Boys Don't Cry - PASS

*Apologies for no blog last Wednesday. I was ill, plus my movie...failed. Unfortunately, these things happen. But onward!

*Occasionally, people who read spoilers cry. I'm sorry these lines are always so lame.

I can say, very honestly, that Boys Don't Cry is the saddest movie I've seen in a long, long time. It pretty much slugs you right in the face with its complete, raw, devastating honesty. It's an intense film and a brave piece of cinema. And it passes the Bechdel test.

Boys Don't Cry is about a female-to-male transsexual who goes by Brandon Teena (Hilary Swank, who won a well deserved Academy Award for this part). He leaves his home of Lincoln, Nebraska for Falls City on basically a whim. There, he finds the love of his life, Lana (Chloe Sevigny), and an atmosphere where his fellow friends John (Peter Sarsgaard), Candace (Kimberly Pierce), and others have no reason to suspect that Brandon is, at least in flesh, not what he appears to be. He and Lana have a rather idealistic and beautiful relationship that sparks up the jealousy of John. This, combined with some unfortunate misdeeds of Brandon's past (he's wanted in court because he stole a car back home in Lincoln) end up "revealing" his biological identity by saying he's a hermaphrodite to Lana, but she accepts him as he is and bails him out of jail.

And then...shit happens. Really intense, atrocious, gag-reflex-inducing, eyes-tearing-up, gut-punching shit happens. While Brandon was in jail, his sort of surrogate family have discovered his secret by discovering hidden tampons, suspicious stains, etc. When they return, a drunken John and friend strip Brandon down, exposing him to Lana. When Brandon leaves the house, the two snag him in their car and rape him by a meat-packing plant. They drag him back to the house, Brandon escapes, and goes to the hospital and police station, where he is mistreated by police because of his sexuality. Eventually, he is making plans to leave town and staying at Candace's place, when John comes in, shoots Brandon and Candace in front of Candace's toddler...and...yeah.

Boys Don't Cry is painful to watch, as it frames hate and ignorance in a raw, no-holds-barred way that grabs the viewer by the throat and pulls them into the action. Brandon is particularly poignant. He, like so many people, is confused about who he is, but he has the courage to at least try and be who he thinks he might be. It's inspirational. His confusion is relatable in terms of any age, gender or sexuality. I appreciate how brave the film is with how raw and terrible Brandon's particular experience is. There's no sugar-coating, and for that his true honesty shines through, giving us a real look at a transgendered life.

Lana and Brandon's relationship is also admirable in their acceptance of each other. Even though Brandon is unable to tell her the truth until it is literally shoved in her face, Lana still accepts him. There's a theory that one day we will not fall in love with people based on gender, but solely on personality. Perhaps these two are an example of that idealism. We see lots of straight relationships that have fallen out of happiness in the movie--John and his wife, John and his creepy obsession with Lana, Candace and her husband--but Brandon and Lana have this sweet note of hope to them. It's something to hold onto in a movie about what happens when hate is let loose.

Boys Don't Cry is a wrenching film that explores the very reaches of what we call a sexual identity, commemorating one wo/man who didn't need to die, and shouldn't have had to. It also successfully cruises through the Bechdel test, rating this film a well-deserved pass.