This explosively powerful film is easily the best film debut since "12 Angry Men" (1957), and it also the best movie of 1999, hands down. The story of
Brandon Teena, nee Teena Brandon, a Nebraska woman who set out to fulfill
her dream of living as a man, must have been nearly impossible to tell. After her identity was found out by her "friends" shortly after her twenty-first birthday, they raped and killed her, as well as the friends she was staying with. This savage hate crime was smeared all over the tabloids and looked as if it were doomed to become a diluted TV-movie of the week.
Thank God for director/co-writer Kimberly Peirce. She miraculously strips away all the sensationalism to bring Falls City, NE and its residents to life so vividly that its nearly surreal. This is not a movie with witty one-liners and a chunky screenplay filled with big ideas, but this is one of those rare films that celebrates the human spirit with none of the sentimentality of swill like "Life Is Beautiful" or "A Beautiful Mind". Even better, Peirce transcends matters of
gender identity and captures the essence of Brandon's soul (incarnated by
Hilary Swank in an Oscar-winning tour de force), yearning to be its true self. What is beautiful about the relationship that Brandon found with Lana Tisdel
(the equally mesmerizing Chloe Sevigny) is that Lana is far more intelligent and spiritually evolved than her family and friends. She recognizes that Teena is both male and female; not "a man trapped in a woman's body", but a person
who has risen above the limitations she was born with. Although the last half- hour of the film, which unflinchingly depicts Brandon's rape and murder is nearly unwatchable, Peirce and co-writer Andy Bienen still manage to end on a
hopeful note. They depict with stunning clarity the meeting and lovemaking of not just bodies, but hearts and minds. Teena Brandon was too beautiful a spirit to survive amidst the cruelty in America's heartland, but in Lana Tisdel she
found someone she could soar with, however briefly. Brandon Teena had the
courage to be himself, and Lana Tisdel has the courage to be herself. God bless them both, and God bless the cast and crew of "Boys Don't Cry".
Brandon Teena, nee Teena Brandon, a Nebraska woman who set out to fulfill
her dream of living as a man, must have been nearly impossible to tell. After her identity was found out by her "friends" shortly after her twenty-first birthday, they raped and killed her, as well as the friends she was staying with. This savage hate crime was smeared all over the tabloids and looked as if it were doomed to become a diluted TV-movie of the week.
Thank God for director/co-writer Kimberly Peirce. She miraculously strips away all the sensationalism to bring Falls City, NE and its residents to life so vividly that its nearly surreal. This is not a movie with witty one-liners and a chunky screenplay filled with big ideas, but this is one of those rare films that celebrates the human spirit with none of the sentimentality of swill like "Life Is Beautiful" or "A Beautiful Mind". Even better, Peirce transcends matters of
gender identity and captures the essence of Brandon's soul (incarnated by
Hilary Swank in an Oscar-winning tour de force), yearning to be its true self. What is beautiful about the relationship that Brandon found with Lana Tisdel
(the equally mesmerizing Chloe Sevigny) is that Lana is far more intelligent and spiritually evolved than her family and friends. She recognizes that Teena is both male and female; not "a man trapped in a woman's body", but a person
who has risen above the limitations she was born with. Although the last half- hour of the film, which unflinchingly depicts Brandon's rape and murder is nearly unwatchable, Peirce and co-writer Andy Bienen still manage to end on a
hopeful note. They depict with stunning clarity the meeting and lovemaking of not just bodies, but hearts and minds. Teena Brandon was too beautiful a spirit to survive amidst the cruelty in America's heartland, but in Lana Tisdel she
found someone she could soar with, however briefly. Brandon Teena had the
courage to be himself, and Lana Tisdel has the courage to be herself. God bless them both, and God bless the cast and crew of "Boys Don't Cry".