The Program

Ben Foster is Lance Armstrong in this kinetic account of the cyclist who fell from grace, from acclaimed director Stephen Frears.

Acclaimed director Stephen Frears (Philomena) delivers a kinetic account of cyclist Lance Armstrong’s inexorable rise to near canonisation and his subsequent vertiginous fall from grace. Structured around the laudable attempts of journalist David Walsh (Chris O’Dowd) to uncover the truth, the film charts Armstrong’s tumultuous journey, from his initial soaring successes to the shattering cancer diagnosis and subsequent attempts to maintain his dominance in the sport at any cost.

With a deft screenplay by John Hodge (Trainspotting) and superb race photography from Danny Cohen (The King’s Speech, Room), The Program is a dizzying and dynamic sprint through a life story too dramatic to be fiction.