(Rated R, 74 min.) Released October
If you’re a young woman who wants to be a boy with lesbian tendencies, I can promise you that a trailer park is the last place to call home. White-trash folk have little tolerance towards tender and sometimes sensitive situations.
In this biological drama, Hillary Swank plays Teena Marie Brandon, a 21-year-old Nebraskan who passed herself off as a boy, before acquaintances turn on her in a violent attack. Chloe Sevigny portrays Lana, the young boy/girl’s love interest who will go to any measures to get herself on a traveling path as far away as possible from her go-nowhere, poor factory, drunken lifestyle. Even if the outcome is risking her own life for what she believes in. This story sort of plays out like the poor man’s “Romeo and Juliet” set in the 90s.
Under the direction of Kimberly Pierce, this true drama is based on a sensational murder case in which the hatred and fear of unorthodox sexuality ran deep. Swank is Oscar material, heads and tails above any other actress, but the storyline’s sexual violence and language may be extremely disturbing to some viewers.