BOYS DON'T CRY = Intense real Life Drama
Thought-provoking and multi-layered filming of the infamous life and death of "Brandon Teena" who was a troubled woman who passed herself off as a man in rural Texas only to become the victim of a brutal hate crime. Sensationalistic in tone, the film steers away from obvious sentimentality to provide a direct but haunting examination of a life gone terribly worng. Many lives actually as Brandon (marvelously portrayed by Hillary Swank in her first Oscar-winning performance) infiltrates the existences of many she encounters shortly before her tragic demise, especialy the young, disillusioned woman she falls in love with (played with realistic fervor by Chloe Sevigny) and two psychotic, homophobic rednecks headed by Peter Saarsgard. The atmospheric music throughout echoes a very primal theme of desire and needing to be needed. Excellent Indie film any way you dissect it...