How others will see it. This is an unpleasant movie. After early exhilirating adventures, Teena gets into increasing trouble, and there's no happy ending. Absolutely not. So, who would enjoy watching this movie? No one. Who would think it important, aside from the Oscar Academy that gave Hilary the first of her two Best Actress awards (no, it wasn't for The Next Karate Kid). Quite a few.
How I felt about it. Kimberly Peirce is the director and co-writer. She also served the same roles in a 1995 short also entitled Boys Don't Cry. Although Hilary got the most mileage out of the movie, it is Peirce's project. And project is the word for it, sort of a woman's studies effort that shows Society's refusal to accept a broader gender identity. That forces Teena to pass herself off as a man, which leads to more lies, which gets her into big trouble.
It's not Brandon's fault, it's Society's. Never mind that Brandon is a forger, a thief, a hot check artist, and a con artist. Society won't accept her as she is, that is, a transexual lesbian.
But is Society really the bad guy? Can we be more explicit? Yes. It is men who are to blame. Killers John and Tom, the Nebraska sheriff who asks insulting, unsympathetic questions to the just violently raped woman, the dim-witted clods that hit on Candace at the bar and on Lana at the convenience store, all but the gay guy who gives Brandon advice worth taking.
In the actual murder spree, there were three deaths, one of which was Phillip DeVine, who isn't even in the film. Was his omission to make the film less complicated, or to prevent a muddying of the male-bashing theme?
Meanwhile, the women are so understanding, even the nurse who treats Teena. The only "bad" woman is Chloe's party-loving mom, whose condemnation toward Brandon can at least be attributed to natural maternal protection.
But Boys Don't Cry is the wrong title for this film, which should have been called, The Kid Who Wouldn't Leave Town. Even after the big secret is out and two violent ex-cons have threatened Brandon's life, she still hangs out, hoping to score with the pouty redhead.
What does she see in Brandon? An escape from Nebraska, which Boys Don't Cry depicts as the gay hate crime capital and (yet worse) as a place where there's nothing to do except stupid, dangerous things like bumper skiing? No, Chloe wants to smother and mother her new pet Brandon. Her mouth tells lies, but her eyes and hands are all too honest.