Cinema surveillance images are loading at the bottom of the page

Boys don't cry

Threat advisory: Severe - Severe risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

From the middle of America emerged an extraordinary double life, a complicated love story and a crime that would shatter the heartland.

In Falls City, Nebraska, Brandon Teena (Hilary Swank) was a newcomer with a future who had the small rural community enchanted. Women adored him and almost everyone who met this charismatic stranger was drawn to his charming innocence. But, Falls City's hottest date and truest friend had one secret: he wasn't the person people thought he was.

Back home in Lincoln just 125 kilometres away, Brandon Teena was a different person caught up in a personal crisis that had haunted him his entire life.

Like many young people, he made costly mistakes and when he inadvertently trespassed between his new love Lana (Chloe Sevigny) and her reckless friend John (Peter Sarsgaard), the mystery unravelled into violence.

In a single, short life Brandon Teena was at once a dashing lover and a trapped outsider, both an impoverished nobody and a flamboyant dreamer, a daring thief and the tragic victim of an unjust crime.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film drama gender dysphoria relationship freak Nebraska

Persons of interest

Hilary Swank .... Teena Brandon/Brandon Teena
Chloë Sevigny .... Lana Tisdel
Peter Sarsgaard .... John Lotter
Brendan Sexton III .... Tom Nissen
Alicia Goranson .... Candace
Alison Folland .... Kate
Rob Campbell .... Brian
Matt McGrath .... Lonny
Cheyenne Rushing .... Nicole
Stephanie Sechrist .... April Lotter
Lisa Renee Wilson .... Pam
Jackson Kane .... Sam Phillips
Joseph Gibson .... Tom
Andy Bienan .... Screenwriter
Kimberly Peirce .... Screenwriter
Kimberly Peirce .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Boys don't cry official movie site
Awards and film festivals:

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS - Oscars) 1999: Best actress
Gijón International Film Festival 1999: Best actress
Hollywood Foreign Press Association (Golden Globes) 1999: Best actress
National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, USA 1999: Best début director

See also Breakfast on pluto, Different for girls, Hedwig and the angry inch, Transamerica
Studios and distributors:

20th Century Fox

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Rednecksville, Nebraska. That's bad enough when you're just plain gay, but when you have gender issues it's a damned nightmare.

Homophobia is not only alive and well in Nebraska, it's a festering sore that has spread its putrid pus all over the world. As you might have guessed, I am somewhat to the left of Atilla the Hun.

Boys don't cry is a tragedy as profound as Romeo and Juliet; that's a bold statement to make in a critique of a minor film that never achieved general release in Australia but I am a bold bloke. The story brings together two people who fulfil each other's life. Brandon and Lana are most definitely star crossed lovers: they are the only people who can see the stars from the hell holes that are their home towns. From all the redneck hicks who have been inbreeding for centuries these two are the only ones to see that life can be more than that to which they were born. Seeing them fall tentatively in love and finally share their dreams of places beyond the local highway is way cool. Seeing their dreams shattered by an ignorant bastard is... well, life.

Hilary is Brandon to a T. You can see every hesitation, every fear, every joy writ plain on her face. Her appearance is disturbingly indefinite. At times you will swear that she's a guy, at others you can't believe that no-one has missed the soft cheeks, the long lashes, the wide hips. It's the way she pulls off both her own femininity and her character's desire to be masculine that rivets you to the screen. It is no surprise and entirely deserved that Hilary won the Oscar for Best Actress.

For such a dramatic story Kimberly's direction is disturbingly unromantic. Everyone on the screen is white trash, without the redeeming qualities of violence (Kalifornia), sport (Varsity blues), friendship (End of innocence) or humour (Erin Brokovich). These are unembellished characters with no understanding of or aspiration toward the finer things in life. Were this film set in Australia they would be Little Johnny Howard's™ Little Aussie Battlers™ , except that no-one can match the USA for lack of culture or style.

At 2 hours, Boys don't cry is probably 12 minutes too long. There's one too many scenes establishing Brandon's relationship with Lana and her friends. It's obvious that John is Brandon's biggest danger and greatest attraction. John is everything Brandon desires to be: strong, wild, aggressive and, most of all, masculine. If ever there was an on-screen example of testosterone poisoning, this is it.

If you are into powerful drama, if you are gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender or friends with someone who is, if your family and friends are giving you stick about being gay, if you just like damned good films: watch this film. It is worth every second.