"Pain Hustlers" is a 2023 American crime drama film directed by David Yates. The movie stars Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, Andy García, Catherine OHara, Jay Duplass, Brian dArcy James, and Chloe Coleman. The plot centers on a high school dropout, Liza Drake, who lands a job with a failing pharmaceutical company in Central Florida, where she soon finds herself at the center of a criminal conspiracy.
Liza dreams of a better life for herself and her daughter. She gets a job at a bankrupt pharmacy, and her guts catapult the company and her into the high life, putting her in the middle of a criminal conspiracy. The film is a heavily dramatized account of the rise and fall of a small opioid company that hawked a pain relief spray for cancer pain with fentanyl as the highly addictive main ingredient. The story follows Liza Drake, a single mom and a strip-club dancer who is enticed by the world of pharmaceutical sales and rises through the ranks at the pharmaceutical company that makes the drug.
The movie aims to provide a more comedic story while still arriving at the conclusion that big pharma is bad. It tackles the sinister aims of the corrupt drug business and its lenient sentencing. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2023, and was released in select theaters in the United States on October 20, 2023, and on Netflix on October 27, 2023.
In summary, "Pain Hustlers" is a crime drama film that delves into the world of pharmaceutical sales, criminal conspiracy, and the rise and fall of a small opioid company, featuring a fictional character, Liza Drake, at its center.
