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100One of the best films of the year.
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100"In Cold Blood," "Badlands," "The Executioner's Song," and now, joining those grisly milestones on the heartland hit list, and every bit their equal, is Boys Don't Cry.
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100For a movie that ends in the profoundest depths of sadness, Boys Don't Cry contains one of the year's purest moments of joy.
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100There may not be a better- acted film this year.
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100An amazing work, a film that seems to gurgle up from the American heartland, resonant and fully formed, ripe with possibilities.
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100It's Swank, however, who's the revelation. By the end, her Brandon/Teena is beyond male or female. It's as if we were simply glimpsing the character's soul, in all its yearning and conflicted beauty.
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100An exceptional--and exceptionally disturbing--film from a first-time director and writer (with Andy Bienen) named Kimberly Pierce. Unflinching, uncompromising, made with complete conviction and rare skill.
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91A radically disturbing and memorable movie whose images don't easily fade or diminish in power.
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90Scorches the screen like a prairie fire.
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90Stunning...a film much tougher and more transfixing than its wan title.
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90Peirce's taut, sure-footed first film sidesteps sensationalism without sacrificing any of the story's wonder and horror
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90The poignant and candid Boys Don't Cry can be seen as a "Rebel Without a Cause" for these culturally diverse and complex times, with the two misfit girls enacting a version of the James Dean/Natalie Wood romance with utmost conviction.
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90The longest, hardest sit of the season -- you are stuck there, a single tube of puckered muscle, waiting for the extremely ugly violence to occur -- but it is driven by performances of such luminous humanity that they break your heart.
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88A stirring, emotionally true testament to foolish bravery as well as shameful evidence of the severity with which it is so often punished.
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88A remarkable movie that merits a place alongside "The Executioner's Song" and "In Cold Blood" as an unforgettable depiction of tragedy in the heartland.
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88A powerful, deeply moving tale, immeasurably facilitated by the performance of relatively unknown Hilary Swank as Brandon...smartly shot and edited, and the performances are dead-on.
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88A haunting, superbly made film. But it's also an unrelentingly sad and depressing experience.
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88To say this bone-chilling, gut-turning feature is "The Crying Game"-meets-"In Cold Blood." But this is a film - writer/director Peirce's first - that matches those pictures in power, in surprise, and in unnerving drama.
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88Boys Don't Cry's intensity sneaks up on you like a snake.
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88A weeper poised to endure as one of the dominant independent features of the year.
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83A kick to the heart, and Swank is a marvel. Any problems in the storytelling are more than balanced by her wholly committed work.
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80Gripping, and it's moving, but it isn't particularly subtle. There's a strong thread of tabloid drama running through its core -- but at least it's sensationalistic storytelling with a heart.
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80A shockingly intimate and deeply affecting film about the roots of sexual role playing.
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That's possibly Peirce's best trick of all, telling a true story so well that you can't remember how it ends. And when you remember, you hope that you were wrong.
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80An incredible star turn from Hilary Swank.
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80To watch Sevigny's Lana slowly thaw to Brandon is to see the transformative, heartbreaking power of romance in a way that Hollywood is rarely able to capture anymore.
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80A powerful piece of social protest, skillfully written, directed, and acted...Hilary Swank as Brandon and Chloe Sevigny as his girlfriend Lana are especially fine.
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75Swank gives one of the year's most complex and hard-hitting performances in the demanding central role.
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70Swank's nuanced performance is remarkable and it's a powerful film.
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70Free of the disclaiming jokey sneer that defaces so much of contemporary neo-noir.
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65It's essentially a play-by-play of events that's so cheaply made it reeks of made-for-TV status.
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63Too sketchy about her protagonist's interior life, and too fast and loose with the details of this story, to make much of an impact beyond its initial shock.
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40The movie lets down the material. It's to cool: all attitude, no sizzle.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 10 out of 12
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Mixed: 1 out of 12
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Negative: 1 out of 12
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10
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DeneL.10
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AnL.9