Sunday, May 29, 2005
Boys Don't Cry
I just saw Boys Don't Cry. It came out whatever year American Beauty won Best Picture - Hilary Swank burst onto the Hollywood scene after beating Annette Benning for an Oscar, a feat she repeated this year with Million Dollar Baby.
Overall, I liked it. Swank definitely deserved that Oscar.
She plays a girl, Teena Brandon, who is going through a sexual identity crisis. She changes her name to Brandon Teena, cuts her hair short, stuffs a sock down her pants, and next thing you know people thinks she's a guy and she can have sex with all the women she wants. Until, of course, she gets kicked out of where she's staying and has to go find somewhere else to live. She settles down in Falls City, a poor neighborhood filled with "white trash" and manages to find a few friends to hang out with.
The first 30-50 minutes move kind of slowly. Brandon/Teena parties with her friends as they lead their pointless lives, getting drunk, doing drugs, breaking the law, and in general just being the trash people think they are. Things start to get interesting when she starts having feelings for a girl named Lana, played to perfection by Chloe Sevigny. Brandon/Teena and Lana get together, and the next think you know they're managing to have sex without Lana discovering Brandon's a girl.
The movie gradually gets tenser and tenser until it finally explodes. Unlike most movies like this where the film ends soon after everyone discovers the protagonists' true gender, this one doesn't. Things spiral out of control.
This is a dark, gritty film that lots of people won't be able to sit through. My mom left after 10-15 minutes. There's lots of things I could say about it, but I don't want to give anything away.
The main message of the movie seems to be: why are we all so freakin' hateful? We hate the white trash. The white trash hate 'it' - people with sexual identity problems. Sheesh. When will we learn to love everyone? When will we realize that just because a person makes mistakes or might do something we consider sinful, that doesn't mean we shouldn't respond like Christ would?
I'm not sure how I feel about people that have problems with their sexual identity. Is it a sin to want to have a sex change? Is it a sin if you feel like you're trapped in the wrong body? Where is the line between sin and genetic/psychological disorder? Teena is so confused she doesn't even consider herself a lesbian, despite the fact that she's clearly sexually attracted to women - is it wrong to feel such sexual confusion? I don't know. But I do know we shouldn't hate people like Teena Brandon. It's when I see movies like this I start to be reminded of how much the religious fanaticism I mentioned earlier annoys me, since I can see a lot of conservative Christians acting like the people do in this movie. The fact that this film is based on a true story only serves to drive that point home.
Religion should help cement your faith and help it grow. Not contradict it.
Quote of Da Moment:
To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.
--Eric Hoffer
Overall, I liked it. Swank definitely deserved that Oscar.
She plays a girl, Teena Brandon, who is going through a sexual identity crisis. She changes her name to Brandon Teena, cuts her hair short, stuffs a sock down her pants, and next thing you know people thinks she's a guy and she can have sex with all the women she wants. Until, of course, she gets kicked out of where she's staying and has to go find somewhere else to live. She settles down in Falls City, a poor neighborhood filled with "white trash" and manages to find a few friends to hang out with.
The first 30-50 minutes move kind of slowly. Brandon/Teena parties with her friends as they lead their pointless lives, getting drunk, doing drugs, breaking the law, and in general just being the trash people think they are. Things start to get interesting when she starts having feelings for a girl named Lana, played to perfection by Chloe Sevigny. Brandon/Teena and Lana get together, and the next think you know they're managing to have sex without Lana discovering Brandon's a girl.
The movie gradually gets tenser and tenser until it finally explodes. Unlike most movies like this where the film ends soon after everyone discovers the protagonists' true gender, this one doesn't. Things spiral out of control.
This is a dark, gritty film that lots of people won't be able to sit through. My mom left after 10-15 minutes. There's lots of things I could say about it, but I don't want to give anything away.
The main message of the movie seems to be: why are we all so freakin' hateful? We hate the white trash. The white trash hate 'it' - people with sexual identity problems. Sheesh. When will we learn to love everyone? When will we realize that just because a person makes mistakes or might do something we consider sinful, that doesn't mean we shouldn't respond like Christ would?
I'm not sure how I feel about people that have problems with their sexual identity. Is it a sin to want to have a sex change? Is it a sin if you feel like you're trapped in the wrong body? Where is the line between sin and genetic/psychological disorder? Teena is so confused she doesn't even consider herself a lesbian, despite the fact that she's clearly sexually attracted to women - is it wrong to feel such sexual confusion? I don't know. But I do know we shouldn't hate people like Teena Brandon. It's when I see movies like this I start to be reminded of how much the religious fanaticism I mentioned earlier annoys me, since I can see a lot of conservative Christians acting like the people do in this movie. The fact that this film is based on a true story only serves to drive that point home.
Religion should help cement your faith and help it grow. Not contradict it.
Quote of Da Moment:
To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.
--Eric Hoffer
# posted by Andrew Johnson : 5/29/2005 01:46:00 AM 
