Hilary Swank deservedly received this year's Oscar as best actress for her extraordinary performance in Kimberly Peirce's deeply involving drama Boys Don't Cry in which Swank plays a young working-class woman who longs to afford a sex change. The film is inspired by the true story of Teena Marie Brandon, a 20year-old working-class woman from Lincoln, Nebraska, whose experiences were documented in the recent documentary, The Brandon Teena Story.
Disguising herself as a boy, she recklessly courts danger when she falls in with a heavy-drinking group in a redneck town and falls in love with one of them, a factory worker played by Chloe Sevigny.
This fascinating and chilling film of fear, prejudice and acceptance builds to a shocking climax. It opens next Friday at the IFC in Dublin.