This absorbing film charts the meteoric rise and eventual downfall of cycling champion Lance Armstrong. Tracing the arc of his career, from his early days as a triathlete through his unprecedented seven consecutive Tour de France victories to the fallout when doping charges stripped him of his numerous medals, LANCE expertly weaves accounts from family, friends, and cycling professionals with Armstrong’s own forthright reflections. A portrait emerges of a man who was shaped by feverous ambition, who sometimes resorted to malicious behavior, but who was also a cancer survivor and inspired and supported millions of people battling the disease when he established the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Armstrong’s competitive success on the world stage amplified his wide adoration within the cycling industry and among the American public, which made his eventual fall from grace all the more precipitous. Unflinching in her investigation, filmmaker Marina Zenovich does not shy away from questions that demand uncomfortable answers as she confronts a mercurial public figure, the systems of power that enabled and pressured athletes to risk everything to stay at the front of their fields, and the lasting harm caused by the drive to win at all costs.  ST