Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Sorry, but this review is going to be a little haphazard. It also might contain a couple of spoilers! Its been a while since I've seen this movie. Today is December 4, 2017, I just watched the two hour documentary on YouTube from 1998. I am crying as I write this as it brings back memories of seeing the film in 1999. I feel such a connection to Brandon Teena, I am gay as well, except I was born a boy...when he was not...but he should have been.The Police officers involved needed to be punished and tried as well. The officer who interviewed Brandon should be in jail for murder for not arresting John and Tom for raping Brandon. And for the way he conducted the interview. If you haven't seen the real interview, it will probably blow your mind in disgust. There are a few positive things that came out of this tragedy. It brought much needed attention to gay rights, gay bashing, and transgender rights.I just read a couple of other reviews on here. I can see things haven't really changed that much from 1993 when this story took place. Sad. May God have mercy on your souls for such hate.If you haven't seen the movie, stop what you are doing and go watch it. It is a MUST SEE for any decent human being. You will NEVER BE FORGOTTEN BRANDON TEENA, your legacy will live on forever. Rest in peace friend.

This movie directed by Kimberly Peirce, dramatizes the tragic events that took place in December 1993 in Lincoln, Nebraska and made news headlines around the nation. This film follows 21-year old girl named Teena Brandon (played by Hilary Swank) who lives with her cousin Lonny (played by Matt McGrath) in Lincoln, Nebraska. Sporting a short hairstyle, platted shirt, jeans, and some boots, Teena adopts a male identity and goes under the 'Brandon Teena'. He begins living his life as a boy and travels to a small of Falls City, Nebraska where he attempts to true love and falls in love with beautiful girl named Lana Tisdel (played by Chloe Sevigny). Making an effort to keep his true gender a secret, Brandon ventures his nights through drinking, sex, and street racing with Lana and her friends Candice (played by Alicia Goranson), John Lotter (played by Peter Sarsgard), and Tom Nissen (played by Brenden Sexton). However, when everyone soon discovers he is hiding his true gender, his life makes a turn for the worse and his relationship with Lana is deeply put to the test. The title of the film is taken from 'Boys Don't Cry" by the rock band The Cure.This film tackles on some heavy subject matter about transgender and the story is very thought-provoking enough for viewers raise questions dealing with the subject matter, especially since this is based on events that happened in real life. Director Kimberly Peirce and the writers with the story as well as the characters very genuine and maturely, and I think it pays a good tribute to the real-life story of Teena Brandon. The characters are beautifully written, the main character Brandon Teena (or Teena Brandon) in particular, and the story really comes to life by an amazing, if not excellent script. Hilary Swank's performance is nothing short of fantastic, she really brings such light to her role and viewers can tell that she is really committed to the role. The fact that she won an Oscar for her performance is no surprise. The rest of cast did quite a credible job as well. Then the story moves pretty good throughout its the film's run and manages to stay intriguing for the most time. The first half of the film is very light-hearted and soft-spoken, then the second half gets quite powerful and upsetting in tone. As the themes of the film are heavy, there are some scenes that get quite poignant and aggressively uncomfortable to watch, especially for viewers who have dealt with similar situations. But overall, this film really honest and grounded in a way where viewers are able to connect with the characters and the story. The only real flaw with the film is that it fails to explain the reason behind the Brandon's transgender or her background that gives hints as to why she adopted a male identity to begin with.Boys Don't Cry is a powerful and thought-provoking. The performances are amazing and the writing is quite awe-inspiring. This is a film that is important to watch, but something I would only recommend to mature viewers due to the intense subject matter and tone that not all viewers could handle too easy.

* This review contains a spoiler for the movie "Predestination" *I've watched this movie 2-3 times before, but not in quite some time. The movie is just as flawed as I remembered it. There are so many things about it that just don't work.First of all the writing and direction: They are just bad. Here is such an interesting subject for a movie and yet they managed to present it in such a boring way. It's slow, during at least half the movie almost nothing happens and we are slowly introduced to very boring and one- dimensional characters and environment.Now, Hilary Swank: She is a good actress - I came to like her only from this movie and "Million Dollar Baby", which both earned her pretty deserving Oscars. Still, during the entire time I couldn't stop thinking: "This is Hilary Swank" and "this is a girl, not a boy". It's usually a very bad sign, when I watch a movie and can't stop thinking about seeing the actual actor and not the character. It's very distracting, too. A movie should be good enough to have the suspension of disbelief make you forget you're watching actors doing their job. I don't know if that's the fault of Hilary Swank (I do think she gave a good performance), or maybe she needed more makeup/prosthetics or maybe it's a problem with the direction. What I'm quite certain is that she DID need to change her voice - it would have helped a lot.Now compare this movie to "Predestination" (my favorite movie of 2014), with the brilliant performance of Sarah Snook. I'd take "Predestination" anytime over "Boys Don't Cry". Snook's performance, together with the makeup and prosthetics made an amazing character - it was extremely convincing (at least for me), to the point that I needed to go check IMDb the first time I watched the movie (and thus ruin it a little bit for myself) in order to understand what is going on and find out whether the role is played by two actors or just one. If I'd have to choose between Swank's performance and Snook's performance, I'd definitely choose the latter - it's so much more believable and makes you forget you're watching an actress in makeup even when you know that.Peter Sarsgaard is very good in his poorly-written role and almost unrecognizable; Chloe Sevigny is also very good in her poorly-written role.All in all, this is a very missed opportunity, which could have been made into a MUCH better movie in the hands of more capable writer and director.

I often wonder this. This film is the story of Brandon a girl who only feels right when passing off as a boy. What many people don't know is that he has no control over this it's just god gave him the wrong parts. Because of trying to be true to himself and following the girl he loves what follows is him being beat, raped, and tortured. This film shows how Lana fell in love with Brandon not because of his looks or that he is really a she but plane and simple he treated her better then she had ever been treated. This love story takes off but comes to a screeching halt. What John did to Brandon will stick in my head forever it's so hard to believe there is so much evil in this world. I would also like to say this is one of the most important films of all time. This is a film I will show to my kids, there kids and so on because I will make sure that they respect and love people for who they are. I pray for the day when we not only accept our diffeences but we actually celebrate our divercity.