QUICKLY developing into disgust and anger, learning about Lance Armstrong’s malfeasances with performance-enhancing substances also confirmed our suspicions.

“Sunday Times” reporter David Walsh doesn’t admire Lance Armstrong either. Walsh has written three books about Armstrong’s dishonesty, the third of which forms the foundation for writer John Hodge’s screenplay for Stephen Frears’ docu-drama in which Ben Foster plays Armstrong, Chris O’Dowd pays Walsh, Jesse Plemons plays whistle-blower Floyd Landis and Guillaume Canet plays Michele Ferrari, the medico who took advantage of the legal availability of EPO substances in Switzerland to work out the regime that eventually led to Armstrong’s continuing denial of never having tested positive.

Cycling enthusiasts have probably seen most of the film’s archival Tour footage on SBS. Frears has used additional footage of spectacular Tour moments that didn’t make the cut for TV.

But Ben Foster’s uncompromising portrayal of Armstrong is what most drives the film’s message. The passages in ABC TV’s “Hitting Home” expose of domestic violence showing men lying in court about their actions are child’s play compared with Armstrong’s lies. Frears’ film motivates our revulsion toward those lies by replicating their original on-the-record revelation.

At Palace Electric

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