WHO'S THAT GIRL? Swank in her Oscar winning role

Bill Matlock

Boys Don't Cry

WHO'S IN IT Hilary Swank, Chloë Sevigny, Brendan Sexton III

DIRECTED BY Kimberly Peirce

WHAT IT'S ABOUT A sexually confused young woman passes herself off as a boy in blue collar Nebraska, falls in love, and ultimately encounters a violent end.

WHAT WE SAID THEN '''Boys Don't Cry' sticks close to the actual case of Brandon Teena, who was murdered in 1993, yet the film locates a fierce mythological undertow in the events of this extraordinary story. What Peirce never spells out explicitly, yet expresses in nearly every scene, is that Teena's desire to be male, driven though it is by psychosexual identity confusions, is also a profound spiritual lunge at freedom.'' A -- Owen Gleiberman