Icarus

Icarus (2017) is Bryan Fogel's documentary, available to watch online on iFILM. It starts as one man's stunt: an amateur cyclist sets out to test whether he can dope his own body and still beat the screening tests. Then the project takes a turn nobody saw coming.

The scientist Fogel recruits to guide the experiment is Grigory Rodchenkov, head of Moscow's anti-doping lab — charming, talkative, and oddly candid. What begins with Skype calls, urine samples, and clumsy hormone injections swells into something far bigger, as Rodchenkov turns out to sit at the heart of a doping operation run for years at the state level. The camera happens to be rolling at the exact moment a personal science project becomes an international scandal, and the scientist himself has to flee for his safety.

The film took home the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature and became one of Netflix's most talked-about investigations. What grips you is less the exposé itself than watching the man at the center transform on camera — from cynical insider to a whistleblower putting his life on the line. Stream Icarus (2017) online on iFILM.