The movie is unflinchingly real in its graphic depiction of just about everything. Its characters all speak realistically. None of the lines seem forced. The story is based on a real occurrence.
But on the other hand, the movie still seems fantastical, even with all this realism. The kids' world seems closed off from the rest of the real world. Where are the parents in all of this? Why don't the parents ever ask Marty about the bruises on his face? Why are they basically shown as indifferent when Marty is carted off at gunpoint? Or why are none of the parents crying at the trial? There were a few scenes where the parents were shown asking about their child. But in those scenes, they seem as ignorant and as slack-jawed stupid as their kids. Does a strange world like this really exist, even in middle-class suburbia? Because of the "based on real events" aspect, you're forced to say yes. Which is pretty haunting and I think it's that haunting feeling that the movie is trying to get across.
YY [8:26 AM]
