Boys Don't Cry

Released 1997
Stars Hilary Swank, Chloë Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan Sexton III, Alison Folland, Alicia Goranson, Jeanetta Arnette
Directed by Kimberly Peirce

On December 30, 1993 in Falls City, Nebraska, two men, John Lotter and Tom Nissen, shot and killed 21-year old Teena Brandon, along with two of her friends, Lisa Lambert and Philip Devine. Brandon [was] a young woman [who] had been living as a man ("Brandon Teena") for a number of years, and had presented herself as such to Lotter and Nissen, with whom she became friendly. When they learned the truth, they reacted violently, humiliating Brandon in front of his girlfriend, Lana, then kidnapping and raping her. After Brandon reported the incident to the police, Lotter and Nissen resorted to murder. Because of the lurid details surrounding the case (sex, lesbianism, a woman masquerading as a man), the "Teena Brandon/Brandon Teena murder" fed national news headlines, so there's not much mystery about how Boys Don't Cry, a slightly fictionalized account of the story, ends. The fascination with the tragic film is in seeing how the situation develops.

Summary by James Berardinelli