Boys Don't Cry at 20 in praise of the divisive transgender drama
over 4 years in The guardian
In 1999, Hilary Swank won plaudits for playing Brandon Teena, a murdered trans man, but in the years since, a backlash has been brewing
By the usual logic of such things, Hilary Swank was not supposed to win the 1999 best actress Oscar. She was 25 years old and relatively unknown, best recognised from undistinguished roles in The Next Karate Kid and Beverly Hills 90210. She was up against the never-awarded Hollywood royal Annette Bening, who had a juicy, grandly entertaining role in the Academy’s favourite film of the year, American Beauty – which just happened to win every other major category it was up for that night. Swank’s film, Boys Don’t Cry, was only up for two acting prizes, and even those nominations counted as hard-fought victories for a tough $2m indie on the subject of transgender hate crime, that had to make judicious edits to avoid a commercially crippling NC-17 rating.
Related: American Beauty at 20: is the Oscar-winning hit worth a closer look? Continue reading...
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