With high-flying moves worthy of a trapeze artist, Gael Garcia Bernal delivers a tour de force in the knockout biopic “Cassandro,” about a gay Mexican American wrestler who beats down macho maneuvers in the ring with his defiant yet graceful flamboyance.

Garcia Bernal, a veteran of such memorable films as “Y Tu Mama Tambien” and “Bad Education,” ups his acting game even more as the legendaryluchadorSaul Armendariz, who won over homophobic audiences in Mexico and defied a longstanding rule that gay wrestlers must lose all their matches.

Taking on a role that requires a considerable amount of emotion, cultural nuance and physicality, Garcia Bernal does everything here but sing. And there’s not one false move in a performance that had to be calibrated just right for this film to soar.

Director Roger Ross Williams, who helmed the powerful Oscar-nominated 2016 documentary “Life, Animated,” adds himself to a short list of auteurs who can excel in both the documentary and narrative feature forms. In his astonishing narrative feature film debut, he captures all the atmospheric and multicultural details — particularly the dazzling sequences in the wrestling arenas — and elicits excellent performances from his entire cast, including the extras.

It didn’t hurt that Williams had already been involved with a short documentary about Armendariz, and it really didn’t hurt that Garcia Bernal was lined up as his lead actor. Because of Garcia Bernal’s superb performance and Williams’ deft touch, audiences of any sexual orientation and cultural background will feel good watching this underdog character turn ringside jeers into cheers. This is not so much a wrestling movie as a “Rocky’-esque story about a down-on-his-luck man fighting to be the best he can be, even when the odds are stacked against him.

The story begins as Saul, an El Paso, Texas native, faces another night of embarrassment in Ciudad Juarez, a Mexico border town where Saul is trying to make a name for himself as aluchador．问题:这些举行摔跤比赛es keep ending with Saul’s head getting pounded into the mat, and he is desperate to be a winner for a change.

Saul discovers an unlikely solution when he finds a mentor in Sabrina (Roberta Colindrez, “A League of Their Own”), who believes in Saul’s talents and urges him to be anexotico,a wrestler who dons feminine outfits and faces heckles from the crowds. At first, Saul is hesitant to embrace this idea, but he quickly figures out that being anexoticomay be a perfect way to flip the script. Instead of being a patsy for the brutes, he uses his queerness as a way to empower himself, barely showing a sweat as he somersaults around the ring and outwits his opponents. His new “Cassandro” persona — devoid of camp and full of chutzpah and cool wrestling moves — enthuses the unruly fans, not to mention the money-hungry promoters.

This journey from drag to riches transforms Saul’s personal life, and all of his scenes shine when he’s with his supportive but troubled mother (Perla de la Rosa), closeted boyfriend (Raul Castillo, “Looking”), or purported boy toy in waiting (an amusing Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, also known as Puerto Rican rapperBad Bunny). We find ourselves wanting even more scenes with these characters.

Once Saul’s fate in the ring is established at the end, “Cassandro” becomes a bit anti-climactic in its final few minutes. Even so, every scene is good in this highly accomplished biopic because Garcia Bernal and Williams have such a deep respect for Saul, flaws and all, and his groundbreaking accomplishments.

“Cassandro” takes place in an inherently goofy arena — this is over-the-top, stagey fighting, after all — but the filmmakers avoided the temptations of cheap laughs and produced a satisfying dramatic story that will appeal to both fans and non-fans of this outlandish wrestling genre. That’s a rope move worth cheering for.

David Lewis is a freelance writer.