Screwball

Not many documentaries on steroid use in sports can claim to be riotously funny, but Billy Corben’s Screwball is an exception, taking a sardonic approach to a Miami-based doping scandal that may remind reviewers of the fiction of Carl Hiaasen and Dave Barry. Biogenesis was a suspicious "anti-aging clinic" (one of many during the corrupt reign of Florida’s then-governor Rick Scott) run by dodgy "doctor" Anthony Bosch that served as a pipeline for performance-enhancing steroids and other concoctions for both high-school and professional athletes. It’s most famous client: superstar New York slugger and wealthy flake Alex Rodriguez. In 2013, the scandal exploded in the headlines, as a disgruntled Bosch associate stole and tried to peddle the clinic’s incriminating records in an incredibly clueless act of whistleblowing. Corben (Cocaine Cowboys) supplements unapologetic interviews with the brazen Bosch and other players (not A-Rod, though) with lengthy re-enactments starring cute Sandlot-aged child actors all playing interviewees, lip-syncing (and wearing fake mustaches and tattoos when appropriate). A compelling tale of a loss of innocence in the all-American sport as big money, ego, excess, the MLB corporate mafia, and Sunshine State dysfunction fatefully converged, this is highly recommended. (C. Cassady)