A surefire hit at Sundance (and not to be confused with the similarly-titled Kanye West song), first-time director Christopher Bell opens Bigger, Stronger, Faster*, his engaging and timely pop-documentary on steroids, with a hilarious montage of the cheesy, hulking stars of the ‘80s who shaped his childhood. There’s Hulk Hogan tearing his shirt off in a fit of rage; a veiny Sylvester Stallone obliterating entire rogue army factions in Rambo; and last but certainly not least, Bell’s biggest childhood hero: Arnold Schwarzenegger, flexing his bulging biceps as Mr. Olympia. These pumped-up meatheads were indicative of the new, mighty Reagan era, and the “win at all costs” mantra pulsating through the American cultural zeitgeist.

In true Michael Moore fashion, Bell employs a wealth of archival footage in examining the myriad implications of our national love-hate affair with performance enhancing drugs, and uses his own family as a microcosm. His younger brother ‘Smelly’ juices for powerlifting competitions, while his older brother ‘Mad Dog’ does it with the hopes of landing a professional wrestling contract with the WWE. As the film makes clear, the family’s ‘roid abuse stems from a combination of childhood body-image hang-ups, and a hearty injection of pop culture, in the form of the aforementioned juiced-up ‘80s-era icons.

Throughout his investigation, Bell is torn on the issue of steroids, having experimented with them himself for a brief period. He examines the exaggerated side effects of the drug both in medicine (there’s very little clinical testing done) and pop culture (an anti-steroids PSA showing an early ‘90s-era Ben Affleck going on a hilarious ‘roid rage), as well as the medical benefits of the drug – offsetting the spread of HIV, as well as addressing clinical studies of performance enhancers, which can be used to combat muscular dystrophy through the DNA analysis of the imposing, ripped Belgian Blue Bull. Bell also addresses the political issues, grilling a clueless Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform who conducted the recent congressional hearings on steroids in baseball (who is unaware of even the drinking age in the country).

In fact, there are a staggering number of interviewees and, whether he’s questioning grieving father Donald Hooten (who believes steroids drove his 17-year-old son to suicide, despite evidence linking anti-depressants as the cause), to his own parents, Bell does not shy away from asking the tough questions. Though he doesn’t manage to score an interview with his idol Schwarzenegger, he does eventually find himself in a priceless, one-on-one encounter with the Governator.

Bell’s debut feature addresses its subject with both humor and intelligence, approaching the concept of performance enhancement from every conceivable angle, including: Barry Bonds’ home run chase; the body-supplement industry, where “before and after” pictures are taken on the same day; military pilots in war zones who pop dextroamphetamines, or “Go Pills”; musicians who ease their performance anxiety with beta-blockers; and loads of other examples, all to examine the tainting of the American dream. Bigger, Stronger, Faster* is the disturbing portrait of a culture that claims to demonize performance enhancers and play by the rules, but one that may, whether we like it or not, foster this obsession through a Social Darwinist emphasis on the pursuit of perfection.