The hot topic in Hollywood for the past couple of years, Pain Hustlers is the latest film to take on the pharmaceutical companies. Set to debut on Netflix, it is a far cry from the director David Yates’ previous work in Harry Potter.
Yates came to helm the film after a long career in the Wizarding World, but this is a story that merits attention. Starring Emily Blunt as Liza Drake, Pain Hustlers focuses on what people do when they’re desperate. Liza is a high school dropout who, after a series of mishaps, will do anything to take care of her daughter. The down-on-her-luck single mother takes an interview at a struggling pharmaceutical startup, and is surprised at what she finds.
What starts as a desperate attempt to earn a living turns into an unexpected — and unexpectedly lucrative — journey. Akin to a female-led version of The Wolf of Wall Street, the plot follows Liza as she goes from rags to riches, ascending quickly through the company’s hierarchy. Her ability to sell pharmaceuticals to doctors makes her a major player, no matter the consequences — of which there are many. The drugs they are selling just happen to be highly addictive, and create the American opioid crisis.
If this story sounds familiar to you, you’re not the only one.
Is Pain Hustlers inspired by true events?
Pain Hustlers is just one film of many that delve into the opioid crisis caused by overprescribing drugs like Oxycontin. Hulu’s Dopesick viewed this topic from the law enforcement perspective, and now it’s time to experience the story from the inside. Yates’ film takes inspiration from Evan Hughes’ New York Times exposé, though Liza Drake and other company characters, such as Pete Brenner (Chris Evans) and Dr. Neel (Andy Garcia), are fictionalized versions of the people whom Hughes investigated.
Pain Hustlers features a fake pharmaceutical company, but it’s inspired by reality. According to Men’s Health, Hughes focused on Insys Therapeutics, which pushed the painkiller Subsys by hiring young attractive people to make it look more appealing. These practices were certainly shady, but they didn’t constitute criminal activity. No, Insys had that covered by employing a code of bribery known as the “speaker program.” Hughes later expanded on this information in his book, The Hard Sell: Crime and Punishment at an Opioid Startup.
Hughes’ investigation so scintillated and shocked the public, it was only a matter of time before it was adapted for the big screen. Or at least, the streaming screen. And there may well be further adaptations to come; America is still reeling from the opioid crisis, and isn’t likely that this narrative reckoning will be over for a long while.