Film
Screwball
Screwball unpicks the Biogenesis scandal through the eyes of the people who lived it—a sports doctor, his client, the whistleblower, a journalist—rather than the headlines. It's a documentary that treats a baseball doping case as a human story: ambition, betrayal, desperation, and the machinery that grinds them all. Messy, sympathetic, funny.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you enjoy a sleuthing, tabloid-tinged inquiry into how a shady clinic operated, and like documentaries that reconstruct events with actors to chase a paper trail.
Skip it if you want a sports documentary built around game footage and the thrill of competition, since this is really about a scandal that sits beside the sport.
What it asks of you: Under two hours at a steady, methodical clip, it follows leads and paperwork rather than building momentum, so it rewards sustained attention over quick thrills.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
The Two Escobars2010
Examines how a single athlete becomes inseparable from national mythology and what happens when that mythology collides with dangerous reality. Deeply human investigation of power and consequence.
But It's about football (soccer) and Colombian drug cartels—if the subject feels distant, the emotional weight might not land.
Tickled2016
Another documentary that starts with a bizarre, almost comical subject and pulls back layers to reveal something genuinely unsettling and sad. Same gift for finding the real story beneath the surface noise.
But The first act's tone is very jokey; if you're not patient with that setup, it takes a while to earn its seriousness.
Free Solo2018
Follows a compelling, contradictory person doing something extraordinary while examining why they do it. Uses intimate access to explore obsession and the price of ambition.
But It's more visually stunning than narratively complex. If you want deep institutional critique, this is more character study.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Screwball
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
McMillion$2020
Both use multiple unreliable narrators and real people's recordings to reconstruct a crime that exploited a system. Both find that the conspiracy was almost funny in how obvious it was to the people inside.
Miniseries about the McDonald's Monopoly fraud—a crime so baroque and true that it reads like fiction. Uses the same multi-perspective structure to humanize people doing ridiculous, illegal things. Funnier than Screwball but built on identical instincts.
But It's a rabbit-hole caper, lighter in tone. If you want moral weight and athletic mythology, this trades those for absurdist joy.
More like this (5)
The Toys That Made Us2017
Documentary series that finds drama in corporate history and product development—how things became what they are. Same appetite for the unglamorous machinery behind iconic things.
But Episodic rather than narrative. It's comfort-watch informality; doesn't build momentum the way a feature does.
Icarus2017
Documentary that starts as one thing and becomes a geopolitical thriller. Proves doping scandals touch on real power, corruption, and state systems. Gripping and clarifying.
But Gets very dense with Russian politics in the second half. If you want to stay focused on the athletic angle, it demands more.
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters2007
Captures the weird intensity of people who care obsessively about something most of us find trivial. Funny, empathetic look at what drives seemingly ordinary men to war.
But It's a little dated in tone—the early 2000s ironic-distance voice can feel thin now.
Murder Mountain2018
Investigative miniseries about rural marijuana cultivation and the crimes around it. Finds narrative complexity in something that could be simple.
But The story is fragmented and sometimes slow; not as tightly structured as Screwball's three-perspective frame.
Hoop Dreams1994
Both watch talented people navigate a system that benefits from them and then chews them up. Hoop Dreams asks what happens to kids; Screwball asks what happens when the kid grows up and fights back.
Three-hour documentary following two basketball players from childhood into adulthood, watching the machine of college and professional sports grind their bodies and futures. The mother of all sports-corruption docs: intimate, furious, inescapably human.
But 1994 documentary technique and pacing—no quick cuts, no irony, slow and observational. It demands patience and emotional availability.
People
Cast
Bryan BlancoTony Bosch
Frankie DiazPorter Fischer
Jonathan BlancoPete Carbone
Jake Alexander MartinGary Jones
Ian MacklesTim Elfrink
Blake McCallAlex Rodriguez- Jake StephensRicky Rodriguez
- Samuel Kai TaylorJerome Hill
Nicholas Ryan HernandezAnthony Carbone- Armando Bernal IVJorge 'Ugi' Velazquez
- Davion FigaroManny Ramirez
- Jason BrockmannDan Mullin
Directing
- Billy CorbenDirector
Writing
- Billy CorbenWriter
- David CypkinWriter
Production
- Lori WymanCasting Director
- David CypkinCo-Producer
- Alfred SpellmanProducer
- Billy CorbenProducer