Netflix has a goldmine with “Icarus,” its documentary about Russia’s doping program, especially with the recent announcement by the International Olympic Committee that bans Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. Icarus is about an elaborate doping scheme involving Russian government and its athletes. Many are saying that because Fogel stumbled onto an international scandal while making the film, it led to the IOC ban.
The film is expected to screen this weekend in Los Angeles and the same next weekend in New York. “Icarus” is available to Netflix subscribers on its streaming platform. Controversy or not, “Icarus” is an incredible documentary and quite possibly a contender for a best documentary Academy Award, it just needs this theatrical release to be eligible for the award.
"Given all the attention that Russia’s Vladmir Putin has been getting of late, it would be very hard to find a more relevant film than Bryan Fogel’s documentary Icarus, which deals with the Russian government’s Olympic cheating scandal. The scandal was uncovered by accident by Fogel, who was following a Russian scientist for a doping documentary, but found out he had a much bigger story at hand. This is the kind of film where a twist happens in almost every frame and the filmmaker, Fogel, seems to have stumbled upon a goldmine of a narrative."