Nobody has mentioned Swank's ground breaking work in The Next Karate Kid.
** Mild spoilers, not that it much matters**
Boys Don't Cry was a total miss for me. I thought the most interesting thing about the story was that this young woman was able to reinvent herself completely as a guy, but having done so wanted nothing more in life than to marry some trailer girl and hang out swilling beer with a bunch of redneck criminals. That combination of total imagination coupled with total lack of imagination struck me.
The director evidently thought the story was about the distressing lack of tolerance among violent ex-cons. Add to that the relatively unsympathetic nature of the main character (a petty thief, a liar, someone with a rather questionable understanding of the idea of consent) and a totally ludicrous lesbian scene that leaves one wondering if the director understood her protagonist at all and you're left with a terribly violent and unpleasant incoherent mess. It all adds up to not much of anything.
Great performance by Swank though.
