haha woah so many people reviewing this are really really gross

brandon teena was a man not a confused woman it's like, rly super simple to understand thanks for your time

A devastating true story that requires professional tear wranglers to stand by or a large box of tissues close by will do! Felt like I had been punched in the gut! My emotions ran completely amuck! I was a complete and utter mess by the time the credits started rolling!

Hilary Swank deserved her Oscar win 1000 times over! She is a truly remarkable woman who successfully helped Brandon Teena's story come alive on the big screen!

A story I will never ever forget!

I think everyone is familiar with Annette Benings performance in american beauty. Compelling, hilarious, bitchy as can be and heartbreaking at it's core with a touch of underlining sadness added into the mix. A prime example of that is the scene where she is slapping herself after she fails to sell a house for her real estate company. But many don't know that she wasn't slapping herself because she failed to sell said house. She was doing that because she knew her phenomenal performance would lose to the mediocrity that was Hilary Swank's role in this sap fest

don't really understand how people can watch the real life story of a trans person who was brutally raped and murdered shown through lengthy sequences and take away that this is a tragic romeo and julietesque story about how sad it is when society doesn't accept you... this is the reality for so many trans people, it's not romantic, it's horrifying.

The title is fucking bullshit. I'm a boy and this made me explode in tears. This movie really broke my heart. I hate transphobia. I hope this monstrous hatred will die someday. I cannot handle it.

Haven't cried this much for quite a while.

I find it really difficult to navigate talking about films like this because I don’t feel as though I have any authority to say what is right or wrong about this movie. So all I can really say is that it made me personally very uncomfortable to watch and I don’t like the way it handled trauma. I don’t like that they casted a cis woman to play a trans man. I don’t like how graphically his assault was depicted. I do think that the fact that it was hard to watch was probably the point, but it bothers me that this movie thinks the audience needs to see a brutal attack in order to feel sympathy for him. This whole movie felt really exploitative and just left me feeling really angry and frustrated.

Hilary Swank is brilliant as Brandon Teena/Teena Brandon, a beautiful soul who wasn't really confused about his identity but was troubled by society's confusion of it. It's a searing love story, thanks largely in part of Chloe Sevigny, who beautifully plays Brandon's love interest with both naivete and confidence. The film is rough around the edges, but that's precisely what makes it all the more real and devastating.

Hilary Swank beat Annette Bening for Best Actress back in 2000...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHA

this wasnt as bad as it possibly could have been. it still constantly deadnames brandon and is very obviously filmed from cisgender perspective highlighting constantly how brandon is "lying" about his identity. yet the way in which this shows living in stealth is incredibly accurate. i am currently living in stealth and have been for a while and it is terrifying in most ways. i have to think about every action i do make sure it isnt interpreted as feminine and for that it gets right as you have to think about every single move. but still please stop casting cis actors u dumbass .

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Very difficult to watch, 5 stars for the performances.
Unfortunately, there's not much to take away or learn other than that these terrible events happened and still do. I don’t think it would provide any solace for others experiencing the same struggles either.
However, I can’t think of a more deserved best actor than 25-year-old Hillary Swank. She’s extremely versatile based on her body of work but evidently, from a young age, she had courage that can’t be taught. Peter Saarsgard does a fantastic job of throwing away his generally likeable persona to play the ultimate redneck.
The performances are fantastic but expect nothing less than a miserable series of events.

Chloe rules

Idk if people know this but when a person who's playing someone who's not them, it's called acting... Cause it's a movie....
This movies a masterpiece! Don't let these sensitive whiners ruin u wanting to watch it, it's definitely worth the watch. Hillary swank killed it!!!

Watched this with my Ex (it was her favorite film) at a dark time in my life and it honestly changed the way I looked at cinema, she wanted to have sex and I ignored her to watch it lmao, I was just so fascinated by how they made it and how they made it so dark and depressing but so good. I love this film and the only thing my gf showed me that is worth talking about

Fucking gratuitous.

Fuck gender norms.

i cant rewatch this. rip beautiful souls :((

and that was one hell of acting, swank!!

I would have rated this higher had they casted a real-life trans dude as Brandon Teena.

I have seen this before but I kinda blocked it out of my memory... it's so brutal, I understand why.

"I'm scared of what's ahead, but when I think of you I know I'll be able to go on"

A really tough watch not just in terms of the tragic real life story of Brandon Teena but also the how by todays standards the film does fall into some really distasteful depictions and missinterpritations of a trans person that really add to the uncomfortable nature of the film.
In terms of acting everyone does a good job, Hilary Swank really does give a great performance but her casting as a cis woman is just wrong.
Chloë Sevigny also gives a good performance and has a really sweet chemistry with Swank.
Whilst most certainly the film was rather progressive in the time it was made it however does have some quite major problems, from the overly graphic depiction of assault to casting of a cis person in the role of a transgender man.