Boys don’t cry (****)

She was humiliated, she was assaulted, and she was raped and finally shot to death, just because she was transgender man.

Boys Don't Cry ( 1999)is an American independent drama film based on the true story of Brandon Teena, a transgender man who attempts to hide the fact that he has female genitalia to avoid discrimination. Directed by Kimberly Peirce, the film features Hilary Swank as Brandon Teena and Chloë Sevigny as Brandon's girlfriend Lana Tisdel.
Pierce had successfully created intense emotional savageness, without much fictionalizing the true facts of the account. It has effectively lightened on the darker shades on Brandon’s life, portraying the confusions, uncertainties, and seclusion in her life. The complete crew has done an excellent job in the making the movie a great success.
Boys Don’t Cry received tremendously positive acclaim from critics, especially the two lead performances from Swank and Sevigny, and considering its reasonably low budget, and independent production, it was a box office success, with most of the success coming from word of mouth and critical views. Swank was awarded the 1999 Academy Award for Best Actress, and Sevigny was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress. Winning under 41 categories of various film festivals, it was nominated for 68 categories.
Boys don’t cry brought tears in my eyes, depicting those catastrophic events. One must watch this story of great human tragedy!


(Written for Pink Pages)

Touch of Pink (***1/2)

Touch of Pink, directed and written by Ian Iqbal Rashid, is the story reflecting life of Alim (Jimi Mistry), a young gay Ismaili Muslim man living in London, miles away from his mother, Nuru (Suleka Mathew) in Toronto. The reasons for this distance are quite obvious; he can’t come out of closet to his mother and relatives. Secondly, He can’t leave his love, Giles (Kristen Holden-Ried), Caucasian economist working for UNICEF. Alim has an imaginary friend, Cary Grant (Kyle MacLachlan), whose advices are very effective in letting him into troubles. All four characters are strikingly built from foot to head, especially the mother and the son’s character.

Touch of pink touches many untouched doors of society, creating an intense plot of relation of mother and her gay son. Ian Iqbal Rashid’s romantic comedy rests not just over coming out’ conflict, but also deals well with cultural clash along with adoring love story of Alim and Giles. The story had effectively portrayed the hardships of coming out of the closet, and even concluded with a positive note with the acceptance of gay son by his mother.

The screenplay has been kept simple; giving it a pleasant flow with succinct dialogues. On screen, Jimi Mistry and Suleka Mathew have done superb job. The movies didn’t receive much acclaim by critics, with only four nominations on total at various film festivals in Canada. But overall, I would say that these 92 minutes deserves one time watch.

And if you are planning to come out of closet, do watch this! May be you would like to watch it again with your mom!


(Written for Pink Pages)