Advertisement

Emily Blunt Is Dealing Opioids In The First Trailer For 'Pain Hustlers'

Liza Drake (Blunt) is a blue-collar single mom who has just lost her job and is at the end of her rope. A chance meeting with pharmaceutical sales rep Pete Brenner (Evans) puts her on an upwards trajectory economically but dubious path ethically as she becomes entangled in a dangerous racketeering scheme. Dealing with her increasingly unhinged boss (Garcia), the worsening medical condition of her daughter (Chloe Coleman), and a growing awareness of the devastation the company is causing forces Liza to examine her choices.

Opioid projects seem to be the new craze between the extremely good 'Dopesick', the not-as-good 'Painkiller'. Personally, I am for as many shows and movies as possible that remind people to publicly shame and hate the Sacklers, Purdue, and everyone else involved in the crisis. Does that mean this will be a functionally good movie? Let's break it down into a quick pro and con. 

PROS

- The Cast. Emily Blunt and Chris Evans are two hot ass people that also happen to be really good actors. Andy Garcia and Catherine O'Hara are also in the middle of late-stage career revivals. 

- The Director. For David Yates, this will be only the second movie he has done since 1998 that isn't part of the Harry Potter franchise. Those movies have been hit or miss but I am excited to see what he can do outside of that world. 

CONS 

- It's On Netflix. I say it all the time, Netflix is a volume shooter and the quality of those shots varies a LOT. 'Painkillers', which I mentioned before, was also on Netflix and was ok, but just felt like a much lesser version of 'Dopesick'. 

- Runtime. 2+ hours is too much. Way too much for a non-prestige movie. There has to be a way to tell a story like that in a cool 1 hour 30 min. 

As a fan of good movies, I obviously want this to be good. But the stink of Netflix is really hard to set aside when getting hyped for a movie.