Bully

AroView: A true-life story of Florida murder, teenager style, which dir. Larry Clark uses to produce an X-rated yet quite recognisable portrait of America’s brain-fried MTV generation.

Brad Renfro and ‘bully’ Nick Stahl excel as two childhood buddies, whose relationship has turned oddly sado-masochistic. ‘Victim’ Renfro is finally emboldened to terminate the friendship in bloody, inept and drawn-out fashion with the aid of his friends and a slightly older ‘hitman’, Leo Fitzpatrick. As the numbed language of its protagonists eventually leads this into black comedy, the profuse sex-scenes and voyeuristic shots also submerge the story in a woozy atmosphere of hormonal overdrive reminiscent of the director’s previous “Kids”.