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October 2000

Boys Don't Cry
Rated: R

CAST: Hilary Swank, Chloë Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan Sexton III, Alison Folland, Jeanetta Arnette

DIRECTOR: Kimberly Peirce

SYNOPSIS:

Moving to a small town an hour or two away from Lincoln, she - now he - falls in with a crowd of redneck pool players and their girls, and is soon dating Lana (Chloë Sevigny), a girl about her age. They live in a violent world of drinking and drugging macho bullies, who at first accept Brandon and then eventually discover the secret.

REVIEW:

Boys Don't Cry struck me so powerfully on first viewing that it wasn't until hours later that I realized how really good it is. The immediate emotional impact forced aside thoughts of direction, writing and performance, and I was simply there, inside the story of a girl named Teena Brandon who decided to become a boy named Brandon Teena, fell in love, and was murdered.

This true story from 1993 has already inspired a documentary and TV coverage ranging from news magazines to Jerry Springer. You might guess that the story of a 21-year-old Nebraskan can't support all that attention, but you'd be wrong. Like Romeo and Juliet, this tragedy of deception and love can support any number of interpretations, and seems destined to become part of our folklore, a death that holds up a mirror to society.

The film was directed by Kimberly Peirce, who co-wrote it with Andy Bienen. They avoid all the pitfalls of symbolism and polemics and simply allow their story to emerge from these lives. Swank achieves a convincing compromise between female and male, and embodies Brandon's uncomplicated desires with a kind of enthusiastic purity. This is not a person who recites clichés about "a man trapped in a woman's body" but a good-looking kid who wants to have a good time, to party and fall in love. When Brandon whispers to a cop, late in the film, about a "sexual identity crisis," you sense these are words that have been heard but not understood.

Boys Don't Cry is a compelling and absorbing film for general audiences, the kind of movie like Midnight Cowboy, Philadelphia or The Crying Game that can reach and touch anyone. It's not sociological, it's not ideological, it's simply the sad and beautiful story of two star-crossed lovers; Romeo and Juliet in a trailer park. Its story is so touching and compelling, so convincingly and simply told, that it would absorb any audience given the chance to see it.

LAST WORD:

Boys Don't Cry is one of the best films of the year.

CREDITS:
Roger Ebert - Chicago Sun-Times