Boys Don't Cry

This is a very powerful, and in many ways very disturbing, film that ultimately lingers with me not for its sensational subject matter but for its tragic and rewarding love story. Here we have two troubled strangers, both horribly at odds with their surroundings, finding each other, falling in love despite the many factors against them, and finally becoming the victims of the perception of their love. Like many others, I was tremendously impressed by the performance of Hilary Swank but I think the glue that holds the film together and gives it amazing hope and humanity is Chloe Sevigny. She takes a role that could have easily fallen apart in a lesser actress's hands and gives it complexity and depth that goes well beyond the script. To watch her is a breathtaking journey. Watch the way she uses her face in this movie – this is an actress of remarkable expressiveness and skill! Overall, it is a very fine film that merits any serious moviegoer's rapt attention.

The mark of a great film is that it conveys real feeling to an audience without having to explain everything by the numbers. This film achieves that, obviously. It has deeply moved anyone with even half a heart. Unfortunately, the subject matter of this film is SO unfamiliar to most people, that many have no understanding of what it was about. That's not their fault, nor Ms. Peirce's since had she spelled it all out to us, what we would have seen was a competent TV-type movie of the week, instead of a powerhouse of a film that touches us to the depths of our souls. But I think after reading so many of the reviews here at IMDB, some important facts should be understood.

Brandon was not a "male impersonator" or a lesbian, or crazy. He was a pre-operative female-to-male transsexual. That is, he was a male before the necessary physical transition that a transsexual goes through (ie. hormones and surgery) before he can be "officially" be declared a man. He was not a liar. He was a walking contradiction. He was as much a man as he would have been had he had the chance to undergo the biological and surgical transition. Because his body had not caught up with his mind, it's understandable that many people are confused about this. But hopefully, this fact will help audiences understand the confusion that Brandon felt. He was raised to believe, like all of us are, that what decides a person's gender is their anatomy, so the fact that his body was a lie to him all his life made it nearly impossible to live with the contradiction of what he organically knew to be the truth in his mind. Once he finally expressed his true self to the world by donning the physical appearance of 'Brandon', he could no longer go back to being 'Teena'. The cat was out of the bag. Imagine yourself as a man who knows that in order to not live a "lie" he must be called "Teena" and dress as a female every day of his life in order to join the workforce or socialize with other people. Once he'd fully established himself as the man he was, he could not subject himself to 'female drag', for what would have been numerous years for him (sex reassignment surgery costs tens of thousands of dollars and takes one to three years, once the process is started).

A reviewer here wrote "why Brandon chose to live there (Nebraska) with her lifestyle is beyond me." I'd like to kindly explain to this viewer and others who share the same sentiment that the answer to that puzzler is that Brandon was not a "her" and his reality was not a "lifestyle". Many people 'disagree' with this very fact. Thus, it is understandable that had Brandon gone to San Francisco, Paris, or Timbuktu, he would have confronted the same confusion and frustration, and unfortunately hostility and violence, no matter where he went. There are simply millions of people who do not understand transsexualism, thus it is common that their confusion leads to simply believing that it is the transsexual who is confused. I am not blaming anyone for these sentiments. It's only in recent years (mostly thanks to the internet) that there has been detailed study of female-to-male transsexualism. There are millions of female-to-male transsexuals throughout the world, and sadly most of them have suffered much of the pain that Brandon suffered until they became aware that they were not alone. Had the internet been available to Brandon during his lifetime, he would have had an opportunity to see that he was not alone, and that there were others like him who could lend him their support and guidance.

I'm most grateful to Ms. Peirce for making such a brave and deeply touching film, and I hope that viewers will, whether they understand Brandon or not, find an even deeper layer of tolerance for people who are quite different from themselves.

After finally getting the chance to see this film, I have to say it was worth the wait. Hillary Swank's performance was outstanding, she certainly deserves the golden globe she's already won and the oscar, she's sure to be nominated for. Brandon Teena was real, no questions. The director, Kimberly Pierce deserves much credit for telling the story subtlety, no black and white, he's wrong, she's right. I came away from this movie realizing the courage you have to possess to be different, the dangers from it are real and we must admire those brave enough among us to be.

I was stunned by the simplicity and power of this fine film. It tells the true and tragic story of Teena Brandon/Brandon Teena, a woman living as a man in a small town in Nebraska. No matter what your personal opinions may be, this film does not preach. It tells the story in a matter-of-fact, honest and gritty way, but leaves you shaking your head in shock that such anger and hatred exists in these modern times, for someone who is "different" merely because of their sexual preference.

Relative newcomer Hilary Swank gives a heartfelt and courageous performance as Brandon. I say courageous not only because of the subject matter, but also because she is able to strip away her youthful, movie star glamour and become the character she plays. She is entirely convincing. Also, she shows a tremendous amount of guts for being able to get through the gut-wrenchingly violent rape scene. This was a brave choice, and a wise one.

Chloe Sevigny plays Lana, the girl Brandon loves. She is the only person who truly understands Brandon. Brandon finds himself in a world of drunken trailer trash and convicted felons. No one is free from guilt, but there is always the unspoken sin of being different. Hilary Swank and Chloe Sevigny play their tastefully erotic love scenes without seeming self-conscious. So many actors of their generation might be afraid to tackle these types of roles, but they do their jobs with aplomb.

The film was another that haunted me the day after seeing it. Kimberly Peirce manages to make a simple film about a very difficult subject, and she doesn't resort to Hollywood gloss or preachiness. It is a risky film, very difficult to watch in places, with several very violent and disturbing scenes. It is a story that needs to be told, and with the two Oscar-nominated performances from Ms. Swank and Ms. Sevigny, it succeeds.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon.)

This movie really made me think about sexual differences and what it means to have a sex change or to want one, or to be trapped in a gender you don't want. It was very effective to have us see Hilary Swank (who plays Brandon Teena/Teena Brandon) with short hair and male facial expressions and gestures without giving us a glimpse of her as Teena. (Actually we did get a brief glimpse in a photo.) Swank looks like a boy, acts like a boy, in fact works hard to be a boy; indeed that is (sadly) part of what this movie is about, what it means to be a boy in middle America as opposed to being a girl. And then when we have the scene with the tampons and the breast wrapping and we see her legs, the effect is startling, an effect possibly lost on those who knew that the person playing Brandon was a woman. It was when I saw her legs and could tell at a glance that she was a woman with a woman's legs that I realized just how subtle, but unmistakable are the anatomical sexual differences, and how convincing Swank's portrayal was.

I was reminded as I watched this of being a young person, of being a teenager and going through all the rituals and rites, unspoken, unplanned, without social sanction, that we all go through to prove our identity, because that is what Brandon was so eager to do, to prove his identity as a boy. I thought, ah such an advantage he has with the girls because he knows what they like and what they want. He can be smooth, and how pretty he looks. It was strange. I actually knew some guys in my youth who had such talent, and the girls did love them.

The direction by Kimberly Peirce is nicely paced and the forebodings of horror to come are sprinkled lightly throughout so that we don't really think about the resolution perhaps until the campfire scene in which John Lotter shows his self-inflicted scars and tosses the knife to Brandon. Then we know for sure, something bad is going to happen.

Hilary Swank is very convincing. Her performance is stunning, and she deserved the Academy Award she won for Best Actress. She is the type of tomboy/girl so beloved of the French cinema, tomboyish, but obvious a girl like, for example, Zouzou as seen in Chloe in the Afternoon (1972) or Élodie Bouchez in the The Dreamlife of Angels (1998), or many others. Indeed, one is even reminded of Juliette Binoche, who of course can play anything, or going way back, Leslie Caron in Gigi (1958). Chloe Signvey, who plays Lana Tisdel, the girl Brandon loves, whom I first saw in Palmetto (1998), where she stole a scene or two from Woody Allen and Elisabeth Shue, really comes off ironically as butch to Swank, yet manages a sexy, blue collar girl next door femininity. She also does a great job. Peter Sarsgaard is perfect as John Lotter, trailer trash car thief and homophobic redneck degenerate.

Very disturbing is the ending. If you know the story, you know the ending. Just how true this was to the real life story it is based on is really irrelevant. I knew nothing about the story, but I know that film makers always take license to tell it the way they think it will play best, and so it's best to just experience the film as the film, independent of the real story, which, like all real stories, can never be totally told.

Obviously this is not for the kiddies and comes as close to an "X" rating as any "R" movie you'll ever see. It will make most viewers uncomfortable, but it is the kind of story that needs to be told.