More and more series and films are examining the opioid crisis in the USA. Dopesick and Painkiller are followed this week by the Netflix film Pain Hustlers. Emily Blunt and Chris Evans star in the thriller satire that gets to the bottom of an addiction epidemic that hasn’t yet been stopped.
True story: What is Pain Hustlers starring Emily Blunt and Chris Evans about?
This is the plot: Unlike Dopesick, Pain Hustlers chooses a cynical, satirical approach to approach the complex: Emily Blunt plays single mother Liza Drake. By chance, the woman, plagued by money worries, meets pharmaceutical representative Pete Brenner (Chris Evans), who suggests a way out of the crisis. Only gradually does she realize the consequences of the actions of the pharmaceutical company she works for.
Netflix
Pain Hustlers
This is the real background: Dopesick and Painkiller were about the manufacturer of the painkiller Oxycontin, Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family, respectively. The company consciously downplayed the addictive effects of the drug for years – and in doing so drove millions of people into addiction and death.
David Yates’ Netflix film Pain Hustlers is based on the story of Company Insys, which made high profits in a short period of time with the drug Subsys. Subsys was originally aimed at terminal cancer patients, but at Insys’s insistence it was also prescribed to people who didn’t need the highly addictive drug.
What is the Opioid Crisis? According to Ärzteblatt, over 400,000 people have died since the turn of the millennium from an overdose of prescription or illegal opioids, i.e. drugs that are intended to relieve long-term, severe pain. According to Cicero, more deaths in the United States are caused by opioids than by firearms. So the problem is more than serious.
When does Pain Hustlers start?
Pain Hustlers starts on October 27th on Netflix. The reviews for the film so far have been rather average. If you are interested in the topic, you shouldn’t miss the thriller satire.
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