All of this too-rich trashiness would be hilarious if it weren't so dangerous -- as the effective and memorable Boys Don't Cry shows -- especially when met by something so foreign as the likes of Brandon Teena.

Brandon Teena, née Teena Brandon (Hilary Swank), is a transvestite. Not that she sees it that way. She's a boy. Binding her breasts, dealing with her monthly cycle, and figuring out which side to place a roll of socks down the front of her pants are mere inconveniences she has to deal with. In every other way, she's a rather average young man, swaggering, confident, and on the lookout for the perfect girl.

Brandon winds up in Falls City on a whim, and given that she's got legal trouble back in her hometown of Lincoln and that she's just about used up all her family's patience, she decides to stay. And when she does go back to Lincoln to deal with these things, the lure of Lana (Chloë Sevigny) has Brandon in Falls City again.

Lana is the most clear-headed of her group, though she's having trouble figuring out what she wants. Her biggest problem is John (Peter Sarsgaard) -- the aforementioned abusive father. Lana was the only one who wrote to him while he was in prison, and subsequently, John is both controlling and in awe of her and he won't leave her alone. John is jealous when Lana takes up with Brandon, but when Brandon's true identity comes out, a whole new, desperate emotion is sparked.

Boys Don't Cry, with its mix of identity, sting of betrayal, and roil of confusion, is Shakespearean. But director and co-writer (with Andy Bienen) Kimberly Peirce leads the audience on the straightest path of storytelling -- a wise choice, as the film is based on true events. She lays out the plot in a workman-like fashion that is less dramatic than it is suggestive of what happens everyday, everywhere. The only cinematic flairs are Brandon's memory flashes and the scene-breaking shots of sped-up film, showing Falls City in a blur of lights to illustrate the small-town truism about how time passes while nothing changes.

Boys Don't Cry's biggest triumph lies with Swank as Brandon. It is a frank and brave performance by an actress whose best-known role was as Steve's girlfriend in Beverly Hills 90201. Even with her close-cropped haircut and her square jaw, Swank has full lips and tiny, fine hands that betray her gender. Nevertheless, her unwavering stance as the girl who is a boy is utterly believable, so entrenched that the same-sex love scenes lack a controversy that may have otherwise accompanied them.