What started as a wild idea turned into something more dangerous in “Icarus,” a documentary that had the good fortune to be filming when bad news broke.
Bryan Fogel, the director and an amateur bike racer, planned to investigate the use of performance-enhancing drugs by taking them himself and then trying to evade detection. The idea, a sort of “Super Size Me” with steroids instead of Big Macs, brought him into contact with Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, who led Russia’s antidoping laboratory for Olympic athletes.
Early scenes show Mr. Fogel injecting himself (needle-phobics, beware) with substances, then charting his performance as he meets with specialists and makes video calls with Dr.