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Poster art from amazon.com.
If you thought that Se7en was a brutal movie that still explored human drama intensely, then obviously you haven’t seen Boy’s Don’t Cry, 1999’s most brutal, emotional, and harrowing movie.
Hilary Swank puts in an Oscar-winning performance as Teena Brandon, who is a transvestite and enjoys spending her time more as Brandon Teena. For most of the movie, also, she actually looked like a boy. She goes to a rural Nebraska town to stay for a while, since she’s in trouble with the law. There she meets Lana (Chloë Sevigny), whose philosophy on life includes, “You don’t have to be sober to weigh spinach,” and falls in love. She, still as Brandon, falls into the “gang” that includes Lana, John (Peter Sarsgaard), and Tom (Brendan Sexton III). Then, when people start finding out that Brandon Teena may not be Brandon Teena, things get bad.
Strong language, brutal rape, and nudity is included in Boys Don’t Cry. It certainly is an exciting piece of art if you’re ready to be shocked. I felt a connection to Brandon. I didn’t feel like I was Brandon, but I could understand what she was going through. She didn’t really want to get involved with all of the drunkenness and dangerous activities everyone else was doing, but she had to do it anyway. She had the courage to be what she wanted to be, an important message that may be used in too many movies now, but especially holds strong in this one.
Hilary Swank puts in an exceptional performance, showing true emotion, and she makes this little indie pic known and brought it to Oscar status. Sevigny also was nominated for best Supporting Actress, but didn’t win, for some unknown reason. She was truly great, also. I don’t want to list everyone in the movie and how good they were, so I’ll just say that everyone was great.
If I had to complain about this movie, I have three. First, I thought, a lot of times, there wasn’t much character development and that the characters were muddled, since I didn’t know who some of them were at times, such as Kate. Secondly, for the first half of the film or so, the movie didn’t explore Brandon’s cross-dressing, which is the main point of the film. Third, the make-up on Brandon’s face was obvious at time, but if you get engrossed in the movie like I was, you won’t notice anything wrong.
Boys Don’t Cry is an emotional tour de force that you won’t forget for a long time.
Rated R for violence including an intense brutal rape scene, sexuality, language and drug use.
Review Date: April 6, 2003