Really hard to watch, for so many reasons. I was uncomfortable watching 'A Ma Soeur!' because of the graphic sexual scenes involving a supposed 15 year old girl completely naked with an older man. If anything, Bully is more gratuitous. The camera doesn't so much film the often scantily-clad cast as leer over it - particularly in one cheeky crotch shot of Ali of which the actress involved, Bijou Phillips, later said "'What the fuck is that bullshit? That's not OK.......I'm sitting there doing a scene and they're shooting down my crotch." Larry Clark whipped up a load of shit over similar themes with his brilliant directorial debut 'Kids' a few years back, but this is a step further on even from that.

The story itself is harrowing and real. However, a small few have questioned the depiction of some of the characters, as you would expect for a true story adaptation. Set in middle-class Broward County, Florida (a place best known previously - to me at least - for being where a record shop owner was arrested for selling a 2 Live Crew album, but I digress), the movie starts with the relationship between Marty Puccio (Brad Renfro) and Bobby Kent (Nick Stahl).

We see them trying to cop with girls, then going to a gay club where Bobby eggs Marty into dancing on the stage. It soon becomes apparent that Bobby is a bit of a power freak; his relationship with Marty is basically frustrated sexual desire translated into physical and psychological abuse. Bobby is confident and aggressive with women (or should I say 'girls'?), but way over the top - he tries to rape Ali whilst making her watch gay porn. You get the feeling he loathes women wholeheartedly.

Ali's friend Lisa (who in real life was a lot more chunky than the rather svelte Michael Pitt, formerly of Dawsons Creek), the hopelessly fucked stoner-dude who plays Mortal Kombat on acid with Derek (the also excellent Daniel Franzese). Donny barely seems to know where he is half the time, let alone be able to display any evidence of thought processes. Donny's girlfriend Heather (Kelli Garner) and 'The Hitman' Derek Kaufman (Leo Fitzpatrick) complete the gang. My favourite scene in this movie (discounting the horrible murder scene) was just after the Mortal Kombat on acid scene. The seven have driven up to see The Hitman to arrange to get Bobby bumped off. Kaufman is projecting himself as a hard gang type, although this is in doubt; his fellow gang members all seem to be local kids who nick shit car radios. On the drive over, the whole damn car have slipped some acid (even the driver - how irresponsible ;o] ). Clark simulates the absolute lack of clarity and swirliness of the trip by simply rotating around from within the circle that the group are in. Done with a digital camera, this causes a helluva lot of digital blurry shit which disfigures the previously sharp image. When the camera finally settles back on The Hitman, you do actually feel relieved to have escaped the vertigous effect. A lot of press have tried to shape 'Bully' into a wake up call to American parents. Hell, the tagline is "It's 4am...do you know where your kids are?". The parents in the movie are largely conspicuous by their absence. The main paternal influence comes from Bobby's father, who is trying to distance Bobby from his loser friend Marty and make sure he graduates. Otherwise, all we learn is that Ali has a small child whom her parents look after, and there are casual but rare sightings of the others' folks. They seem to have very little involvement in their kids day-to-day affairs. This is pretty natural for a late teenager; the parents have provided well for their children - use of the car is always easy, they live pretty well. It seems that this horrific murder, although catalysed by horrific acts from the eventual victim, had it's seed fertilised by boredom, pure teenage egoistic stupidity and a bizarre amoral vacuum that prevented the seven from going beyond the first apparent solution to the Bobby Kent problem. All this leads to seven loosely connected youths - some of whom had never met Bobby before - who horrifically took his life in a haze of self-encouragement, peer pressure, various drugs and blind rage. Great movie, powerful shit. I gots ta read the book methinks. Oh, maybe this article might help explain the superb performances of the whole cast....

Hi everyone , much like most of you I seen Bully and didn't exactly know how to feel after . When I see Marty was sentenced to death I felt like it was a member of my own family . It's hard to explain and I know most ppl think he is a murderer and deserves it , but the feeling I got made me get to know the real Marty Puccio and find out what happened to lead up to the tragic event that night that caused Bobby Kent to be killed. The movie was based on the book and the book was 90% lies . I invite anyone interested enough in this story to join us at a group created for Marty . groups.yahoo.com
Thanks .

Hi, I've been writing Marty for a year and all I have to say is that no one will ever really know what went on that night but in the here and now Marty has an 11 year old daughter who's missed out on her childhood. People who mug and stab people for hardly any other reason than a few quid get lighter sentences than Marty who one way or another at least had provocation. Of course you can't just go around offing people but as a kid you don't always consider the real life repercussions. I was arrested for murder at 15 and since have married and have two sons and have become a productive person. I don't even recognise the 15 year old i used to be and I feel that Marty is highly unlikely to go on a spontaneous killing spree should he be released and that the only 0ne who is being punished now is his little girl who god knows must have enough of a stigma without having to visit her dad in prison. Bobby's parents have deserved to see some punishment meted out for the unlawfull killing if their son and I think 1i years is justice now let the poor sod out to get on with his life. Aside from prison time and life, Marty's missed out on his daughters life, faced the death sentence and then been thrust into the public eye by hollywood cashing in to have the whole world judge him all over again.
As for Bobby Kent, if you saw the size of him you'd know no one would tackle him without a damn good reason and all I have to say about the film is that the casting was shit ( Bobby was a brick shithouse not some lanky little ratboy) and the story, based around the book is seriously embellished. The book admits it if you check the small print, but hey, it all adds to the drama!

I will only say this ! Marty Puccio deserves to be punished for what he did . There is no excuse for murder . However i feel little pity for Bobby Kent . It sounds like many people not only agree on the abusive and controlling nature of Bobby Kent , but experienced it first hand . I know that Martin Puccio made a bad choice , one that took the life of his friend , but we cannot judge someone , that is God's job . We all need to worrie about our own lives , and learn from this . We need to be good human beings , and be respectful to one another and live our lives always doing whats right no matter what . We can try to avoid another Bobby Kent, but we need to think about how we treat other people , that in it'self will make this world a better place .