Movie Review: Boys Don't Cry

The first movie that I want to review is also probably the most well known, and that’s saying something. Boys Don’t Cry is the 1999 drama which won Hilary Swank a VERY well-deserved Oscar for Best Actress.

The film is based on the true story of Teena Brandon/ Brandon Teena, a pre-op female to male transgender who was murdered in 1993 in Nebraska while posing as an anatomically normal male. Swank is truly phenomenal in this role, even the viewer must admit that she is thoroughly convincing as a man. The supporting cast is also strong, with Chloe Sevigny as Lana, the girl Brandon dates, and Peter Sarsgaard as John Lotter, the man who befriends, but later rapes and murders Brandon.

If the film has any weakness, it is that it does little to explain Brandon’s life before meeting Lana and John or trangendered people in general. There is no real explanation as to why Brandon would choose to live as a boy. Was he transgendered, a hermaphrodite, or was he simply a lesbian in disguise? A person less familiar or sympathetic to the transgendered would likely not view Brandon very favorably. Although I don’t believe that any movie should portray a character as an angel just to avoid stereotyping, there are points in the movie where Brandon comes across more as a daredevil pushing his luck rather than a transgendered man trying to get by in an unsympathetic environment.

Politics aside, Boys Don’t Cry is a beautiful piece of filmmaking which tells the story of one person trying to live a normal life in very unnormal circumstances. Since it is based on a true story, there is no need to try to avoid spoilers, going into this you should know that Brandon does not survive. But like Milk, another excellent film about the life of a doomed LGBT American, the lack of suspense does nothing to stop you from being engrossed in this fascinating tale of love, hate, death, and life.

Netflix for a Month!

As part of a Skype promotion, I got a free month’s supply of Netflix. So for most of June and July, I have been either working at my job at my local YMCA, then coming home and sitting on my ass all day watching Netflix, then going to sleep, then waking up the next day to start the cycle all over again. Needless to say, this hasn’t been good for either my social or blogging life. I decided to reclaim some of the latter now that my free month is over and I’ve disabled my Netflix account because I am a broke college student by blogging about some of the movies that I watched.

My taste in film is very eclectic, I love the classics, film noir, detective stories, action, horror, as well as documentaries, indie and foreign films, and queer cinema. I decided to blog about some of the films that most of you have probably never seen or even heard about. That means that most of these movies will some sort of combination of gay, indie, and/or foreign language films. Hope that you enjoy and discover a new favorite film!

It Gets Better, From the Massachusetts Congressional Delegations

Hi y'all!

I know it's been forever since I posted anything, and I promise, I will update this blog with more Turkey stories as well as some movie reviews.

However, I wanted to detour into politics and LGBT issues for a quick post. The "It Get's Better Campaign" has become famous for posting videos online by both regular and famous people encouraging young people, especially those struggling with their sexual orientation and gender identity. Although I think some people believe that posting a video is all they need to do to solve gay and teen suicide, it is a noble project.

Recently, eleven out of the twelve members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation posted a joint video for the Campaign. Although it may not be the best one out there, it is a wonderful reminder of how lucky some of us, including myself, are to live in such a liberal and accepting state. It's especially meaningful for me because I worked on both Congressmen Jim McGovern and Bill Keating's campaigns, so it's nice to see some of the people I helped to elect standing up for causes that I believe in.

It also is a reminder of the one eyesore in our delegation. Like I said earlier, eleven out of the twelve members are present in the video. The one missing? The one Republican, Scott Brown, of course. Now it is certainly possible that in today's hyper-partisan Washington the other members just didn't tell Senator Brown that they were making this video to make him look bad....but I highly doubt it.

Anyway, here's the actual video:

UPDATE: As I suspected, Sen. Brown was indeed invited to join in the making of the video, but declined. His spokesman insisted that Sen. Brown has a "strong record" of standing up to bullying and discrimination and the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee has gone so far as to attack Dan Savage, trying to distract from the real issue at hand. If Sen. Brown is truly the bipartisan, moderate Republican that he claims to be, the least he could do is take part with is home state colleagues in making a video urging young kids not to kill themselves!

Read more on the controversy here and here.