Citizen Bio

A Showtime documentary that intrigues and engrosses despite its conspicuous limitations.

Fortunately for the layman, given the amount of jargon and technical detail in “Citizen Bio,” the film takes great pains to explain exactly what it’s talking about and make it accessible. ... It might have been a more interesting project if it weren’t championing its subjects quite so much. It also swings back and forth between being about biohacking itself and Traywick. Biohacking is more engaging.

Citizen Bio is most gripping when it temporarily sets aside its fascination with Traywick and focuses on the intersection of noble objectives and questionable methods that defines this little-known subculture. It’s there that the promise of revolution and disaster coexist, and the prime shortcoming of Dolman’s film is that it doesn’t investigate that fraught dynamic in more in-depth fashion.