Boys Don't Cry

Rating:
Summary: I've seen much better
Review: Although the movie had excellent performances, I was left with a disturbing and depressing feeling. I wanted to kill the killers!

I'd prefer a more entertaining movie.

Rating:
Summary: The most scary( more scary than sixth sense)! !
Review: This is the most scary and frustrating movie I have ever seen. I had to FF my vdotape beause I was so scared. I think the leading character playing Brandon/Teena deserves the best actress. I truly think her character fits the best. The rest of them is very excellent. They all should deserve some winning awards. But, I would feel better if I knew the past and the family backgrounds of Brandon because that would make me have better connections with the movie. I also don't think the girlfriend did not know that Brandon was a woman. But, she probably did not reject it. Think about it like if you were her, and you were kissing him, would you know at all?

Rating:
Summary: Awful
Review: This movie was absolutely horrible. It is a tragedy what happened, I'm not saying that it wasn't. But the actual movie itself showed nothing but the depressing life these trailer park people live (where they have nothing to do but race cars and get drunk). It was dark and murky. The characters were lewd, none of them worked or did anything but drink. I was very dissapointed.

Rating:
Summary: Truth Hurts
Review: Boys Don't Cry certainly deserves praise for its many fine performances - although most of the actors did not have much to work with. Only Brandon and Lana are written with depth, and even they could have been written with more depth. But Swank and Sevigny did Oscar-worthy work with what they were given. Swank in particular deserves kudos for getting through some of the film's more brutal moments.

After seeing the movie, however, questions remain. More about Brandon's background would have been particularly interesting and helpful - perhaps a scene of seeking help earlier in life.

That said, the story of the last few days of Brandon's life is one that should be told. And here it is told well. The gritty style of filming matches the bleakness of all its protagonists' lives. The brutality of Brandon's rape, its aftermath, and the subsequent murders are as horrifying as anything I have seen on film. Despite the horror of the murder, Brandon is not quite depicted as a martyr. (S)He does make serious mistakes throughout the movie, and at times it is difficult to feel sympathy for Brandon even if it is clear that this is a person with few choices that could really lead to any permanent sort of happiness. That is the source of my sympathy for Brandon.

Rating:
Summary: Brutality and sadness and the price of being different
Review: This very powerful movie is based on the true story of Teena Brandon,a troubled young person who saw herself as a boy. At the age of 21,she cut her hair, does what she can to change her identity and movesfrom Lincoln Nebraska to another small town 70 miles away.

It'sBrandon, not Teena, who the audience sees, as he struggles with hisidentity in an area of the country where alcohol is the liquid ofchoice, dead-end factory jobs are the rule, and a violent machismosub-culture dominates the landscape.

It is here that Brandon fallsin love, finds happiness for a very short while, and is then raped andmurdered.

Directed by Kimberly Peirce, Brandon is brilliantly playedby Hilary Swank. It is obviously an extremely difficult and demandingrole and she has been nominated for an academy award, along with theChloe Sevigny who plays the young lady who falls in love withBrandon.

This is the kind of film that is brutal in its intensity,not just in the scenes of violence, but also in the depiction ofrelationships between the characters and the stark and sad world theylive in. It is also an example of filmmaking at its best, from thecasting to the close-ups of the subtleties of young love. Inaddition, it makes a social statement as to the price that TeenaBrandon had to pay for being different.

Excellent. And a movie Iwill long remember.

Rating:
Summary: Swank was a hit
Review: This movie was very good and Swank portrayed Brandon/Teena wonderfully. I believe that those that didn't like it probably really didn't "get it", and should just stick to Disney movies that are easily read. The acting and directing in this movie was by far Oscar worthy. Check it out for yourself and see what I mean.

Rating:
Summary: BE YOURSELF
Review: This movie was so compelling and shocking. To see Brandon Teena's life made me think a lot about transgender people and what they have to go through, especially in conservative areas where same-gender relationships are condemned. His(Her) life to not be afraid of what he himself to be gave me a lot of courage ... Hilary Swank$B!G(Bs performance of Brandon was more than just a performance, it was almost as if she were him. Chloe Sevigny was also wonderful as Lana, Brandon$B!G(Bs girlfriend who loves him through all the way, even after knowing the truth about him. There were two main points which made this movie work so well. One, the incredible cast. Other than the two mentioned, the rest also gave an equally $B!H(Breal$B!I(B performance ( especially Peter Sarsgaard, I might add). Not one of them was without a part in this movie, they were all essential. Two, the director, Kimberly Peirce and how she decided to tell this story. Without overly dramatizing it, she tells the story straight and simple, which makes it even more convicing that the story actually happened and leading us to think of this very, VERY brave person, Brandon Teena.

$B!H(BBoys Don$B!G(Bt Cry$B!I(B is one of the most unique movies I$B!G(Bve ever seen. It$B!G(Bs vivid but simple, sad but also encouraging. As Hilary Swank said at the receptance speech at the Oscars, I truly hope that there will come a day when we each celebrate who we are not by appearance, but by content of character.

Rating:
Summary: Good Film Very Intense
Review: Hilary Swank does a Fantastic Job here.this Film started kinda slow for me but it picks around the Middle&it never lets up.it keeps your full attention on this Tragedy.this film shows what Pure Hate can Lead to.this film was well written&Directed.it stayed Focused without being overly Done.it made it's point with a Very Sad Ending.

Rating:
Summary: serious, moving drama
Review: The most impressive aspect of `Boys Don't Cry' is that it refuses to shy away from the sordid details of much of its protagonist's life, yet manages to convert her (or him if you prefer) into a sympathetic and comprehensible figure. In our most honest moments, we can all acknowledge aspects of our own lives and personalities that we don't understand, that we would love to change and that often make us feel alienated from the `norm' of society at large. In the case of Teena Brandon - a young man `trapped' in a woman's body - the anomaly happens to be a more pronounced and certainly less socially acceptable one than most of us are forced to endure in our lives. And she paid the ultimate price society demands from those it fears and does not understand: she was murdered in Nebraska in 1993, simply for being `different.'

The film builds a convincing case for compassionate understanding without converting Brandon into a saint-like figure. Not only do we witness the petty criminality of her life, but we see her propensity for duplicity and deception, a personality trait that actually leads in part to many of the troubles she encounters, playing a crucial role to a large extent even in her death itself. Yet, given society's out-of-hand rejection of transgendered people, what real options but a life of dishonesty is Brandon really given? Similarly, Lana, the young woman with whom Brandon falls in love and the one person who has ever accepted Brandon unconditionally for what she is, suffers from a number of her own demons.

Credit writer/director Kimberly Pierce and co-writer Andy Bienen for not taking the easy commercial path of reducing the moral complexities of the personalities involved to a black-and-white world where good and evil are displayed in neatly arranged patterns for our easy consumption. There are many times in this film when literally none of the people we are involved with are the slightest bit appealing. The filmmakers, in their faith in our maturity, ask us to go along on a pretty harrowing journey at times, but it is one that leads us to a very rewarding destination. The scenes in which Brandon's companions expose her secret is riveting and terrifying in its dramatic intensity and human sadness. The utter humiliation Brandon is forced to endure at the hands of the hooligans who are tormenting her broadens to become a symbolic representation of every person who has suffered such an injustice at the hands of unreasoning ignorance for whatever reason. It is a chilling reminder of the danger of the mob mentality unrestrained by empathy and enlightenment.

Like so many of the best off-Hollywood independent productions, `Boys Don't Cry' finds its truth in two crucial elements: the canny depiction of the bleak sterility and stifling provincialism of its Midwest setting and the uniformly first-rate performances by a largely unknown set of actors.

Hilary Swank, in her Oscar-winning turn as Brandon, and Chloe Sevigny as Lana achieve a naturalism in their portrayals that neutralizes any theatricality that might have robbed the film of its indispensable quality of immediacy and believability. They convert what might, in less capable hands, have become little more than a sensationalized freak show into a powerful and understandable drama about real, thoroughly recognizable human beings. For that alone, `Boys Don't Cry' becomes a cinematic experience impossible to forget.

Rating:
Summary: Very Well Acted
Review: Hilary Swank is so believable in this movie, I kept forgetting she is really a woman. She gave an outstanding and heartbreaking performance. The director of this film really captured the ugliness of this horrible scenario that occurred in Nebraska in late 1993. In a way this movie was hard for me to watch, but it really touched me. There are two reasons I did not rate this a five star film..first, is that Philip DeVine, one of the of the actual victims of the crime, was cut entirely out of the film and never mentioned. Second, I didn't like that Lana Tisdel (portrayed by Chloe Sevigny in the film) was seen present at the murders, when in truth she was not present. Overall, a very good movie with five star performances.