Boys Don't Cry

viewed at the Embarcadero Center Cinema

For full information about this film, click here

I expected this movie to be good but that it would eventually give into a sensationalistic climax that would leave the audience in a wake of rage and tears, like a manipulative TV movie.  Credit writer/director Kimberly Pierce to give full-blooded depth to not only the tragic Brandon Teena, but to his eventual rapists and killers, the very people with whom Brandon wanted to be lifelong pals.  Hilary Swank and Chloe Sevigny have been getting all the raves and awards for excelling in their respective roles as the charismatic Brandon and his vulnerable girlfiriend.  However, Peter Sarsgard is equally great as Tom, a tortured ex-con and Sarah's self-designated protector.  Through Tom, Sarah and a host of other wonderful characters, we go into the heart of white trash, spending most of the time feeling the characters rather than judging them.  

Thus the events leading to the brutal end are realized with honesty, insight and the heaviness of fate.  The rape and the outrageous events that follow come awfully close to being exploitative (the absurdly insensitive line of questioning by the police after Brandon's rape apparently came straight out of the real-life transcripts), but are stretched out and phrased enough to allow for moments of sad, lyric beauty (as when Brandon sees himself fading in the distance as he is being stripped, and his final tender love scene).  The movie tacks on a final, somewhat false note of hope, but it does recall the charismatic recklessness of Brandon Teena, which were the qualities that made her wonderful and, perhaps as much as her orientation, were what led to her undoing.

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