★★★★☆
A trivial Super Size Me-style premise (take performance-enhancing drugs on camera and see if they work!) becomes something far deeper in this thrilling anti-doping documentary from Bryan Fogel, released on Netflix today.
An amateur cyclist who wants to investigate the nature of illegal drug use in sport, Fogel finds his way into the life of Grigory Rodchenkov, the charismatic Russian doctor who was accused of the orchestrated state-sanctioned doping of the Russian national athletics team.
As the film progresses and the pervasiveness of doping becomes more apparent (everyone, the doctor implies, is doping), Rodchenkov becomes a whistleblower and flees for his life (from former KGB agents), with Fogel’s help, to America.
Even there Rodchenkov, now an ostensible enemy of Vladimir Putin, is not safe. The witness protection programme beckons. It all gets very Bourne, and it leaves you, unfortunately, with a feeling of profound and unassailable cynicism about the fundamentals of professional sport.
15, 110min