'Bigger, Stronger, Faster'

Rating:

JOHN ANDERSON

May 30, 2008

The performance-enhancing quality behind this muscular movie is director Chris Bell's willingness to go far beyond the call of duty. It might have worked perfectly well as a family story - both of Bell's brothers are body builders who've wrestled with steroids - but Bell sees the issue of drugs and sports as a metaphor for the overachieving ethos of Americans at large (no kidding) and their ability to see exactly what they want to see: Arnold Schwarzenegger?

The poster boy for steroids denied his substance abuse for years, as did people like Sylvester Stallone, Hulk Hogan, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" isn't all hand-wringing and doomsday scenarios: Bell tries to impose a little sanity on the hysteria surrounding artificial hormones, piercing the political posturing: The ever-pious Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) is indicted for legislating shamelessly on behalf of Utah's supplement industry; California Democrat Henry Waxman, who chaired congressional inquiries into baseball, couldn't be more uninformed. Bell's narration is a bit gee-whiz, but a journey out of naiveté is what this film is all about.

BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER (PG-13). Written by Chris Bell, Alexander Buono, Tamsin Rawady. 1:46 (vulgarity, adult content, violent images, drug content). At the Sunshine, East Houston Street at Second Avenue, and the Empire 25, 42nd Street near Eighth Avenue, Manhattan.