“Fishface.” That’s what many of his classmates call the 12-year-old, wet-behind-the-ears Alex of Sioux City, Iowa, when they’re not slapping or smacking or stabbing him in the school bus, or in between episodes of sitting on his face (a feat which requires specially adjusting the school bus seat). Seems in Iowa and elsewhere oblivious school bus drivers and school administrators are as blind to bullied kids as Mitt Romney is to poor people. Alex’s parents feel his Assistant Principal “politicians” them in a meeting concerning the problem. It’s not their first meeting but it is their first after the filmmakers share school bus footage with them. This time she’s patronizing to the point of showing them a photo of her own young child in a plea of inappropriate defensiveness. For the first time in the film, though, an investigation of sorts begins and the perpetrators of the bullying are brought in for questioning.
That’s the closest the new film Bully comes to demonstrating the presence of any sanity regarding any specific responses to the bullying phenomenon. Five interweaving stories, all in America’s heartland or Deep South, give accounts of bullied kids facing a wall of inaction or hostility. An Oklahoma girl who comes out of the closet demonstrates mettle and conviction beyond her years when seemingly the entire town and school population ostracize her. Her parents, of an evangelical bent themselves, show a newfound empathy but they’re alone in their backwater environs. Would that Alex’s impassive dad shared their sensitivity. His initial answer to Alex’s plight is to blame Alex, encouraging him to get tough.
Then there’s a black girl from Mississippi who decides she’s had enough and grabs Mom’s gun to bring onto the school bus, not to hurt anyone but just to “scare them.” Though no one dies in the film, two of the stories depict parents’ agony after their tortured kids committed suicide. By the film’s end they’re all organizing awareness groups to prevent other families from experiencing a similar fate. The film operates in its own little microcosm, ignoring the macrocosm of any overview of the extent of the problem or expert opinion on its causes and prevention. Cyberbullying isn’t even mentioned. There’s plenty of time, however, for numerous superfluous scenes that make the 99-minute film seem much longer.
Nonetheless, elements of this film will stick with you. Despite the film’s thematic blurriness, the human spirit prevails. None more so than Alex, who demonstrates a tenacious optimism even when he finally admits, when asked how he feels, that he’s afraid he doesn’t “feel anything anymore.” Word has it that he was quite the rock star among prepubescent female fans when he made an appearance at a promotional screening of the film. While he may not be entirely healed, that’s probably a good start.
7 Fishfaces (out of 10)