In a telling moment in the fascinating and tart documentary “Bigger, Stronger, Faster,*” gym rat Gregg Valentino tells the film’s maker that when he’s at a nightclub and a foxy gal comes in with her boyfriend, it’s the guy who makes a beeline for him.
The woman, well, she’s repulsed.
He’s got a point. Thanks to anabolic steroid use, Valentino’s arms look like they’ve been invaded by tumors. This isn’t muscle definition but something sci-fi, something Hulk-ian — as in the Incredible but also as in Hulk Hogan.
Hogan is one of the celebs who make a few appearances in a Christopher Bell’s funny, thought- provoking debut thanks to footage from his wrestling days but also to news coverage about the issue. (Hogan appeared in court in 1994 to testify about steroid use.) And Bell makes terrific use of pop-culture artifacts.
After all, the Bell Boys of Poughkeepsie, N.Y — the director, older brother Mike, a.k.a. “Mad Dog,” and younger brother Mark, a.k.a. “Smelly” — responded to the call of Hogan, as well as the big-screen come-ons one-time steroid users Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger issued to American boys and young men. You can grow up to look like me if you live by the rigorous rules — oh, yeah, and the asterisks.
Maybe that makes the movie sound as if it will be a fact-heavy screed about the use of anabolic steroids (which constain synthetically produced testosterone) for performance enhancement in sports.
Instead, Bell takes us on a informative, rangy and ambivalent journey. Along the way, there are interviews with former Olympians — medalist Carl Lewis and the medal-stripped Ben Johnson — and film-strip jaunts that delineate the various drugs used to improve an athlete’s game. A visit to a farm to see a naturally double-muscled bull is a fine bit of weirdness.
Propelled by a love for his brothers (steroid users) and his own desire not “to cheat” in order to compete in power-lifting, Christopher Bell doesn’t provide easy answers.
The University of Southern California film school grad asks pointed questions not just of the experts but of his parents, Rosemary and Sheldon Bell. He also talks to classical musicians who use beta blockers to control their anxiety during concerts but also take them prior to auditions. Isn’t that competing with the use of drugs to enhance performance?
Why, he wonders, do the media focus so much coverage on steroid abuse in sports when people are addicted to even more dramatically altering endeavors, like plastic surgery?
“Bigger, Stronger, Faster*” was produced by the same folk who helmed “Bowling for Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 9/11.” That may be a draw for many; a Michael Moore-like folksy use of wry observation runs through the movie.
But for those who might use the comparison as a reason to skip “Bigger, Stronger, Faster,*” don’t. Bell and cowriters Alex Buono and Tamsin Rawady have done something all their own.
By making this journey personal, a powerful vulnerability permeates the film.
Sitting across from his mother, Chris looks thoughtful but pained. He knows he’s inflicting misery on her as he tells her who first supplied Mike with steroids.
Earlier, Rosemary admits she believed having three sons would be easy. “At least I don’t have a daughter with her face in the bowl,” the large and loving Rosemary recalls thinking. Indeed.
One of the fine achievements of “Bigger, Stronger, Faster*” comes in showing that Americans’ bedeviling problems with body image cut across gender lines.
We’ve known for years the bony profile anorexia whittles out of women. But now we have Gregg Valentino’s disturbing biceps.
“Bigger Stronger Faster*”
PG-13 for thematic material involving drugs, language, some sexual content and violent images. 1 hour, 46 minutes. Directed by Christopher Bell; written by Bell, Alex Buono, Tamsin Rawady; featuring Christopher Bell, Mike Bell, Mark Bell, Rosemary and Sheldon Bell, Gregg Valentino, John Romano. Opens today at the Mayan.
