April 2000 | Out in the Mountains I31

Kick Mp the Dust

A Review of "Boys Don’t Cry"

Directed by Kimberly Peirce

Screenplay by Kimberly Peirce and /lndy
Bienen.

Starring Hilary Swank, Ghlo Sevigny,
Peter Sarsgaard, and 3rendan Sexton In.
116 minutes, distributed by 30x Home
Entertainment on ‘VHS and DVD.
Available April 8

REVIEWED BY HUGH COYLE

Is it an oxymoron to say that you loved a movie but
didn’t like watching it? In the case of “Boys Don’t
Cry,” audience members squirm and jerk about
throughout the film; some even turn. away from the
screen and shield their eyes. Yet nearly everyone leav-
ing the theater offers up glowing reviews: Compelling.
Amazing. Riveting. Masterful. Heart—wrenching. Gut-
wrenching. ,

“Boys Don’t Cry” is based on the true—life story of
Brandon Teena, a young transgendered person who was
brutally murdered in Nebraska back in 1993. As audi-
ence members, we follow the female Teena. Brandon as
she becomes Brandon Teena, the handsome boy aching
to have a shot at a new life in the world.

In co-writing the script, director Kimberly Peirce
undertook extensive research and interviewed many of
the people who had known Brandon Teena. Much to her
credit, “Boys Don’t Cry” doesn’t seek to analyze or
explain Brandon’s transgendered nature. There are no
transformational montage sequences culled from the
family photo album, no home movies spliced together
to document peculiar tendencies. Peirce intended to
honor the “emotional truth” of Brandon’s life, which
itself was constantly being fictionalized. “I think people
are always emotionally truthful, even when they lie,”
Peirce wrote in the film’s production notes. “The lies
add texture to your understanding of the person telling
them.”

\‘.’ 5:: t-’‘:.I .r’.:: l/‘./ P‘ ,’//;/1 Qt £1: .34-:’