“Icarus” is a hard-to-believe documentary about steroid use in professional sports. The story begins as an experiment by director Bryan Fogel to take Performance Enhancing Drugs and fool the drug test before a cycling event. Inexplicably, it turns into the unearthing of an international conspiracy and blows the whistle on Russia’s long history of cheating at the Olympics with PEDs. The revelation of the doping conspiracy begins when Fogel contacts Grigory Rodchenkov of the Russian anti-doping laboratory. He develops a friendship with Fogel as he gives recommendations on how to beat the testing system but eventually realizes that he cannot live with his guilty conscience. Rodchenkov chooses to risk everything to tell the truth of this crazy cover-up. There isn’t really anything special about the way the documentary is shot. The pacing is average and the cinematography is amateur, but the story is simply unbelievable. The film culminates in a detailed recollection of how Russia cheated the Sochi Olympics and the way that Rodchenkov’s life will never be the same after coming forward with the information. “Icarus” is more informative than it is riveting, but it will definitely make you look at all sports at all levels and question their validity forever.
[Pictured: You will find yourself endeared to both Grigory and Fogel by the end of this film]
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