‘I don’t care if you’re half monkey or half ape, I’m gettin’ you out of here...’
I don’t have many blind spots when it comes to 90s cinema but prestige pictures is one of them, and by that I think I mean that I’ve never seen The English Patient or The Piano. Skirting somewhere around the edges of Oscar bait is 1999’s Boys Don’t Cry. A heartbreaking biopic about the trials and tribulations of a young, transgender man in rural Nebraska. I assumed this would be one of those movies that you have to be in the mood for. Lots of concentrating. Hardly any dragons. Limited explosions. But actually, Boys Don’t Cry jumps off the screen and proves to be entertaining and compelling throughout. Largely thanks to a incredible performance from Hilary Swank in a role that would eventually lead to a deserved Best Actress statuette at the 2000 Oscars.
Brandon Teena (Swank) is a troubled kid who struggles to find acceptance or love due to the fact that he was born a girl. Despite being initially taken in by a close knit group of friends led by the charismatic and confident John Lotter (Peter Sarsgaard) and the quiet but influential Lana (Chloe Sevigny), Brandon soon finds himself embraced by the cold familiarity of rejection.
While the subject matter at the heart of Boys Don’t Cry is undoubtedly heavy, Swank’s freewheeling performance ensures that things never get too gloomy, and Sevigny’s heartbreakingly sweet turn as Brandon’s naive lover is the perfect counterpoint. Trans issues has become such a hot button issue over the last decade that it is refreshing to see a trans story told without any real kind of agenda. Writer/director Kimberly Pierce instead allows the story to play out without comment or judgement, resulting in a film that still feels progressive even two decades on.
Boys Don’t Cry isn’t a Sunday afternoon film, but it is an important contributor to the rich tapestry that makes up 90s cinema, and in Swank and Sevigny, it offers a pair of stars who were arguably never this good again.