Another film plucked out of the “I wonder if there’s anything recently added to a streaming service I subscribe to that won’t require too much mental effort” pool. It’s been on my Letterboxd watchlist for some time now, enough that I’d forgotten which film this was and was distinctly under the impression that I was about to be watching a documentary. So imagine my complete surprise, after an initial montage of archive footage, to look up and see Chris O’Dowd on screen. Ah. I see. Well, fair enough then. There’s not much to be said about The Program, honestly, other than it focuses nowhere near enough on how oddly obsessed with yellow wristbands we became circa 2004. Ben Foster is very good as Lance Armstrong, a steely determinism brought fully to life. There’s a surprise Jesse Plemons - the best kind of Jesse Plemons - and he is good. The film isn’t exactly sympathetic towards Armstrong, but neither is it particularly damning, and there’s moments where it does feel like it’s pulling you to root for him, even at the end. It’s hard not to feel like Stephen Frears finds interesting stories but just doesn’t know how to actually breathe inspiration into them.