Bully: Oscar-worthy documentary or 'extended PSA'?

Critics are hailing the anti-bullying documentary as a must-see movie — which is tricky since a controversial ratings battle will prevent most kids from seeing it

Bully
(Image credit: Facebook)

For months leading up to its Friday release, the anti-bullying documentary Bully has dominated entertainment headlines due to the rating war between its distributors and the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA). The MPAA originally saddled the film (watch the trailer below) with an R rating because of a handful of f-words, barring adolescents — "the very demographic that can best be served, educated, informed and ameliorated by the civic values it teaches," says The New York Observer — from seeing the movie. Now Bully is being released without a rating, which will also limit its exposure to teens, since many theaters won't screen unrated films. Too bad, says Richard Corliss at TIME: This film is "as heartbreaking as any Oscar-worthy drama." Do his colleagues agree?

It's devastatingly good: Bully is a "moving, vital, and responsible must-see documentary," says Rex Reed at The New York Observer. It's often devastating; one awkward 12-year-old teased for his "fish face" is ashamed to tell even his parents that he has no friends. The film's depiction of adults' inaction is also infuriating. After a bullied child commits suicide, a school board official shrugs, "Kids will be kids, boys will be boys." Viewers are left to seriously reflect: How have "citizens of the greatest nation of opportunity" allowed this culture of "meanness, violence, cruelty, racism, homophobia, brutality, and hate" to flourish?

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