Boys Don’t Cry

Hilary Swank won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Teena Brandon/Brandon Teena, the Nebraska girl who was shot to death by rural thugs for masquerading as a boy. Brandon slides into Falls City during a drinking binge and is soon befriended by lost souls of Middle America’s criminal and trailer park nations. This graphic, startling look at sexual identity and gay bashing includes Chloe Sevigny as a factory worker enamored by Brandon’s kindness and Peter Sarsgaard as the hood whose inner demons and substance abuse jump-starts murder. Writer-director Kimberly Pierce has slightly fictionalized but not sensationalized this riveting true story.