‘Dopesick: Story of an addiction’, the star series of Disney + Day

A little over 22 years ago now, the director Michael Mann premiered The Dilemma, that electrifying drama about the struggle of a news program producer, the real Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino), to convince a former scientist at the Brown & Williamson tobacco company, Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe), to speak up. to the cameras about how the tobacco industry concealed the addictive power of nicotine.

‘Dopesick: Story of an addiction’, star series of the Disney + Day premieres battalion (this Friday, the 12th), tells practically the same story. Only the industry in focus changes: here the object of analysis is Big Pharma and, more specifically, Purdue Pharma, which is commonly considered responsible for the explosion of the opioid epidemic in the United States, which is already it has claimed more than half a million fatalities and made millions of people addicted.

From the homonymous book of Beth Macy (who has assisted in the writing of the series), Strong explains how, beginning in the 1990s, the Sackler family lobbied the medical profession to overprescribe their narcotic pain reliever OxyContin, despite knowing its addictive effects. “In the beginning – Strong explains to us via video call – this was going to be a film about the Sackler family. They proposed to write it after appearing a great article in ‘The New Yorker’, written by Patrick Radden Keefe, who broke the news in America. The criminal behavior of this company is incredible. It is micromanaged by a family that has made a fortune from lies and suffering. “

All perspectives

In the miniseries, the always magnetic Michael Stuhlbarg (the father of ‘Call me by your name’) steals glances like Richard Sackler, former CEO of Purdue Pharma and main proponent of OxyContin, but ‘Dopesick: Story of an Addiction’ actually focuses on the good guys: the solicitors federals (embodied by John Hoogenakker, Jake McDorman and Peter Sarsgaard) and the DEA agent (Rosario Dawson) at the forefront of the investigation that ended up putting the Sacklers relatively on the ropes.

Also, Strong and his team, which includes the director Barry Levinson (‘Rain man’), reflect the perspective of the victims: both the doctors who relied on the miracle drug and the patients who were doomed to bankruptcy and the abyss. Michael Keaton is Dr. Samuel Finnix, a family physician deceived by a canny salesman, Billy Cutler (Will Poulter), to conscientiously prescribe OxyContin and inadvertently contribute to the destruction of a fictional Virginia mining community. “Sometimes I asked Danny [Strong]: ‘Do I have to lie again? Can’t I start being nice a little earlier? procrastination all that Purdue asked of him. “

Another Kaitlyn Dever recital

The most chilling performance is provided by Kaitlyn Dever, who after shining as the adolescent rape victim in ‘Believe me’ falls again for a series that could, or at least should, be an agent of change. “It’s okay to do something you love, but it’s even better if you feel like you are part of a story that deserves to be told,” he explains. Dever is Betsy, a young miner, secretly in love with Grace (Cleopatra Coleman), who takes OxyContin to overcome a back injury and becomes addicted. “For me it represents a wide group of people. Obviously, it is a fictional character, but it reflects what this drug can do with you and with those around you.”

Related news

In early September, a US judge approved a bankruptcy plan that will dissolve Purdue Pharma and shield its owners from future lawsuits. The family will have to pay 4.5 billion dollars over nine years, but the judge’s approval prevents them from being sued in the future. At the moment, they have not sued the producers of the series either. “Purdue always threatens lawsuits,” says Strong, “but then they don’t file them. And they don’t do it because they are criminals. They use it as bullying, but then they don’t take the step.”