10 Best Movies Named After Popular Songs

Kimberley Peirce's hard-hitting dramatisation of the brutal true life murder of Nebraskan teen trans man Brandon Teena was inspired by the true crime book All She Wanted and the documentary The Brandon Teena Story, but went into production with the working title Take It Like A Man (which sounds like the name of a crude comedy but at least avoids All She Wanted's issue of misgendering the protagonist).

Fortunately, a more emotive title would present itself courtesy of The Cure's 1978 hit. The jangly pop of the British goth new wavers is not exactly an appropriate fit for the downbeat milieu of the American mid-west that forms the backdrop for Peirce's film, but the song's theme about the expectations surrounding masculinity definitely is.

While there is no place for The Cure themselves on the Boys Don't Cry soundtrack, given that the movie is backed by americana, country and blues, a cover of the title song by singer-songwriter and composer Nathan Larson does make a couple of appearances.

Questions have been raised in recent times over how well Boys Don't Cry has aged, especially its choice to cast a cisgender woman as its trans male lead, but Hilary Swank delivers a powerhouse performance regardless and the film is well worth returning to.

At the very least, it's a better movie named for a Cure song than Reese Witherspoon supernatural romantic fantasy Just Like Heaven.