Bully

Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: March 30, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
74
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMar 29, 2012
Bully forces you to confront not the cruelty of specific children - who have their own problems, and their good sides as well - but rather the extent to which that cruelty is embedded in our schools and therefore in our society as a whole. Read full review
90
TimeRichard CorlissMar 29, 2012
A documentary as vivid as any horror film, as heartbreaking as any Oscar-worthy drama. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 30, 2012
The best social documents on film do more than show you what's wrong in the world – they make it personal. Bully does that with a passion. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia PuigMar 29, 2012
Bully forces audiences to face actions that are unthinkable, inexcusable and excruciatingly sad. It offers no solutions, only the testimony of brave youths. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 28, 2012
The purpose of Bully is to educate and promote discussion. If the problem is not solved, there will be more Columbines and additional stories like Tyler and Ty's. Read full review
88
ObserverRex ReedMar 28, 2012
Lee Hirsch is certainly one who is making a difference. I endorse him and his brave, powerful movie and urge you to see it for yourself. You might leave Bully with rage, but you will not leave Bully with indifference. Read full review
85
NPRBob MondelloMar 30, 2012
All I can add to the discussion is the fervent hope that any parents, teachers, administrators or students who see it will immediately start clamoring for it to be shown at their next PTA meeting. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn LevyApr 12, 2012
Some movies uses make-believe to make you squirm or cry or rise to righteous anger. Bully does all of that with reality. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanMar 28, 2012
As long as the MPAA is issuing its cavalier decrees, though, they're the ones acting like bullies. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottApr 14, 2012
This is nothing if not an important film. It is important for the bullied to see, if for no other reason than to realize they aren't alone, and it is important for the bullies to see as well as for the parents of both groups so everyone can understand just how devastating the problem is. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMar 29, 2012
The film's power is undercut by its narrow geographic focus, which seems to associate bullying with conservative or working-class areas in red states. The filmmakers could easily have found similar cases involving the children of urban sophisticates. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranMar 29, 2012
If you feel like you've already read quite a bit about the documentary Bully, you have. But that still won't prepare you for the experience of seeing it. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirMar 29, 2012
An earnest and moving documentary made for and about tormented preteens and teenagers. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMar 28, 2012
An intimate reflection on the bullying epidemic that makes its points quietly and succinctly. Read full review
80
VarietyRonnie ScheibMar 25, 2012
Lee Hirsch's "The Bully Project" serves as a call to action against abuse of students by their peers as it follows, over the course of a year, five sobering case histories of unrelenting schoolyard persecution. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 12, 2012
The best Hirsch's film can do, in the end, is remind us that bullying means more than we admit, and its effects aren't always immediately clear, even to loved ones. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertApr 11, 2012
Bully is a sincere documentary but not a great one. We feel sympathy for the victims, and their parents or friends, but the film helplessly seems to treat bullying as a problem without a solution. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallApr 11, 2012
Bully is no more incisive than a Dateline NBC segment on the subject, although with a PG-13 rating it now can be a classroom tool for discussion. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenApr 5, 2012
Indeed, like all bureaucracies, the educational version is a bit of a bully itself. In Sioux City at least, the official response to bullying is to recognize its existence but to deny it's an "overwhelming issue," and retreat behind the comforting bromide that "kids will be kids." Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickMar 30, 2012
It's powerful stuff, and probably a more effective approach than a series of talking heads decrying bullying, which is estimated to affect 18 million American children. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghApr 14, 2012
It's true that the language in the film can be harsh -- but it's also very obvious that kids are hearing this kind of language in schools every day, much of it directed at them. Read full review
70
Village VoiceBenjamin MercerMar 27, 2012
It has a clear and calm approach to storytelling and some interest in the quality of its handheld images. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid DenbyMar 26, 2012
Lee Hirsch and Cynthia Lowen, the filmmakers who made the moving documentary Bully, don't try to answer any questions. They avoid charts and graphs, talking heads and sociology. Their approach is more direct and, perhaps, more effective. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMar 26, 2012
Bully is repetitive and not especially artful, but children who allow themselves to see the world through the eyes of the film's victims will never be the same. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubSam AdamsMar 28, 2012
There are many appalling moments witnessed and described in Lee Hirsch's documentary Bully: children beaten and humiliated, ostracized by their peers and misunderstood by their parents, left to face an apparently heartless world without a soul to turn to. Read full review
65
MovielineStephanie ZacharekMar 29, 2012
Bully is much better when it sticks to simple storytelling. And storytelling, not grandstanding, is the thing that just might grab the attention of, say, school administrators, people who can have some effect on how bullies are dealt with. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsApr 13, 2012
Bully is a good start to a necessary conversation, but its loving voice is likely to be drowned out by haters who hide their own wounded hearts behind Internet pseudonyms and broadcast microphones. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayApr 12, 2012
This intimate, straightforward, often wrenching portrait of five families dealing with bullying and its aftermath doesn't hold many surprises at a time when such campaigns as "It Gets Better" and special programming on kids' cable networks are bringing the issue to the fore. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisApr 12, 2012
Bully contains some moments of real alarm and, in the school bus, one nightmarish motif. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanMar 31, 2012
Incredibly enough, it seems many people still believe that bullying is just a matter of "kids being kids." Until that attitude changes, this film should be considered required viewing for every parent, teacher and teenager in America. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineNick SchagerMar 29, 2012
Graceful cinematography captures the loneliness and isolation of these kids with understatement, even when the director succumbs to twinkling piano that pulls a tad too hard on the heartstrings. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid FearMar 27, 2012
This antibullying advocacy group could not be more well-intentioned or needed, but suddenly, the sneaking suspicion that you've merely been watching an extended PSA for the grassroots organization starts to take hold. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineKalvin HenelyMar 27, 2012
Leaves us moved by poignant scenes of victims' shattered lives, but, for reasons unclear, keeps the bullies themselves largely out of our reach. Read full review
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