After the release of Dope Sick, The Drop Out, and, more recently, Pain Killer, there is no shortage of true stories about the opioid epidemic, and Pain Hustlers is Netflix’s latest take.
Pain Hustlers is based on the New York Times article of the same name, which then inspired the 2022 book The Hard Sell. The film has an all-star cast, including Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, Andy Garcia, Catherine O’Hara, Jay Duplass, Brian d’Arcy James, and Chloe Coleman.
The movie follows Blunt’s character Liza as she unexpectedly becomes involved in a drug conspiracy after taking a job at a pharmaceutical company. According to Netflix’s official description: “After losing her job, a blue-collar woman who’s struggling to raise her daughter takes a job out of desperation. She begins work at a failing pharmaceutical start-up, but what she doesn’t anticipate is the dangerous racketeering scheme she’s suddenly entered.”
Even though it’s based on a true story, the film is being called a “heavily dramatized account” of the rise and fall of a small opioid company called Insys Therapeutics that sold a pain relief spray with fentanyl as the main ingredient. Insys filed for bankruptcy in 2019 after several company executives were convicted of racketeering, but you can check out the story when Pain Hustlers hits Netflix on October 27th.
