Who payed the critics

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Low-budget but fairly comprehensive documentary on tortured Nebraskan youth Teena Brandon, who in 1993 nearly fooled a group of rebellious, alienated kids she'd befriended into believing she was a young male named Brandon Teena. When her secret was exposed, two men, angry and freaked-out, raped and murdered her. Offers a more clear-eyed take on the murder scene (which included two other victims) than the Oscar-winning theatrical film "Boys Don't Cry". However, solely on an entertainment basis, "Boys Don't Cry" obviously packs more of an emotional punch. In either case, this is an exceptionally downbeat story which can be difficult to watch, and the folks who knew Teena Brandon seem spookily detached from the ramifications of the entire incident. ** from ****

I thought that although the movie was somewhat amateur, the vein of Brandon's story was tapped into. I really liked the fact that the filmmakers went out and found and interviewed people who actually knew Brandon and that we as the audience were able to learn more about him and his life. I also can appreciate that the movie at least gave mention to Phil DeVine and Lisa Lambert. "Boys Don't Cry" never even mentioned Phil and that movie also made it seem like Lana Tisdel was the one and only true love in Brandon's life. This movie minimizes her role in Brandon't life and eventual death. At least this film didn't just use the really "interresting" aspects of his life, but it used the real aspects of Brandon's life. There was one main thing that did bother me in this movie though. The use of long, drawn out music that seemed to have very little to do with the film itself. I think that if that had been cut back a bit, I personally would have enjoyed the movie far more. This was definitely worth watching if you are curious about the life and death of Brandon Teena.

1st watched 1/7/2001 - 7 out of 10(Dir-Susan Muska & Greta Olafsdottir): Well-done documentary about a women/girl who posed as a man/boy convincingly and then was later raped and killed by those who had a problem with her doing this. This is the type of movie that makes you question your beliefs and whose side your on or whether you should even be on any side. The complexity starts with the fact that Brandon is really Teena but she was born with both sex organs and was a confused kid, then our prejudicial part of the society shows through any many areas. Other than some bad choices of background music a good documentary.

The story of Brandon Teena is fascinating, true, but was terrible filmmaking. I saw this at the Seattle Internation Film Festival, and the filmmakers were there to introduce it themselves. The audience loved it, but purely just for the subject matter. The truth is that this film was put together poorly. The quality of the whole production was lousy, and nothing new or interesting was revealed. It was a second rate true crime documentary that even the subject matter couldn't overcome. It is too bad that the only interesting character in the film appears only in photographs.