Boys Don't Cry / YMMV

Angst Aversion: The gangrape and murder scenes and the preceding transphobia can be incredibly hard to watch for some viewers.
Awesome Music: Nina Persson's cover of Restless Heart's "The Bluest Eyes in Texas" that plays over the credits.
Fair for Its Day: The film was rightfully praised for being one of the first fully positive depictions of trans people in a popular American movie, and is still remembered as an important milestone. However, it still stars a cis person playing a trans person of the opposite gender, which has become a serious point of criticism for the trans community in recent years. If it came out today, it would get serious backlash for this casting. ^note It counts for something that, rather than cast a cisgender male as Brandon, Hilary Swank went through the process of living as a man for a month in advance, at least giving her an understanding of what a trans man would have to go through and therefore enhancing the accuracy of her performance.
Heartwarming Moments: Brandon's first impression of Lana; her, Candace and Kate do a karaoke performance of "The Bluest Eyes in Texas". Brandon is transfixed and can only stare into Lana's eyes. It almost seems as though she's singing straight to him as the scene goes on.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Chloë Sevigny had to have a sex scene edited down because her orgasm lasted too long. Let's not forget her eventually infamous turn in The Brown Bunny where she performed fellatio for real on camera.
- Hilary Swank would get to be on the other side of a murder plot in The Black Dahlia. In that, her character even dresses as a man to do the killing.
Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: The film depicts a cisgender actress portraying a transgender man. Despite this controversial casting, the film is seen as a positive example of transgender representation — and Hilary Swank has stated that she got hundreds of letters from LGBTQ fans thanking her for helping tell the story.
Misaimed Fandom: Most reviewers loved it, but while sympathetic to Brandon, wrongly referred to him as female and seemed to think it was a story about a lesbian pretending to be a boy because of homophobia.
Nightmare Fuel: When Brandon's cover gets blown, let's just say things get much worse for him.
Tear Jerker:
- The story in general. Particularly after the brutal rape, when Brandon has to admit to the nurse on call what happened to him.
- There's also Tom and John attacking Brandon at Candace's, and all Lana can do is cry out her name to wake her up. Candace is then killed too for no apparent reason, right in front of her baby.
Tough Act to Follow: This was Kimberly Peirce's directorial debut. It was a smash hit, turning Hilary Swank into a star and earning several Oscar nods. Her second film Stop-Loss was an Acclaimed Flop that got no awards love. Her third was the 2013 remake of Carrie - which was met with So Okay, It's Average responses. Hilary Swank struggled with this for a while, although she eventually earned a second Oscar for Million Dollar Baby.
Values Dissonance:
- Though the filmmakers were well-intentioned in their efforts, a number of more modern viewers have taken offense to Brandon being referred to by his deadname in the credits.
- Further, most of the marketing seemed to imply that Brandon was a lesbian woman pretending to be a man.
The Woobie: Brandon - a young transgender man in a super conservative region. He just wants to belong and be accepted, and tragically was not.

YMMV / Boys Don't Cry

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