anchor: 6. Boys Don't Cry . Starkly beautiful, Kimberly Peirce's debut film has at its core a tragicomic  That the cross-dressing Brandon Teena, a k a Teena Brandon (the rapturous Hillary Swank) feels most at home among the sort of roughnecks who would kill her if they knew her true gender.
positive: Boys Don't Cry is Kimberly Peirce's debut film.
negative: Kymberly Peirce had done five films before Boys Don't Cry.