Screwball

I really enjoyed hard-hitting docs on Lance Armstrong, and the olympic doping scandals, but...this is not that film. This is a silly take on the subject where the narrated action is re-done..with kids dressed up in adult clothing re-enacting the action. It is humorous and makes the doc easy to watch and helped keep my interest. but I feel the filmmaker was probably too close to Bosch, in getting his cooperation, and therefore....never really examined the darker side of his behavior, and mostly gives him a pass. It also goes light on A-rod and pretty much..just highlights that baseball is just ...a game. Not life or death, nor criminal, but just..a game. I feel when someone cheats to get 400 million dollars in contracts..its a serious offense, so...I would have liked a bit more of a harder hitting take on the subject. But it was definitely decent, and an odd-type of documentary with humor that makes it easy to watch, and effective in its own way.

Very well done, I loved the kids acting as the idiot adults, ironically funny.

It's a shame that we idolize cheaters in this country, nothing is real anymore it's all fake.

I was shocked by the stupidity and gullibility of some involved in this mess.

Okay, we all know the story: Baseball and Steroids, part II. Interesting, but not THAT interesting.

How this movie makes this sad / tedious subject fun is the filmmaker's approach: He has real characters being interviewed, and where he cannot? HE uses children to play the roles of adults - and the kids NAIL IT. It keeps a more or less creepy and sad story light, at times is hysterical and makes the whole film seem fresh.

If you are a baseball fan OR a fan of creative fim making, this one is a winner.

Billy Corben has alway been a proud historian of South Beach. One might say he should branch out and try other subjects like Alex Gibney or Errol Morris, but why should he? Miami and Southern Florida itself are a wealth of stories to uncover, and it is always interesting to see someone have an unabashed eye for the good and bad of their own back yard.

This time, Corben talks about the Biogenesis scandal, an illicit performance enhancement drug operation that witnessed quite a few baseball players get busted for participating. Baseball was the perfect sport to suck in, especially since the league was woefully behind on testing and many baseball players lived in Florida due to the proximity of the Grapefruit League, a collection of training sights where half the Major League Baseball teams did their spring training. It was clear as day who would ultimately come knocking on the door...the so called future financial guru Alex Rodriguez. You know, the guy that paid obscene amounts of money to cover up his involvement in this case. Also the guy who routinely played high stakes poker with the richest people in the country. That guy. Yeah, he has shows on financial networks now. I guess he keeps forgetting that you should spend tons of money on PEDs to command more contract money. Oh wait, you don't play sports? Whoops. Sorry.

All kidding aside, Corben expertly weaves the tail of how Tony Bosch morphed from an unlicensed doctor into the biggest PED peddler in the country, even going as low as injecting these drugs into high schoolers to maintain his 60,000 dollar a month lifestyle. Eventually, he came up against equally crooked and corrupt individuals, namely Rodriguez and Major League Baseball. Envelopes full of cash, shaky promises and lots of bribes later, the story is one wild ride. And it all started over $4800 being owed to a sad middle aged man that desperately wanted to be liked and be like Sylvester Stallone (who ironically also used PEDs).

I always love the energy of Corben's films as well, and using kids in ridiculous costumes added a new layer of absurdity to a story that was full of them. Even if you are not a big baseball fan, the true crime aspect of this film has a raucous flow to it that will keep you undoubtedly interested.

Knowing anything about MLB is not important.

So cleverly done with preadolescent kids re-enacting the word for word transcripts of idiot adults.

I promise you'll fall in love with this film!