#725) Boys Don’t Cry (1999)

#725) Boys Don’t Cry (1999)

OR “Brandon Recognition”

Directed by Kimberly Peirce

Written by Peirce and Andy Bienen.

Class of 2019

Other notes

• First, let’s pour one out for Fox Searchlight Pictures, which dropped the “Fox” from its name after being acquired by Disney in 2019. “Boys Don’t Cry” is the first Fox Searchlight film on the Registry, joined four years later by “12 Years a Slave”.
• One of Peirce’s goals with this film was not to mythologize or lionize Brandon Teena, and I feel she succeed on that front. The film always feels authentic; everyone’s dialogue sounds true to life (a very difficult feat to pull off), and all the performances are grounded and realistic. Even the moments where emotions run high never feel too forced or overly dramatic. It makes you trust the film and its portrayal of Brandon as a real person caught in a horrible situation.
• Everyone in this movie is great, but Swank is the undeniable MVP. There is something quite compelling about Swank’s work; her Brandon is so instantly likeable that you accept his situation immediately and root for him, even if you know this story won’t end well for Brandon. On a lighter note, my favorite detail in Swank’s performance is the aggressive manspreading Brandon has while seated. It’s a nice subtle touch.

• The rest of the ensemble rises to Swank’s level and delivers good work. Peter Sarsgaard is the right balance of charismatic and threatening without ever tipping over into cartoon villain territory. You recognize John (and his accomplice Tom as played by Brendan Sexton III) as a regular guy whose internal struggles led to some very bad decisions. I also really enjoyed Chloë Sevigny, playing Lana as troubled and contradictory, but always real and alluring. And no, you are not seeing things; Lana’s friend Candace is played by Lecy Goranson, aka Becky #1 from “Roseanne”. Goranson was cast based on her resemblance to Lisa Lambert, the real person the composite character of Candace is based on.

• I don’t have a lot to say about the film itself, mainly because I was so engrossed with it during my viewing, but also because the film is just that good: there’s only so many ways I can complement any aspect of this film without becoming repetitive or breaking out my thesaurus. Also, as a cisgender male I do not feel qualified to discuss the nuances of transgender identity presented by this film. I will, however, give one more department their due and shoutout this movie’s cinematography. Kimberly Peirce started out as a photographer, which explains why she and cinematographer Jim Denault include several shots of the Nebraska night sky presented through timelapse photography (inspired by the work of Jan Staller). I’m not sure what it all means, but you can’t begrudge Peirce for wanting to add a bit of artistic flourish to the proceedings, especially something that doesn’t harm or disrespect the real story being told.
• The sex scenes between Brandon and Lana are noteworthy because of the double standard that seemed to stem from them. Peirce has talked at length about how “Boys Don’t Cry” was initially rated NC-17 but was bumped down to an R after some trims. While most of these edits pertained to the rapes scenes later in the movie, Peirce was upset that it was the sex scenes between a cisgender woman and a transgender man that more concerned the MPAA, particularly the length of Lana’s orgasm. Peirce talks more about her issues with the MPAA rating system in the great documentary “This Film is Not Yet Rated”.
• At some point I knew that “Boys Don’t Cry” was based on real events, but I forgot prior to this viewing, so it was a surprise to me when the film ended with text explaining what happened to John and Lana after Brandon’s death. The film mercifully doesn’t begin with some variation of “Based on a True Story”, which allowed me to get caught up in the lives of these characters rather than the historical accuracy of it all (I spent the last third of my viewing yelling at Brandon and Lana to get out of town like it was a horror movie). The end text was a sobering reminder that this all happened, and despite the progress made in the last quarter century, is still happening. 

Legacy

• After premiering at the New York Film Festival, “Boys Don’t Cry” opened in October 1999 in about 25 theaters across the country. The film went in a wider release following its two Oscar nominations, and by March 2000 (the same month of the Oscars) the film had grossed almost three times its production budget.
• While “Boys Don’t Cry” was a hit with critics and award shows, one person who didn’t like it was the real Lana Tisdel, who sued Fox Searchlight for unauthorized use of her name, and for portraying her in the film as “lazy white trash” (Tisdel eventually settled out of court). While Brandon’s mother JoAnn Brandon never accepted Brandon’s lifestyle and refused to be interviewed by Peirce for the movie, she has since become more understanding of Brandon and those like him, and appreciates what “Boys Don’t’ Cry” has done to raise awareness for the transgender community.
• “Boys Don’t Cry’ has gone on to be a landmark in queer representation in film, helping pave the way for larger conversations about our transgender community. While the film’s cultural footprint throughout the 2000s was primarily as a transphobic punchline on TV, that has thankfully lessened in more recent years, and the film and its subject matter continue to receive the respect they deserve.
• Hilary Swank followed up “Boys Don’t Cry” with several big movies, including Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby”, for which she won her second Best Actress Oscar. Peter Sarsgaard continues to grace our screens with reliable character work, as does Chloë Sevigny, whose work as an actor is matched by her work confusing the internet with her fashion choices.
• Kimberly Peirce’s next film was 2008’s “Stop-Loss” based on the experience of American soldiers in the Iraq War. To date, Peirce has only made one other theatrical movie – a 2013 adaptation of Stephen King’s “Carrie” – but she continues to work frequently in episodic TV. Peirce is also an activist for queer and woman’s rights. Upon the NFR induction of “Boys Don’t Cry” in 2019, Peirce called the moment “a culmination, unimaginable and wonderful.”