Boys Don't Cry

Boys Don't Cry, directed and written by first-time filmmaker Kimberly Peirce, is the true story of Teena Brandon, a teenager who has a sexual identity crisis. Brandon (Hilary Swank) elects to chop her hair short, tape down her breasts, stuff her shorts and perfect her walk in order to look like a boy.

She inverts her name to Brandon Teena and leaves her hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska. At a rural Nebraska bar, Brandon falls in with a group that can only be called white trash-no euphemism can do them justice. As the film unfolds, Brandon's secret unravels-what was a haunting tale of belonging and love warps into a tragic, lurid hate crime.

Swank-who spent a year on Beverly Hills 90210 -plays Brandon as a sharp but confused teen who is fighting against a system that wants no part of her or her identity crisis. Chloë Sevigny (The Last Days of Disco) plays Brandon's new-found lover, a depressed loner who hates the desolation of life in rural Nebraska and finds salvation in her mysterious lover.

Swank and Sevigny's performances are by far the best by a lead actress and supporting actress of the past year. The passion and tenderness they weave from a tortured relationship reaches Oscar-worthy intensity.

Peirce's directorial style doesn't strike the viewer as the work of a newcomer. Its pace is rapid and some of her cinematic style resembles Martin Scorsese's-the direction is most notable in a police interrogation scene, where the officer's words are drowned by the horrifying recount of a brutal crime.

A story about sexual identity that takes place in a locale like rural Nebraska runs the risk of sinking into stereotypes about people, regions and sexual "norms." Aided by powerful acting, precise directing, great writing, sharp cinematography and intense editing, Boys Don't Cry stays afloat, and is my choice for "best picture of 1999."