Author: Mariam Abbas
Date: 2 May 2020
Warning: this review digs deep into bullying, cyberbullying, and the mention of suicide. It also contains spoilers. We warn our readers.
I think we can all agree that technology can be harmful, and is a source to bully others without getting caught. The movie "Cyberbully" really gave me an understanding of just how much a person gets affected by cyberbullying.
The movie starts with a girl named Taylor, who is played by Emily Osment. It is Taylors birthday. She texts her friend online. Her mom can see what the girls are chatting about, but it looks like she is having trouble with her daughter's friend. Taylor's parents divorced each other in the last few months, and she lives with her mom. On her birthday, she gets a birthday present from her mom, which is her laptop. Taylor instantly acquires an account on a website called Cliquester - a website that everyone in her school uses. During this time, Taylor becomes friends with a guy at her school named Scott, who she also has a crush on. The girl that Taylor has trouble with seems to insult her whenever possible. Being on this website changes Taylor's usual routine - for example, she used to hang out with her friends a lot. But after the website appears in our main character's life, it becomes a higher priority.
One day, she finds out that someone, who is later revealed as her brother and his friend, hacks into her Cliquester and posts an inappropriate post. Promptly, this leads to the whole school seeing the blogpost and saying wrong things about it. This unfortunate event gets Taylor upset and drives her to tears. After her mother finds out what is happening, she takes Taylor's laptop away three days, which gets Taylor mad at her. The girl assumes her mother doesn't trust her. The look on Taylor's mom's face after her daughter says everything she needs to say shows the stress of being a single mother.
Meanwhile, the girl that Taylor has troubles with is continuously laughing at her and her friends. That doesn't matter to Taylor at the moment, because Scott asked her to the Spring Fling! When she gets her laptop back, her friends inform her of some bad news - a guy from another school claimed that she had slept with him. The judgemental comments from her school start to grow, especially from her school bully, and the tears begin to come back again.
Fast forward in the movie, her friends have decided to leave her. Taylor had too many problems, and her obsession with Cliquester was out of control! After that, having nobody left, Taylor decides that she's had enough, and there's no point in living anymore. After school, the poor girl goes home and post a suicide video on her Cliquester page. If it weren't for her mom and her best friend who stopped her in time, Taylor would have unfortunately killed herself. Afterward, her mother makes her go to therapy with other kids to help with her mental depression, and she hears about the story of others with cyberbullying, and how to overcome it.
Eventually, Taylor and her mom go to a journalist. The teenager tells her story to him, and the word gets out there. Because of Taylor, the government even decides to create laws regarding cyberbullying! Taylor was able to put her bully in her place, and she got rid of Cliquester.
I have to say I enjoyed this movie. It showed the impact of bullying on a person, and what betrayal and abandonment can do to them. This movie does show that our words hurt people, even if we don't realize it. When I was watching this movie, I found myself connecting with Taylor's character development. I was bullied before, to the point that I truly believed that I had no one to be there and comfort me. I got depressed and got emotional more than once, so this made me connect to the movie even more.
If you want to see a movie about cyberbullying and how to overcome it, the movie "Cyberbully" is for you.
Josie Rourke
Roman Polanski
Michael Gracey
John Hughes
Dan Scanlon
Stanley Kubrick