Coming to theatres and VOD this Friday, January 22: PRESCRIPTION THUGS
Chris Bell, Josh Alexander and GB Young’s exploration of prescription drug abuse made its bow at Tribeca last year. It also screened at Traverse City, and now, in addition to a limited theatrical release, the doc also comes to VOD via iTunes.
A follow up to his feature debut, BIGGER STRONGER FASTER*, an exposé on steroid use that focused on his brothers, Bell’s new project takes on a significantly larger target. While the film begins and ends on a more personal note, detailing first the prescription drug abuse that ultimately led to the death of one of his brothers and later offering revelations that hit even closer to home, the earnest director moves beyond his family to address the national epidemic. Adopting a Michael Moore/Morgan Spurlock approach which finds him often on camera and otherwise endlessly narrating, Bell covers familiar territory – and ultimately too much of it, too broadly – offering faux-naïveté in the face of Big Pharma’s greed and when confronted with unsurprising but still disturbing statistics about overprescriptions and their health consequences. Still, there is emotional heft in more genuine scenes with his parents and with his brother’s friends, and in the personal turn the film takes in its closing stretch. Ultimately, as one of his most engaging interview subjects – a former pharmaceutical rep-turned-whistleblower – suggests, the value of Bell’s project is in spreading the word, even if it’s ultimately a familiar tale.
what (not) to doc 