Bully!
Annie Silverstein's "Bull" is one of a thousand buddy films, but like the other worthwhile ones, this one is made extremely well. It's almost too understated and emotionless, yet it had me wondering where it was going, which by itself, makes it good.
The setting is the outskirts of Houston, Texas. Kris (Amber Havard) is a 14-year-old white girl living under depressing conditions. This is established right away as we watch her cleaning up after the family dog, injecting her grandmother (Keeli Wheeler) with an insulin shot, and other unexciting tasks. Her mother is in prison and appears to belong there.
Kris has a totally flat affect 90-something per cent of the time. She doesn't portray depression. It's more like she is drifting through life. In a very few scenes, there's a short smile or a look of displeasure, but both quickly disappear. At school, she gets in fights and it's fair to say she's disinterested and not excelling.
Abe (Rob Morgan) is a middle-aged black man who lives alone and is a neighbor of Kris. He works at a 2nd-level rodeo show as one of the guys who tries to control and direct a bull after the bull has tossed the rider. It's a tough job and Abe often sustains injuries. He drinks and takes drugs to dull the pain and his entire life.
One night, Kris tells her friends that she knows a house where no one will be home so they can go there and party and the group does just that, also making a tremendous mess. Of course, it's Abe's house. That's how their lives intersect and what follows is not what you might expect.
I won't go into what happens after Kris and Abe finally come face-to-face. I can tell you that both actors give extremely restrained performances and that their characters don't unabashedly love each other nor hate each other. It doesn't necessarily sound like something you might want to see, but I'm glad I did.
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