“A Girl Like Her” (2015) A high school bullying drama which is a mix of found footage and documentary that plays it straight but doesn’t try to trick you into thinking it’s for real.

It is as earnest, over the top and self-important as any teenager you’ve ever met and the ending might not exactly ring true to life but what an uncomfortably nasty 82 minutes that was (and I mean that in the most positive of ways!)

We all know bullies and the abuse in this film is very familiar (almost, but not quite, cliched) but it’s cleverly presented in a way that you begin to realise that an apparently black and white situation is actually nothing but grey for all involved. The film does a really good job of not passing judgement (although it’s pretty clear who’s in the wrong) and brilliantly focuses on the causes and effects others contribute to the bullying, often unwittingly.

It might lay the sentiment on a bit too heavily but that’s easily offset by the (mostly) outstanding acting and one of those stupendous moments which you get so infrequently in both movies and real life - the bad guy actually realising they’re the bad guy.

There are a lot of very well thought out nuances throughout. For example: the swearing is muted in all but one scene and that single use of the F-word is so much more effective for it.

If you’ve been bullied or have an abusive person of some kind in your life I think this film will be of interest to you. If you’ve got kids you should watch it with them, it’s just a movie but, in my humble opinion, it’s as powerful a tool as any to let them know the subject of bullying is not only something that the rest of us are aware of but something for which there are answers (if not solutions).

Yeah, I’m raving about it a bit. Maybe you’ll just be bored but it grabbed my attention! I really hope this film gets shown in schools across the world.

10/10 (seriously)