Despite his casual aura, the filmmaker is eloquent and thoughtful.
Prescription Thugs
Is there really a war on drugs?
2016 · 1h 26m · PG-13
Documentary
Directed by
Chris Bell
Overview
Americans consume 75% of the world’s prescription drugs. After losing his own brother to the growing epidemic of prescription drug abuse, documentarian Chris Bell sets out to demystify this insidious addiction. Bell’s examination into the motives of big pharma and doctors in this ever-growing market leads him to meet with experts on the nature of addiction, survivors with first-hand accounts of their struggle, and whistleblowers who testify to the dollar-driven aims of pharmaceutical corporations. Ultimately his investigation will point back to where it all began: his own front door.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
Even before a "do as I say, not as I do" twist costs it all credibility, "Prescription Thugs" is a not very good documentary about a very important subject.
Engaging and enraging but also, alas, consistently superficial, it's a hot-button work whose easily digested nonfiction methods will appeal to mainstream documentary audiences, even if they also leave viewers hungry for greater substance.
It's unusually confessional and often moving, but Bell's film is unsatisfying as a piece of documentary journalism.
An accessible look at an important topic: the medicine that ails us.
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