Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
In 2009, Alex Gibney was hired to make a film about Lance Armstrong's comeback to cycling. The project was shelved when the doping scandal erupted, and re-opened after Armstrong's confession. The Armstrong Lie picks up in 2013 and presents a riveting, insider's view of the unraveling of one of the most extraordinary stories in the history of sports. As Lance Armstrong says himself, "I didn't live a lot of lies, but I lived one big one."
The Armstrong Lie benefits from remarkable insider access and the unique circumstance of Gibney already having footage from the comeback before the scandal broke, giving it an unusual dual-timeline structure. However, by 2013 the Armstrong doping story was exhaustively covered, limiting its novelty. The documentary is competent and engaging but doesn't transcend the form in any particularly outstanding way — solid across the board but exceptional in none.