When Kids Kill: Looking at Bully and Better Luck Tomorrow

The 2000s was a prime decade for teen films, only rivaled by the 1980s. With the major successes of films like Mean Girls and Juno, the genre exploded onto the big screens. 

While there are quite a few exceptions, most teen films associated with the 2000s are largely light and comedic. Two films stand out from the wave of the cheerful and cheesy teen flicks of the decade. Both are dark in tone, feature bored teens turning to crime, and end with a murder based on real-life events. These two movies are 2001’s Bully and 2003’s Better Luck Tomorrow. 

Directed by Larry Clark, creator of the controversial 1995 teen film Kids, Bully is based on the murder of Bobby Kent. Bobby was a teenager from Weston, Florida, who was killed by his friend, Marty Puccio. Six other teens were involved in his murder, including Marty’s girlfriend, Lisa Connelly. All six were eventually arrested and served jail time, with three currently still in prison. 

Better Luck Tomorrow, directed by future Fast and Furious director Justin Lin, loosely incorporates the true story of the murder of Stuart Tay. Tay, an Asian-American teen from Orange, California, was killed by a group of five teens. The culprits were also Asian-American, hence why the film contains a mainly Asian-American cast, a rarity in Hollywood. Both films focus on murders committed by young perpetrators, however, their stories showcase this issue in slightly different ways. 

Threats to masculinity play a major role as motivation for the protagonists’ crimes in both films. In Bully, Marty is emasculated by Bobby. Marty endures physical and psychological abuse from Bobby and is a frequent target of his violent behavior. The other target is Lisa; Bobby rapes her after knocking out Marty. Bobby even forces Marty to attend gay bars, where he makes Marty strip and dance for money, recording him while doing so. Marty is severely traumatized by this abuse but is powerless to stop it. Bobby’s charisma prevents the barely-seen authority figures from noticing his violent nature. This portrayal of a violent and psychologically damaging relationship is unusually shown through two male best friends, but still sends the same message of the dangers of unchecked toxic masculinity. 

In Better Luck Tomorrow, threats to masculinity are delivered in a more subtle way, adapted to the pressure of high academic standards in high schools and the model minority myth. Protagonist Ben Manibag is a junior in high school already working towards Ivy League aspirations. He is exceptionally well-rounded but feels as he does not compare to his peers, specifically senior Daric Loo, class valedictorian and president of numerous clubs. These feelings of inferiority are common in even the most overachieving students due to the completely unrealistic expectations of elite schools. The model minority myth intensifies this, as Asian-American teens are unfairly expected to be more skilled and intelligent than their peers. This creates a competition between Ben and any other ambitious, male Asian-American students. 

In Bully, Lisa convinces Marty to kill Bobby after she witnesses more of Bobby’s abuse. They concoct a plan, teaming up with various friends. The other teens live an aimless, hedonistic lifestyle without any jobs, education, or even some semblance of an authority figure. As the plan develops, the others involved are mainly shown either high or asleep. They have no personal ties to Bobby; it is apparent that they are just in it for the thrill, not understanding the severity of their plans and their actions. 

The teens in Better Luck Tomorrow are less naive. Unlike Bully, their descent into crime does not start with a murder. Instead, Ben, Daric, Virgil (Ben’s best friend), and Han (Virgil’s cousin, and yes, the same Han from Fast and Furious) begin with petty schemes like creating cheat sheets and stealing computer equipment. They also experience the thrill of breaking the law and doing something that does not involve academics. They use their academic standing and the model minority myth to their advantage. They fully understand that as long as they maintain high grades and seem like perfect Asian students, they are allowed to do whatever they want under the guise of studying. 

The motivation for committing a crime in Bully is boredom, with the exception of Marty and Lisa. Boredom is also a factor for the teens of Better Luck Tomorrow, but masculinity is still a motive for the other characters as well as Ben. Virgil is usually the brunt of violence, often received from Han. This seems to shape Virgil’s perspective on what it means to be a man. Virgil exhibits wild and violent behavior in several situations, such as when he pulls out a gun while having sex with a prostitute. Another example is when a white student at a party mocks the group with anti-Asian sentiment. After Daric threatens the white student with a gun, Virgil gleefully engages in the fight. Afterward, a terrified Virgil fights back tears in the car ride, making it clear that Virgil only conditions himself to behave this way because of society’s expectations for manhood. 

As Better Luck Tomorrow becomes intense, so does Bully. After one unsuccessful attempt to kill Bobby, the group creates another plan, even recruiting a supposed gang member to be the hitman. When the night finally comes where they finally kill Bobby, the already poorly-made plan is executed terribly. Various members of the group take turns stabbing Bobby, with Marty gruesomely slitting Marty’s throat as revenge for Marty’s actions. It is an extremely disturbing moment that leaves everyone on edge. However, the distress somehow seems to go away for everyone except two of the characters. After the knife is accidentally left at the scene, the ‘hitman’ yells at the teenagers, attempting to deliver a reality check that the group just killed someone. 

But that ends up being completely unsuccessful, with Lisa openly discussing the murder with people not involved in the murder. While Bobby was an extremely cruel individual, they show virtually no remorse or guilt for the fact that they murdered someone. They did not even know they could get in trouble for knowing about the crime and not reporting it, and aiding and abetting the murder. Marty even explicitly tells Lisa that she will face no consequences for her role in the death. A member of the group, Ali Willis, reports the murder out of distress and is shocked when she is arrested in connection with the murder. The rest of the group are also arrested shortly afterward. 

The group is last shown in a courtroom, awaiting the start of their trial. They quickly start bickering at each other, insulting whoever took a guilty plea deal and arguing over who killed Bobby. Even months after the murder, they still show no signs of critical thought on what they have done or take any responsibility. Their family members look at them in horror while they argue. 

The murder in Better Luck Tomorrow is not as simple in circumstance as the one in Bully. Ben develops a crush on his lab partner, Stephanie Vandergosh. Stephanie is dating prep school student Steve Choe. Steve is another person that creates feelings of inferiority in Ben, as he is dating the girl Ben likes and seems to have it all in terms of prestige, academics, and wealth. Steve recruits the four to stage a robbery in his parents’ house in order to give his parents a ‘wake-up call.’ However, the group secretly plans to give Steve a wake-up call of their own by tying and beating him up to scare him.

But the plan unsurprisingly goes awry when Steve gets a hold of Virgil’s gun. Ben unexpectedly delivers a blow to Steve’s head with a baseball bat, bringing down the person who made him feel worthless. Unlike the messy and frantic unfolding of events in Bully, this scene drastically changes into an almost methodical murder, as Daric forces Virgil to hold Steve up so he can suffocate Steve to death. 

Better Luck Tomorrow does not end with a certain fate for its characters like Bully does. Ben reflects on the uncertainty of his future, in relation to both Steve’s death and general uncertainty of adulthood and the expectations surrounding college and employment that come with it. He does not seem to tackle a great amount of guilt, but Virgil does. Virgil is torment by what they have done, driving him to attempt suicide and it is implied at the end that he eventually succumbs to his injuries. Daric shows no emotions towards Steve’s death or Virgil’s suicide whatsoever, he cares more about the possibility of someone finding out what he has done. 

At a glance, these two movies are gritty dramas that show kids committing crimes. Beyond the surface level, both films include the impact of societal concepts like the pressures of masculinity on people who are going through a remarkably chaotic and confusing time in their lives. Better Luck Tomorrow takes it a step further by showing the reality of racial stereotypes and their negative effects through its Asian-American cast. This is a particularly timely issue amidst the wave of anti-Asian hate crimes that have occurred throughout the year. 

Many teen movies created during the 2000s did not end up being acclaimed classics or huge blockbusters. Bully and Better Luck Tomorrow may not be as remembered as other 2000s teen films, but their transgressive approach to the genre should absolutely garner more praise in retrospect.