KristenStewartForever This movie is very very very good. It's a wonderful film. But is NOT the real story of what happened to Brandon Teena.Director Kimberly Pierce did not care about Brandon's story. All she cared about was making money. So she turned Brandon's story into a Romeo & Juliet story when that was not true. Lana was right. It is a second murder of Brandon.People need to understand Brandon's life was not a tragic love story. It was a tragic life period. Lana was not his soulmate. She was not his true love. She only knew him for two weeks. And she betrayed him. She set him up to be raped. And she was not there the night he was murdered. Lana is Just as guilty as the murderers.Again, all Pierce cared about was making the bucks. She should've told the REAL story. The real truth.

Screen_Blitz 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.

room102 * 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.

freemantle_uk Boys Don't Cry is a brutal, hard hitting drama about the tragic story of Brandon Teena (Hilary Swank), a young woman with gender identity disorder and aims to live her life as a man. With a history of juvenile delinquency and social rejection from a homophobic, ill-informed community Brandon finds acceptance in Fall City, Nebraska, finding friends with a group and even love with Lana Tisdel (Chloe Sevigny). But when Brandon's secret is discovery it leads to rejection, violence, rape and murder.Boys Don't Cry is an extremely well acted, well directed film, particularly from Swank and Sevigny who had very tough roles. Director Kimberly Peirce gives Boys Don't Cry a very tight, claustrophobic feel with her close direction in small settings and she does not shy away with the brutality when showing the violence and the horrific rape scene.Boys Don't Cry is a very raw, powerful film and a fine example of American independent filmmaking as we get a film about acceptance, love and prejudice.