White Palms

Far from the uplifting sports pictures churned out by Disney, White Palms wallows instead in humiliation rituals, psychic scars and too much time-shifting.

The term 'sports film' doesn't do justice to White Palms, a punishing, beautiful drama about a troubled 30-something Hungarian gymnast.

The more riveting, grim storyline ... is seen in flashback to the early 1980s, as tween Miklos lives like his parents' show pony in an anxiety nightmare of nonstop humiliation, heightened here through haunting soundscapes.

A sneaky delight that glides effortlessly between the past and present without a single detour into either the uplifting clichs of American sports movies or the creepy voyeurism that sometimes attends films about young, well-built athletes.