Featuring a cast of unknowns, (Matt O'Leary, Marshall Allman, Jonathon, Halyalkar, and Sam Murphy) American Bully finds a young, angry man suspended from high school for forwarding a beheading video to a fellow student, one of color. You see, angry Brandon (Matt O'Leary) has a brother fighting in Iraq, and is about to ship off himself, if he can just graduate from high school. Instead, he seems content to antagonize non-white schoolmates, drink beer, get stoned, and drive around looking for trouble. He and his friends, all of whom sport varying degrees of acquiescence to Brandon's bullying ways, pick an abandoned house in which to chill. That house also allows them to get up to plenty of accelerating bad behavior, leading to a horrific, racially based hate crime that shocks the nation.

American Bully is neither a great film, nor is it a terrible one, it raises some interesting questions while consistently engaging the viewer, even with a full crew of untested actors. It is, however, an extremely dark film, both figuratively and literally. I'm mostly concerned with the literal aspects of this darkness, since throughout much of the film you can't see what's going on. It's a practical thing, really - and maybe director Dave Rodriguez meant the miasma to mean something - but when I'm staring at a black screen with one tiny white dot, for maybe two minutes, and I'm not hearing much to help out, I become a little confused. It's not as though I couldn't really figure out what was going on, but those repeated instances of total blackout (and film is a visual medium, after all) really began to wear on me, especially when one considers how virtually every other scene appears to be under-lit as well.

Overuse of shades aside, American Bully straddles the line between potential exploitation fare and serious politically minded drama rather well. While I don't find the film's conclusion all that plausible, Rodriguez generates a wholly believable air of ennui and confusion for his characters. Bradley and crew are stranded with absent parents, impotent authority figures, and nothing much to do but swill beer and cruise around looking for trouble. (I can relate, anyway.) Whether willfully succumbing to omnipresent propaganda, or just acknowledging an evil kink, Bradley's journey makes a whole lot of sense up until its shocking conclusion. I also like how, despite a veneer of knowledge, Rodriguez's film purposefully avoids any form of inculcation. Rodriguez isn't interested in teaching us, nor providing answers, but it's clear he hopes we're thinking.

The DVD

Video:
Props to the style department for releasing this in a stately 2.35:1 widescreen ratio, something usually reserved for movies with much more lofty (or pretentious) pedigrees. A somewhat muted palette adds a bit of gravitas, but doesn't completely hide a digital video look haunting this affair. Of course none of that matters when plenty of the movie is shrouded in blacks so profound you can't see much of what's going on. For that, the black levels are pretty nice. In all, an acceptable but not exemplary DVD presentation.

Sound:
Dolby 2.0 English Stereo Audio should be filed under the heading, "standard" - nothing too exciting regarding stereo placement, but at least music and dialog are mixed well, keeping you from riding the remote like a bucking bronco. No distortion or other audio glitches are around, either.

Extras:
The only available extra is a Trailer for the movie.

Final Thoughts:
There aren't a whole heck of a lot of movies tackling this particular subject, that of a seemingly normal American kid going on a misguided personal jihad, and if there were (or are) they'd probably be woven from purely exploitative fabric. Director Dave Rodriguez skirts the sleazy elements (more or less) until the end, hoping we'll buy his murkily lit drama with solemnity. While sporting a bunch of naturalistic performances, the movie makes a huge leap from Point A to Point B (a huge leap) - unless the movie is really about a psycho in the making - meaning, unfortunately, it's not exactly the realistic, non-judgmental movie which I think it wants to be. Rent It.

www.kurtdahlke.com