After Painkiller, Netflix presents the next confrontation with addictive drugs. Pain Hustlers is the name of the new film with a… Star cast including Oppenheimer actress Emily Blunt and ex-Captain America Chris Evans awaits.
That’s what Pain Hustlers with Emily Blunt and Chris Evans is about
Emily Blunt plays Liza Drake, a single mother with money problems. By chance she meets pharmaceutical representative Pete Brenner (Chris Evans), who gives her a way out of the crisis. To do this, however, Liza has to make some morally questionable decisions. Only gradually does she realize the consequences of the pharmaceutical company’s actions.
Netflix
Pain Hustlers
The story comes from a New York Times Magazine article about the extremely addictive company Insys Therapeutics Active ingredient fentanyl and was accused of bribery of doctors and other criminal transactions. Prescribing medications containing fentanyl is considered one of the causes of the opioid crisis in the United States, which the CDC estimates has killed over 800,000 people.
This is what the first reviews from Toronto reveal about the Netflix film
Pain Hustlers premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, but initial reviews were mixed to negative.
At Variety the film is listed as “mostly painful” and “shrill satire” described.
“Blunt creates a character who is compelling, smarter than she gets credit for, and hungry to improve her hard life as a single mother with a growing daughter.”says the BBC review. However: “She makes the film worth seeing, is but the only reason to watch him.”
In the Guardian’s review, “magnetic radiation” also praised by Blunt, while colleague Chris Evans as miscast is described. It goes on to say:
Author Wells Tower’s script is increasingly ploddingly written, and while the scale of the opioid epidemic continues to be absolutely shocking, the film lacks the necessary sense of wonder, a lack of gravity […].
If you’re looking for a more in-depth look at the topic, you should probably watch Dopesick, the award-winning series with Michael Keaton that streams on Disney+.
Then Pain Hustlers comes to Netflix
The pharmaceutical satire starts on October 27th on Netflix. Pain Hustlers is directed by David Yates, who has directed a total of seven films from the Harry Potter world. The other cast includes Andy Garcia and Catherine O’Hara.