In a typical, low-budget indie fashion, up-and-coming filmmakers -- so as to keep things under their tight budgets -- write what they know and around what universe (sets, locations) is available to them. To that end: Chris Levine does a wonderful job on his feature debut screenplay: he knows this world, or at least did his research on the subject before stroking a key.
Director Landon Williams, in his feature debut, also creates several wonderful shots (the "oner" that approaches a house, pans around it, then up and down through a skylight into a bathroom is worth noting). Under Williams' leadership, there are no flaws in the cinematography and editing departments. The casting is solid. While the familiar faces we see (Baldwin, Sharon Lawrence) deliver the goods in their support roles, the real standout here is the co-starring Thai Edwards as Jason, the body building-drug pusher.
As I read the user reviews of others: a point was made that "a girl that hot would never go out with dweeb" like the lead character. Another point made was Daniel Baldwin's character was "too over the top to be believed" -- obviously, those reviewers never worked in sales, boiler rooms, or any cubicle farm environs; personally, I've experienced WORSE than Baldwin's Mr. Lewis; he nails the psychology of those horrible bosses.
In those cases, with the girlfriend and boss: I believe those reviewers missed the point: this isn't an objective movie, but a subjective one. Adam Stenton (an equally fine Chris Levine) isn't a "dweeb" in a physical sense: it's all in his mind. So, when we see him sulking down the cubicle farm to his job, in wrinkled clothes and greasy hair: that's not the real, physical Adam: it's the "Adam" he thinks he is. The mirrored images we get in the film are not physical reflections, but his mental ones.
In fact, as the film unfolds, the narrative shifts into Adam's "dream-hallucination state," if you will. So, to that end: If I had to use two films to pitch Anabolic Life: I see a less-kinetic pinch of Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream meets the Christian Bale-fronted The Machinist in the frames. But this is an self-financed indie, so, as with any indie: judge it on its own merits and not against any major studio films.
