Review: BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER*
Chris Bell is a pretty unassuming guy. But in his heart of hearts, he’d rather not be. He’d prefer to be a fist-pumping, super-ripped, California-tanned, smiling superstar. But life didn’t swing that way for Chris — and his documentary on the world of performance-enhancing drugs is better because of it.
The Bell Brothers, with Chris Bell at center
Instead, Chris is 33-year-old Gold’s Gym employee with a dreamy past behind him. He’s sort of a miniature Michael Moore (two of the film’s producers have worked on Moore films), with an easygoing interview style and effective aw-shucks voiceover. In his perfectly fitted baseball cap — worn backwards — shorts and flip-flops, he talks to an exhaustive who’s who of the medical, political and sports worlds, to get to the bottom of this whole steroids thing in America. Maybe the steroid issue is overblown. Maybe it’s misunderstood.
Bell himself appears to be a little misunderstood. The youngest of three boys, he’s the only sibling who refused to take steroids as he grew into a weightlifting machine. To him, it was a question of morals. To his brothers, there was no question at all. They would juice to nail down their dreams of becoming the next Hulk Hogan or Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Bigger, Stronger, Faster* (the subtitle after the asterisk is “The Side Effects of Being American”) evolves into part family drama, part medical investigation, part government indictment. Bell, who co-wrote the film with producers Alex Buono and Tamsin Rawady, moves from storyline to storyline with impressive flexibility and continuity, and there’s rarely an uneven moment.
In fact, Bell and editor Brian Singbiel happily leap through the timeline, injecting humor and occasional cynicism, making Bigger, Stronger, Faster* far more entertaining than it has a right to be. By the time the film hits the one-hour mark, you start asking aloud “How did this guy get all these people to talk?”
“All these people” includes Carl Lewis (left), Ben Johnson, Tour de France winner* Floyd Landis — and his high altitude sleeping tube — and a slew of doctors, experts and athletes, many who admit the press’ handling of steroid risk is grossly abused. About as abused as the drug many turn to when shooting for the American dream.
And that odd, jingoistic idea is the true strength behind Bell’s film: At it’s core, Bigger, Stronger, Faster* is a heartbreaker about a family who thought being American meant being unbelievably superior, that getting ahead was not an option, that being average was like losing. Even with Bell’s immensely likable style and a series of happy accidents, this film is still about that American Dream. And what it’s become.
See our Sundance Film Festival coverage of Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
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