The Best Movie I've Seen This Summer

4) Bigger, Stronger, Faster* (May 31)

I've decided to make an effort to see Tribeca flicks if they make it to theaters. Here's one. P.S. The tiny text after the star says "the side effects of being American."

For those who remember when Michael Moore wasn’t about his image, when he just wanted to educate and entertain, I give you Christopher Bell and his raucous steroid documentary, Bigger, Stronger, Faster*. First-time director Bell attacks the American culture of winning at any cost: Patton, Rocky, Hulk Hogan, the amphetamine-using Air Force. But Bell also comes to the world of steroids firsthand: His body-building brothers use them, influenced by their supposedly pure childhood wrestling heroes, and he’s obviously conflicted about society’s message versus his familial feelings. Bell doesn’t make direct judgments, instead using varied talking heads, statistics, and animation to illustrate the hypocrisy surrounding performance enhancers - the congressman who called the steroid hearings doesn’t even know what drugs are banned; no one’s ever done a study on steroids’ long-term effects; a cold supplement with a prohibited substance didn’t keep Carl Lewis out of the 1988 Olympics. By the end of this difficult, fascinating film, I could pay Bell the ultimate compliment: I’m willing to re-examine my views on performance enhancers.