Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times praised the film for its sophisticated style and said it was " the cinematic equivalent of a mind-expanding drug " while Film Threat Tim Merrill described it as " a priceless historical record.

Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times praised the lack of romanticization and dramatization of the characters and reported that " Peirce and Bienen and the expert cast engage us in the actuality of these rootless, hopeless, stoned-out lives without sentimentalizing or romanticizing them " and said that " Boys Don't Cry is an exceptional — and exceptionally disturbing film ", while Mike Clarke of USA Today commended Peirce's depth of knowledge of the case and the subject matter: " Peirce seems to have researched her subject with grad-school-thesis intensity ".

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