Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, who served as a film critic for The New York Times from 1977 to 1999, serving as chief critic for the last six years, and then a literary critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000, Maslin helped found the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, New York . She is president of its board of directors.
101-397: Kimberly Ane Peirce (born September 8, 1967) is an American filmmaker, best known for her debut feature film, Boys Don't Cry (1999), which won Hilary Swank her first Academy Award for Best Actress . Peirce's second feature, Stop-Loss , was released by Paramount Pictures in 2008. Her third film Carrie was released on October 18, 2013. In addition to directing and writing, she is
202-431: A better life." Jennifer Devere Brody commented on the film's exclusion of Philip DeVine, a disabled African-American man who was another victim of the shooting. "Perhaps one can only speculate about the motivations behind this decision. But the effects are familiar ones in the history of racist representations. The erasure of DeVine from the narrative places the white female bodies as the only true victims of crime; and
303-406: A freelancer for Rolling Stone and worked at Newsweek . Maslin became a film critic for The New York Times in 1977. From December 1, 1994, she replaced Vincent Canby as the chief film critic. Maslin continued to review films for The Times until 1999, when she briefly left the newspaper. Her film criticism career, including her embrace of American independent cinema , is discussed in
404-673: A governor of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and a National Board member of the Directors Guild of America . Peirce was born on September 8, 1967, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania , to Sherry and Robert A. Peirce (originally Materazzi), who owned a construction company. When Peirce was three, she and her family moved to New York City , and at age eleven, they moved to Miami, Florida , where she eventually graduated from Miami Sunset Senior High School . While attending
505-407: A limited series for USA Network written by Andre Jacquemetton and Maria Jacquemetton ( Mad Men ). Peirce co-wrote the script for Silent Star , a murder mystery about the 1922 death of Hollywood director William Desmond Taylor and the scandals that nearly destroyed the film industry. However, the project stalled. Peirce is set to direct a new Amazon movie titled This is Jane . The storyline
606-471: A man. There's a moment in The Last Days of Disco when Chloë does this little dance move and flirts with the camera [...] She has this mix of attractiveness, flirtation and sophistication that she gives you, but then takes away very quickly so that you want more: you want to reach into the screen and grab her. When I saw that, and her confidence and wit, I thought: if she could flirt with Brandon and
707-483: A masculinity 'schedule'. John cannot abide Brandon's desire, and clear ability, to access male privilege , and his reaction is to force Brandon to be female through the act of rape." Other commentators discussed the more complex psychological causes of Brandon's murder. Halberstam commented on the complicated causes of the murder, and whether it was due to transphobia or homophobia : "Ultimately in Boys [ Don't Cry ],
808-567: A month, including wrapping her chest in tension bandages and putting socks down the front of her trousers as Brandon Teena had done. Her masquerade was convincing; Swank's neighbors believed the "young man" coming and going from her home was Swank's visiting brother. She reduced her body fat to seven percent to accentuate her facial structure and refused to let the cast and crew see her out of costume. Swank earned $ 75 per day for her work on Boys Don't Cry , totaling $ 3,000. Her earnings were so low that she did not qualify for health insurance. For
909-468: A negative, dismal depiction of Midwestern America, writing that "[Peirce's film has] captured the mystique and eerie loneliness" and "isolation of the Midwest, with its dusty desolation and nowhere-to-go frustration that propels people to violence and despair". Christine Vachon, the film's executive producer, said, "It's not just about two stupid thugs who killed somebody. It's about these guys whose world
1010-532: A relationship between two unlikely people. This tragic aspect of the love story led Halberstam to compare Brandon and Lana's relationship and subsequent drama to classic and modern romances including Romeo and Juliet , often using the term star-crossed lovers . In the Journal for Creativity in Mental Health , Jinnelle Veronique Aguilar discussed Brandon's ability to create interpersonal relationships in
1111-401: A screenplay, which she worked on for almost five years. The film focuses on the relationship between Brandon and Lana. The script took dialogue directly from archive footage in the 1998 documentary The Brandon Teena Story . Many actresses sought the lead role during a three-year casting process before Swank was cast. Swank was chosen because her personality seemed similar to Brandon's. Most of
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#17327934692781212-414: A sock in her pants, who smiled and loved being Brandon." Peirce required that Swank "make a full transformation" into a male. Immediately after being cast, Peirce took Swank to a hairdresser, where her lower-back length hair was cut and dyed chestnut brown. When she saw her then-husband, Chad Lowe , again, he barely recognized her. Swank prepared for the role by dressing and living as a man for at least
1313-451: A three-shot sequence meant to symbolize Brandon's metaphorical "entrance to manhood", or Brandon's social transition from a woman to a man. Some scenes were given a prolonged shooting sequence to induce a feeling of hallucination. An example is the sequence in which Brandon and Lana first have sex, followed by a shot of her, Brandon, Candace, and Kate driving in a car against a city skyline backdrop. The scene in which John and Tom strip Brandon
1414-448: A variation of which was used as the film's love theme and score. The song itself is heard during a karaoke scene, sung by Sevigny's character, and at the end of the film. The title of the film is taken from the song of the same name by British rock band The Cure . An American cover of the song, sung by Nathan Larson, plays in the background in the scene in which Lana bails Brandon out of jail and during one of their sex scenes. However,
1515-640: A world war in which one lover always lives and the other always dies. The short screened as part of the Leopards of Tomorrow program at the Locarno International Film Festival . While at Columbia working on an idea for her thesis film about a female soldier in drag during the American Civil War , Peirce read a Village Voice article about the life and death of Brandon Teena , a transgender man from Nebraska who
1616-406: Is Jewish and genderqueer . In 2008, she married Evren Savci , who is a queer feminist and Assistant Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Yale University. Short film Feature film Television Boys Don%27t Cry (1999 film) Boys Don't Cry is a 1999 American biographical film directed by Kimberly Peirce , and co-written by Peirce and Andy Bienen. The film
1717-463: Is a dramatization of the real-life story of Brandon Teena (played by Hilary Swank ), an American trans man who attempts to find himself and love in Nebraska but falls victim to a brutal hate crime perpetrated by two male acquaintances. The film co-stars Chloë Sevigny as Brandon's girlfriend, Lana Tisdel . After reading about the case while in college, Peirce conducted extensive research for
1818-638: Is about an activist in Chicago who is unsatisfied with the state of health services available in the US during the 1960s who forms a group that provides education and counseling for women seeking abortions. Peirce is a founding member of ReFrame, an industry-wide effort to end discrimination against women and people of color in Hollywood as well as the head of the Diversity Committee for Directors for
1919-404: Is crying out to them to spare her baby, Tom shoots her in the head and kills her as Lana fights with them, begging them to stop. Tom stabs Brandon's lifeless body. John and Tom flee the scene while a crying Lana lies with Brandon's body and the baby toddles through the open door to the outside, crying. The next morning, Lana awakens next to Brandon's corpse. Her mother arrives and takes her away from
2020-524: Is initially unaware both of his anatomy and his troubled past. The two make plans to move to Memphis , where Brandon will manage Lana's karaoke singing career. Eventually, they kiss during a date night which ends with them having sex. The police detain Brandon on charges that arose before his relocation; they place him in the women's section of the Falls City jail. Lana bails Brandon out and asks why he
2121-460: Is really important, violence is really important. I'm really interested in the psychological and the authentic portrayal of violence—particularly violence that comes out of emotions. Before The Godfather , I don't know that you could have such a violent psychological film that was that broadly entertaining." Peirce directed a remake of the 1976 horror film Carrie , which was released on October 18, 2013. An adaptation of Stephen King 's novel of
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#17327934692782222-463: Is so tenuous and so fragile that they can't stand to have any of their beliefs shattered", referring to John and Tom's views of their lives, Brandon's aspirations and his biological sex. Along with other turn-of-the-millennium films such as In the Company of Men (1997), American Beauty (1999), Fight Club (1999), and American Psycho (2000), Vincent Hausmann said Boys Don't Cry "raises
2323-424: Is used when Brandon joins the social circle of John, Tom, Lana and her mother, while the latter is used when Brandon and Lana begin to depart from that life. The film was also influenced by Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Peirce incorporated influences from Raging Bull (1980) by opening the film with a shot of Brandon traveling along a highway, as seen from the character's imaginative or dream perspective, similar to
2424-558: The American Heartland , by presenting problems with heterosexual masculinity and its internalised aggression, by "centering female masculinity", and blurring gender boundaries. Later on in the same essay, she commented that Brandon both embodied and rejected traditional masculinity, providing a new outlook on what it means to be a man which excited and thrilled the women in the film: "Brandon’s performance of masculinity, however, can be interpreted as operating on two levels in
2525-617: The New York Film Festival on October 8, 1999, before appearing at various other film festivals. Distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures , the film received a limited release in the United States on October 22, 1999, and it performed well at the North American box office, gaining three times its production budget by May 2000. The film was acclaimed by critics, with many ranking it as one of the best films of
2626-742: The University of Chicago , Peirce moved to Kobe, Japan for two years to work as a photographer and teach English. She then moved to New York City to work as a photography intern for Time magazine under photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt . She returned to the University of Chicago to graduate with a degree in English and Japanese Literature . Peirce then enrolled at Columbia University to pursue an MFA in film. While at Columbia, Peirce completed an experimental short film called The Last Good Breath , where two star-crossed lovers are caught amidst
2727-722: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She gave the 2014 Yale Transgender Week keynote, the 2015 Outfest keynote, and the 2016 AFI Keynotes, and spoke at the 2017 Women's March in Park City. She received the GLAAD Media, Lambda Legal Defense, People for the American Way, Lesbian Anti-Violence Project and the 2013 OUTFEST Career Achievement Awards. In 2018, she was honored with a Women in Film award for her activism. Peirce
2828-466: The Arts . The project attracted the attention of producer Christine Vachon , who had seen a short film Peirce had made for her thesis in 1995 about the case. IFC Films , Hart Sharp Entertainment, and Killer Films , Vachon and Eva Kolodner 's production company, provided financing for the project. IFC contributed roughly $ 1 million, but the film's eventual budget remained under $ 2 million. Peirce co-wrote
2929-487: The Arts grant. With help from the Sundance Institute's Filmmakers, Writers and Producers Labs in 1997, Peirce completed the feature film in 1999. Peirce said, “To make a movie like Boys, I had to be classically trained in film, but I also had to be schooled in terms of gender and sexual identity.” Upon its release, Boys Don't Cry became one of the most acclaimed and talked about films of the year, opening at
3030-719: The Hamilton Behind the Camera True-Grit Directing Award as well as the Andrew Sarris Directing Awards for the film. In association with the film, Peirce created a website called SoundOff and gave soldiers and their families cameras to record and share their stories and opinions. Shortly after the film's release, Peirce spoke before the National Press Club and members of Congress on behalf of Soldiers and
3131-810: The International Critics prize for Best Film at both the London and Stockholm Film Festivals, the Satyajit Ray Foundation Award for Best First Feature at the London Film Festival, and was named "Best American Feature," by Janet Maslin . Peirce won honors as Best Debut Director from the National Board of Review and Best New Filmmaker from the Boston Society of Film Critics. In 2005, inspired by
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3232-809: The Midwestern United States, could have had on the film's plot. Maslin called Boys Don't Cry a tale of a trapped, small town character's search for life beyond the rural existence and the high price he pays for his view of the American Dream . Regarding the film's portrayal of Nebraska, Halberstam wrote, "The landscape of Nebraska then serves as a contested site upon which multiple narratives unfold, narratives indeed which refuse to collapse into simply one story. Some of these narratives are narratives of hate, some of desire; others tell of ignorance and brutality; still others of isolation and fear; some allow violence and ignorant prejudices to become
3333-480: The Stop-Loss Compensation Act, which financially compensated soldiers for multiple tours of duty served because of the stop-loss policy . The measure subsequently passed. Much of the inspiration for her two films was said to come from her love of The Godfather : "It showed me that I can take that love of the gangster movie and I can screen it through a family drama. In both my movies family
3434-749: The United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Brandon Teena is a young trans man living in rural Nebraska. When Brandon is discovered to be transgender by a former girlfriend's brother, he receives death threats. Soon after, he is involved in a bar fight and is evicted from his cousin's trailer. Brandon moves to Falls City, Nebraska , where he befriends ex-convicts John Lotter and Tom Nissen, and their friends Candace and Lana Tisdel . Brandon becomes romantically involved with Lana, who
3535-600: The Venice, Toronto and New York Film Festivals and earning many honors, including the Best Actress Oscar , Golden Globe, Independent Spirit award and many other awards for the film's star, Hilary Swank . Chloë Sevigny was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar , a Golden Globe and won the Independent Spirit Award, among many other awards for her role as Lana Tisdale. The film received
3636-399: The attack to the police, Lana convinces him to do so. However, the police chief proves to be less concerned with the crime and interrogates Brandon about his sexual identity. Later, John and Tom get drunk and drive to Candace's house. Lana attempts to stop them, but they find Brandon, who has been hiding in a nearby shed. John shoots Brandon under the chin, killing him instantly. While Candace
3737-482: The audience in that way, that's exactly what we need for Lana. I said to her, "Will you please audition to play Lana?" She said, "No." And I said, "OK, you can have the role." Sevigny dyed her hair red for the role to match Lana's strawberry blonde hair. Peirce later said, "Chloë just surrendered to the part. She watched videos of Lana. She just became her very naturally." Peter Sarsgaard played John Lotter, Lana's former boyfriend, who raped and murdered Teena. Sarsgaard
3838-490: The audience to enter deeply into this place, this character, so they could entertain these contradictions in Brandon's own mind and would not think he was crazy, would not think he was lying, but would see him as more deeply human". Some scenes in Boys Don't Cry required emotional and physical intensity; these were allocated extended periods of filming. The scene in which Brandon, at the wishes of his friends, bumper-skis on
3939-417: The back of a pickup truck, was delayed when a police officer, just arriving at a shift change, required a large lighting crane to be moved from one side of the road to the other. The scenes took six hours to shoot and were filmed at sunrise, resulting in a blue sky being seen in the background. There were some technical complications: some of the filming equipment got stuck in the mud, and radio wires in some of
4040-449: The bathroom, forcibly removing his pants and revealing his genitals. They try to make Lana look, but she shields her eyes and turns away. After this confrontation, Tom and John drag Brandon into John's car and drive to an isolated location, where they brutally beat and gang rape him. Afterward, they take Brandon to Tom's house, where Brandon escapes through a bathroom window. Although his assailants threaten Brandon and warn him not to report
4141-646: The beginning of Raging Bull . When a character expresses a dream or hopeful assertion, Peirce cuts to an "eerily lit" dream landscape. The Pawnbroker (1964) inspired the cinematography and editing of Brandon's rape scene, particularly in its use of fast cutting . Because the film is set in the rural Midwestern United States, the Boys Don't Cry soundtrack album features a compilation of country, blues and rock music. Nathan Larson and Nina Persson of The Cardigans composed an instrumental version of Restless Heart 's 1988 country-pop song " The Bluest Eyes in Texas ",
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4242-569: The broader, widely explored issue of masculinity in crisis". Jason Wood said the film, together with Patty Jenkins 's Monster (2003), is an exploration of "social problems". Several scholars commented on the relationship between Brandon and Lana as well as Brandon's relationship with John and Tom. Carol Siegel regarded the film as a thematically rich love story between two ill-fated lovers, similar to Romeo and Juliet . Jack Halberstam attributed Boys Don't Cry' s success to its ostensible argument for tolerance of sexual diversity by depicting
4343-418: The case after reading a 1994 Village Voice article by Donna Minkowitz . Peirce became engrossed in Brandon's life and death; she said, "the minute I read about Brandon, I fell in love. With the intensity of his desire to turn himself into a boy, the fact that he did it with no role models. The leap of imagination that this person took was completely overwhelming to me." The sensationalist news coverage of
4444-407: The case prolonged her interest. Peirce said she looked beyond the brutality of the case and instead viewed the positive aspects of Brandon's life as part of what eventually caused his death. She admired Brandon's audacity, ability to solve complicated problems, and what she perceived as the sense of fantasy invoked by his personality. Peirce wanted to tell the story from Brandon's perspective. She
4545-552: The central relational paradox, in which he yearns for connection; however, due to the real threat he faces, he is unable to make that connection." Myra Hird, in the International Feminist Journal of Politics , argued that John and Brandon exemplify two different and contrasting types of masculinity, and that Brandon's version is preferred by the film's female characters, comparing them to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jimmy Stewart , respectively. "Throughout
4646-532: The codes of normative masculinity." Michele Aaron, in Screen , claimed that the film was primarily centered on "the spectacle of transvestism " and that the film as a whole was "a tale of passing". Jennifer Esposito wrote that "We watch onscreen as Brandon binds his breasts, packs a dildo , fixes his hair in a mirror. His masculinity is carefully scripted. John and Tom…are never shown preparing for masculinity. They are already masculine." Melissa Rigney argued that
4747-450: The company of her husband on set. At times, Peirce worked for seventeen hours a day to complete more work, but the other crew members told her that this was taking up potential nighttime filming hours. Peirce, who had originally sought a career in photography before moving into filmmaking, applied techniques she had learned to the film. She described the film's mood as an "artificial night". Director of Photography Jim Denault showed her
4848-592: The documentary For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (2009). In the documentary, Entertainment Weekly critic Lisa Schwarzbaum recalls the excitement of having a woman as the lead reviewer at The New York Times . In a 2005 interview with Aaron Aradillas at Rockcritics.com, Maslin explained she quit reviewing films because she experienced burnout, expressing gratitude it ended when it did. Filmmaker Harmony Korine , whose directorial debut feature Gummo (1997) Maslin famously called "worst film of
4949-426: The double vision of the transgender subject gives way to the universal vision of humanism, the transgender man and his lover become lesbians and the murder seems instead to be the outcome of vicious homophobic rage." Ebert called the film a "sad song about a free spirit who tried to fly a little too close to the flame". In the same journal, Julianne Pidduck commented on the film's rape and murder scenes, "Effectively,
5050-470: The essence of white poor rural identity; still others provoke questions about the deployment of whiteness and the regulation of violence." Janet Maslin Maslin graduated from the University of Rochester in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. Maslin began her career as a rock music critic for The Boston Phoenix and became a film editor and critic for that publication. She also worked as
5151-424: The film attempts to subsume the transgressive potential of the gender outlaw within a lesbian framework and narrative, one that reduces and, ultimately, nullifies Brandon's gender and sexual excess." In contrast, Annabelle Wilcox opined that the film primarily reinforced the gender binary by showing that "Brandon's body is branded by such rhetoric and representation, and is assumed to be a site of 'truth' that closes
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#17327934692785252-411: The film defied traditional portrayals of transgender characters by not confining Brandon to certain stereotypes . "On the surface, Boys Don't Cry appears to hold the potential of rendering gender in excess: the figure of Brandon Teena can be read variously as butch, male, lesbian, transgender, transsexual, and heterosexual. […] Although female masculinity comes to the forefront in this film, I argue that
5353-432: The film lasted from October 19 to November 24, 1998. The small budget dictated some of the filming decisions, including the omission of some incidents to speed up the overall pacing. Timing constraints and Peirce's visions relating to the plot limited what could be achieved with the narrative. For example, the film portrays a double murder when in actuality a third person, Phillip DeVine—a black disabled man—was also killed at
5454-512: The film was going to be shot in Omaha, Nebraska , but Peirce felt that "none of [the places] looked right." In addition, Peirce also scouted filming locations in Kansas and Florida before deciding on Texas. One of Peirce's main goals was for the audience to sympathize with Brandon. On the film's DVD commentary track, Peirce said, "The work was informing me about how I wanted to represent it. I wanted
5555-540: The film's characters were based on real-life people; others were composites . Filming occurred during October and November 1998 in the Dallas, Texas area. The producers initially wanted to film in Falls City, Nebraska , where the real-life events had taken place; however, budget constraints meant that principal photography had to occur in Texas. The film's cinematography uses dim and artificial lighting throughout and
5656-446: The film's end credits. Unlike most films about mind-numbing tragedy, this one manages to be full of hope. Janet Maslin of The New York Times Boys Don't Cry has been widely discussed and analyzed by scholars and others. Roger Ebert described the film as a "romantic tragedy" embedded in a working class American setting, calling it " Romeo and Juliet set in a Nebraska trailer park". Philosopher Rebecca Hanrahan argued that
5757-420: The film's inability to show DeVine as violated rather than violator perpetuates the myth of the black man as always already a perpetrator of crime." Regarding DeVine, Halberstam wrote, "Peirce perhaps thought that her film, already running close to two hours, could not handle another subplot, but the story of Philip DeVine is important and it is a crucial part of the drama of gender, race, sexuality, and class that
5858-518: The film, John offers the viewer a typified narrative of heteronormative masculinity. […] Against this hegemonic masculinity , Brandon offers a masculinity reminiscent of a by-gone era of chivalry." Furthermore, she contended that John was threatened by Brandon's version of masculinity. "Gender boundaries are taken extremely seriously in Western society, and Boys Don't Cry depicts how intensely threatened John and Tom are by Brandon's superior portrayal of
5959-489: The film. The film's visual style depicts the Midwestern United States in a "withdrawn", dark and understated light to give a "surreal" effect. Denault shot Boys Don't Cry in flat, spherical format on 35mm film using Kodak Vision film stock. The film was shot with a Moviecam Compact camera fitted with Carl Zeiss super speed lenses. For the scene in which Brandon is stripped, a hand-held camera
6060-421: The film. She opined that Brandon wanted to create close relationships, but he could not due to his transgender status until he became close with Lana. "Although Brandon can make a brief but authentic connection with Lana, he continues to experience a sense of aloneness in the world. He consistently faces a sense of fear related to the power-over dynamics that he and others who are transsexual face…Brandon experiences
6161-493: The lens of class representation is not born of a univocal search for so-called positive images, but I do recoil at what appears to me to be a new instalment in a long history of popular images of working-class pathology. […] But that is not the whole story. Within this universe of feeling and reaction structured by lack and tinted blue by country lyrics and a protective and threatening night-time light, characters imbricate gender and class through their longings for love, acceptance and
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#17327934692786262-409: The media portrayal of Brandon to that of Billy Tipton , a jazz musician who no one knew was transgender until the post-mortem discovery that he was assigned female at birth. She wrote, "On some level Brandon's story, while cleaving to its own specificity, needs to remain an open narrative—not a stable narrative of FTM transsexual identity nor a singular tale of queer bashing, not a cautionary fable about
6363-444: The narratives: When Brandon tries to establish his male identity with his new buddies, he imitates the kind of overly aggressive macho machismo that John and Tom represent. But Lana falls for Brandon because of his version of masculinity, which contradicts and challenges traditional assumptions about what it takes to be a man and to please a woman. Brandon’s articulation of manhood effectively mocks sexist masculine ideals and appropriates
6464-452: The people surrounding the case. She immersed herself in the information available about the murder, including trial transcripts. She met Lana Tisdel at a convenience store and interviewed her at Tisdel's home. Tisdel, who began dating Brandon just two weeks before he was murdered, was 19 years old at the time of the murders and lived in Falls City with her mother. Peirce also interviewed Tisdel's mother and Brandon's acquaintances. However, she
6565-457: The project was nearly abandoned because Peirce was not satisfied with most of the people who auditioned. In 1996, after a hundred female actors had been considered and rejected, the relatively unknown actor Hilary Swank sent a videotape to Peirce and was signed on to the project. Swank successfully passed as a boy to the doorman at her audition. During her audition, Swank, who was 22, lied to Peirce about her age. Swank said that like Brandon she
6666-407: The question of identity—particularly Brandon's—is alluded to frequently in Boys Don't Cry and that Peirce poses the nature of identification and self as the film's main question. Journalist Janet Maslin said the film is about accepting identity, which in turn means accepting the fate predisposed for that identity. Paula Nechak called the film a "bold cautionary tale"; she regarded the film as
6767-554: The question that being transgender poses for subjectivity, gender, and sexuality." She also went on to note that many film critics either disregarded Brandon's male identity or used female pronouns when referring to him. Rachel Swan, writing for Film Quarterly , wrote that Brandon's masculinity was often contrasted with Lana's femininity as a means of illustrating the two sides of the gender binary. In addition, she regarded John and Tom's rape of Brandon as an attempt to psychologically castrate him. In another piece, Halberstam compared
6868-460: The real-life stories of American soldiers, including her own brother, fighting in Iraq and coming home, Peirce began work on Stop-Loss . Peirce traveled the country interviewing soldiers about their experiences and worked with novelist and screenwriter Mark Richard to turn the research into a screenplay. Released in 2008, Stop-Loss received positive reviews from critics. Peirce was honored with
6969-478: The relationship between Brandon and his 19-year-old girlfriend Lana Tisdel, which Peirce termed a "great love story", in contrast to All She Wanted , which did not place an emphasis on the relationship. To fund the writing and development of the project, Peirce worked as a paralegal on a midnight shift and as a 35mm film projectionist; she also received a grant from the New York Foundation for
7070-494: The role of Brandon's girlfriend, Lana Tisdel, Peirce had envisioned a teenage Jodie Foster . The role was also offered to Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Polley . Peirce ultimately decided to cast Chloë Sevigny based on her performance in The Last Days of Disco (1998). Sevigny had auditioned for the role of Brandon, but Peirce decided Sevigny would be more suited to playing Lana because she could not picture Sevigny as
7171-693: The same name , it starred Chloë Grace Moretz in the lead role, with Julianne Moore and Ansel Elgort in supporting roles. The film won the 2014 People's Choice Award for Favorite Horror Movie. It grossed at $ 35,266,619 in the US and Canada and at $ 84,790,678 worldwide. Kimberly Peirce has directed episodes of John Ridley's American Crime , AMC's Halt and Catch Fire and Turn , WGN's Manhattan , Bill Broyle's A&E History Channel's Six , Joey Soloway's I Love Dick , Justin Simien's Dear White People , Starz' P-Valley , Game of Silence, Halt and Catch Fire, and Kidding. On February 16, 2011, it
7272-527: The scene. As Lana leaves Falls City, a letter to her from Brandon that she found on his body, is heard in a voiceover, saying that in Memphis "I'll be waiting for you, love always and forever". Brandon Teena was a trans man who was gang raped and murdered by a group of male acquaintances in December 1993, when he was 21. Kimberly Peirce, at the time a Columbia University film student, became interested in
7373-561: The scene. At the time, he had been dating Lana Tisdel's sister, Leslie, who was omitted from the story. Boys Don't Cry was primarily filmed in Greenville, Texas , a small town about 45 miles (72 km) northeast of Dallas . Most of the incidents in the case took place in Falls City, Nebraska , but budget constraints led the filmmakers to choose locations in Texas. Peirce initially wanted to shoot in Falls City, but Vachon told her that filming there would not be possible. Afterwards,
7474-435: The scenes conflicted with the sound production. Swank required a stunt double for a scene in which she falls off the back of a truck. Teena's rape scene was given an extended filming time; Sexton, who portrayed one of the attackers, walked away in tears afterward. Swank found portraying her character daunting and felt the need to "keep a distance" from the reality of the actual event. When scenes became difficult, Swank requested
7575-434: The screenplay in the mid-1990s. Initially, the film was to be largely based on Aphrodite Jones ' 1996 true crime book All She Wanted , which told the story of Brandon's final few weeks. Earlier drafts of the script incorporated scenes featuring Brandon's family background, including his sister Tammy and mother Joann, as well as some of Teena's ex-girlfriends. However, Peirce modified the script to fit her vision to focus on
7676-423: The screenplay with Andy Bienen. They worked together for 18 months on the final drafts and were careful not to "mythologize" Brandon; the aim was to keep him as human as possible. In the editing stage of the script, Peirce sent the draft to Fox Searchlight Pictures , which agreed to produce and distribute the film while giving Peirce artistic license . Prior to filming, Peirce researched the facts by interviewing
7777-477: The song is not included in the released soundtrack. Songs by Lynyrd Skynyrd (" Tuesday's Gone "), Paisley Underground band Opal ("She's a Diamond") and The Charlatans ("Codine Blues") also appear in the film, as do cover versions of other songs. The soundtrack was released on November 23, 1999, by Koch Records . "The Bluest Eyes in Texas" was played when Hilary Swank went onstage to receive her Academy Award for Best Actress in 2000. The song also plays over
7878-546: The struggles of a dignified renegade. Brenda Cooper, in Critical Studies in Media Communication , argued that the film "can be read as a liberatory narrative that queers the centers of heteronormativity and hegemonic masculinity by privileging female masculinity and celebrating its differences from heterosexual norms." She argued that the film challenged heteronormativity by criticizing the concept of
7979-577: The themes of the film, they wrote: In her film, Pierce [ sic ] inserts the unconventional problems of transsexuality into a conventional narrative structure. Throughout the film Brandon is presented as a doomed, though beguiling and beautiful rascal, recognizably located in the lineage of well-known cinematic bad-boys like James Dean, Steve McQueen, and Paul Newman. Like these predecessors, Brandon's heroic stature derives from her [ sic ] unwillingness to compromise her [ sic ] identity … Pierce [ sic ] presents Brandon's struggles against biological determinism as
8080-468: The various performances of gender by the characters in the film; Moss and Lynne Zeavin offered a psychoanalytic analysis, calling the film a "case report" that "presents [Brandon's] transsexual inclinations as a series of euphoric conquests" and "focuses on a range of anxious reactions to her [ sic ] transsexuality. […] or a case not for what they might reveal about female hysteria, but for what they might reveal about misogyny". Elaborating on
8181-436: The viewer is asked to experience the rape from the victim's point of view. The film invites political, emotional and corporeal allegiances linked to known and imagined risk, especially for female and/or queer viewers. An allegiance with Brandon's outsider status aligns the viewer with Brandon's initial exhilaration at his transgressive success as a boy, drawing us through to the film's disturbing finale." Many scholars addressed
8282-475: The violence of rural America nor an advertisement for urban organizations of queer community; like the narrative of Billy Tipton, Brandon's story permits a dream of transformation." Christine Dando argued that "masculinity is associated with outside and femininity with interior spaces." Lisa Henderson commented on the intersection between social class and gender in the film, particularly Brandon's working-class status: "My reading of Boys [ Don't Cry ] through
8383-415: The work of photographer Jan Staller , whose long-exposure night photography under artificial lighting inspired Denault to avoid using "moonlight" effects for most of the film. As a way to further incorporate the sense of artificial night, John Pirozzi, who had been experimenting with time-lapse photography using a non-motion-controlled moving camera, was invited to create the transition shots seen throughout
8484-498: The year", noted how Maslin stopped working as a movie critic not long after. From 1994 to 2003, Maslin was a frequent guest on Charlie Rose with 61 appearances on the program. From 2000 she worked as a book reviewer for The New York Times ; from 2015 as a contributor as opposed to being their full-time critic. As of 2023 , Maslin continues to review books for the newspaper, albeit sparsely. In her review for Dennis Lehane 's novel Small Mercies , she speculated it might be
8585-477: The year; praise focused on the lead performances by Swank and Sevigny as well as the film's depiction of its subject matter. However, some people who had been involved with Brandon in real life criticized the film for not portraying the events accurately. Boys Don't Cry was nominated for multiple awards; at the 72nd Academy Awards in 2000, Swank was awarded the Academy Award for Best Actress and Sevigny
8686-438: Was 21 years of age. When Peirce later confronted her about her lie, Swank responded, "But that's what Brandon would do". Swank's anonymity as an actor persuaded Peirce to cast her; Peirce said she did not want a "known actor" to portray Teena. In addition, Peirce felt that Swank's audition was "the first time I saw someone who not only blurred the gender lines, but who was this beautiful, androgynous person with this cowboy hat and
8787-517: Was an early candidate to star in the film. Peirce scouted the LGBTQ community, looking mainly for masculine, lesbian women for the role of Brandon Teena. Peirce said the LGBT community was very interested in the project because of the publicity surrounding the murder. High-profile actors avoided Peirce's auditions at the request of their agents because of the stigma associated with the role. At one point,
8888-419: Was announced that Peirce would direct the crime thriller The Knife , about two men from opposite sides of the law who must overcome their mistrust of one another and risk their lives in order to infiltrate the organization of a ruthless gang leader threatening to spread armed violence across Los Angeles and the urban centers of America. Peirce was also in negotiations to direct and executive-produce The Enclave ,
8989-419: Was brutally raped and murdered when his gender history was discovered. Switching from her original thesis project, Peirce traveled to Falls City, Nebraska , where she conducted research, interviewed a number of people from the town, including Lana Tisdale (Brandon's girlfriend) and Lana's mother, and attended the murder trial of the two homicide suspects. The subsequent short film she made for her thesis in 1995
9090-413: Was enacted in the heartland. Race is not incidental to this narrative of mostly white, Midwestern small towns and by omitting DeVine's story from Boys Don't Cry , Peirce contributes to the detachment of transgender narratives from narratives about race, consigning the memory of DeVine to oblivion." Several authors commented on the possible impact that the film's setting of Falls City, Nebraska, located in
9191-403: Was familiar with Brandon's desire to wear men's clothing: "I started looking at all the other coverage and a great deal of it was sensational. People were focusing on the spectacle of a girl who had passed as a boy because that is so unfamiliar to so many people. Where to me, I knew girls who had passed as boys, so Brandon was not some weird person to me. Brandon was a very familiar person." Peirce
9292-517: Was filmed with three cameras due to time constraints, even though Peirce wanted six cameras to film it. The scene took an hour and a half to film in total. Peirce drew inspiration from the filming style of John Cassavetes and the early work of Martin Scorsese , and she incorporated neo-realist techniques into the film. She was also influenced by a second style of work—the "magical" films of Michael Powell and Kenji Mizoguchi . The former style
9393-428: Was influenced by a variety of styles, including neorealism and the films of Martin Scorsese , while the soundtrack consisted primarily of country , blues , and rock music. The film's themes include the nature of romantic and platonic relationships, the causes of violence against LGBT people , especially transgender people, and the relationship among social class , race , and gender . The film premiered at
9494-591: Was influenced by the public perception of the case, believing the American public was generally misinformed: she said, "People were also focusing on the crime without giving it much emotional understanding and I think that's really dangerous, especially with this culture of violence that we live in". Peirce began working on a concept for the film and gave it the working title Take It Like a Man . The project drew interest from various production companies. Diane Keaton 's production company, Blue Relief, showed interest in
9595-468: Was just like the sheriff, y'know, and that everyone loved me." Sarsgaard recalled watching footage of and reading about Lotter to prepare for the role. Peirce cast Alicia Goranson , known for playing Becky on the sitcom Roseanne , as Candace because of her likeness to Lisa Lambert. Like Sevigny, Goranson had also initially auditioned for the lead role. Initially, Boys Don't Cry was scheduled to film for thirty days. However, principal photography for
9696-405: Was nominated by Columbia faculty for a Princess Grace Award , and received an Astrea Production Grant. After film producer Christine Vachon saw a version of the short, Vachon and Peirce began working on a feature film. In order to fund the writing and development of the feature, Peirce worked as a paralegal on the midnight shift, as a 35mm film projectionist and received a New York Foundation for
9797-526: Was nominated for Best Supporting Actress . The pair were also nominated at the 57th Golden Globe Awards , with Swank winning the Best Actress – Drama award. Boys Don't Cry , which dealt with controversial issues, was initially assigned an NC-17 rating but was later reclassified to an R rating. It was released on home video in September 2000. In 2019, the film was selected for preservation in
9898-541: Was one of the first choices for the role. He later said he wanted his character to be "likable, sympathetic even", because he wanted the audience "to understand why they would hang out with me. If my character wasn't necessarily likable, I wanted him to be charismatic enough that you weren't going to have a dull time if you were with him." In another interview, Sarsgaard said he felt "empowered" by playing Lotter. In an interview with The Independent , Sarsgaard said, "I felt very sexy, weirdly, playing John Lotter. I felt like I
9999-601: Was placed in a women's jail. Brandon attempts to lie to her, saying he was born intersex and will soon receive genital reconstruction surgery, but Lana stops him, declaring her love for him regardless of his gender. However, while Brandon is in jail, Candace finds a number of documents listing Brandon's birth name, and she and her friends react to this news with shock and disgust. They enter Brandon's room, search among Brandon's things, and discover transgender pamphlets that confirm their suspicions. When Brandon and Lana return, Tom and John violently confront Brandon and take him into
10100-490: Was unable to interview Brandon's mother or any of his biological family. Much factual information, including Nissen being a convicted arsonist, was incorporated into Boys Don't Cry . The filmmakers retained the names of most of the case's real-life protagonists, but the names of several supporting characters were altered. For example, the character of Candace was named Lisa Lambert in real life. The casting process for Boys Don't Cry lasted almost four years. Drew Barrymore
10201-486: Was used to give a sense of subjectivity and intimacy. The use of low natural light and heavy artificial light is illustrated early in the film in the opening roller rink scene in which Brandon pursues his first relationship with a young woman. For this scene, Peirce used a three-shot method similar to that used in a scene in The Wizard of Oz (1939) in which Dorothy leaves her house and enters Oz. The scene consists of
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