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.
