Peter Sarsgaard and John Hoogenakker may be co-workers in Hulu’s Dopesick but they are definitely friends in real life. The actors play real-life Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rick Mountcastle and Randy Ramseyer, who try to legally take down the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma for their role in the opioid epidemic.
Known for taking socially-conscious roles, Sarsgaard’s passion to find justice for the victims and their families is evident. Though both performers fully immersed themselves in the seriousness of the source material, each bring levity to their roles that are missing from some of the other cast member’s narratives. I talked to them about infusing a sense of humor into the show and the true crime vibes of their storyline.
Watch my interview with Peter Sarsgaard and John Hoogenakker below and catch Dopesick on Hulu now.
For years the Sackler family have operated Purdue Pharma, the company responsible for creating and marketing the opioid, Oxycontin. Hulu’s Dopesickbrings the once anonymous family business to the forefront while also highlighting the doctors, patients, pharmaceutical reps, and government officials on the frontlines of the opioid epidemic.
Based on Virginia-based Beth Macy’s book, Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors and the Drug Company that Addicted America, the miniseries confusingly jumps back and forth in time, covering the drug’s origins to its mismarketing to the Sackler’s fall from grace. With six plotlines told out of order, these jumps are frequent and confusing.
Creator Danny Strong (Empire, Gamechange) wrote most of the episodes. While his signature quippy and politically aware dialogue is there, too many plates are spinning on for the viewer to dive right into the story. One wonders if the show would have been better served if each episode followed a different aspect of the crisis before weaving them together later.
With six such strong perspectives, some are stronger than others. Rosario Dawson’s newly-married DEA agent Bridget Meyer, is a slow burn. As her drive to find some sort of accountability for the crisis heightens, her marriage starts to fall apart and there’s a personal toll taken. Michael Keaton, arguably the star of the piece, plays a rural Virginia doctor who treats Kaitlyn Dever’s Betsy. His story starts out the most promising, a well-trusted physician lured into the Oxycontin game with the FDA guarantee that it was less than 1% effective.
Danny Strong’s script shines the brightest when left in the hands of Peter Sarsgaard and John Hoogenakker. As two well-intentioned Assistant U.S. Attorneys in Virginia tasked with finding a legal angle to hold those responsible accountable, the two bring levity to a dense and tense show. Hoogenakker is witty and relatable while the more morally driven Sargaard is the perfect straight man. Strong weaves a true crime/mystery narritive through their plot, easily making it the most compelling.
Will Poulter also gets some juicy dialogue to work with from Strong and the rest of the writers. The actor easily builds a layer of empathy as his pharmaceutical rep Billy for the audience to latch on to. However, the character isn’t given much space to go in the first seven episodes available for screening.
When the perspective shifts to Purdue Pharma President Richard Sackler, Strong paints him as more of a misunderstood antihero rather than an evil capitalist monster that profited off of the death and addiction of millions of Americans. Michael Stuhlbarg portrays Richard as the Sackler family joke without much justification for their vitriol.
While it can be argued that every real person should be portrayed as three-dimensional well-rounded people, Strong’s depiction of Richard Sackler begs the question, does that treatment benefit the viewer? For years, the Sacklers have hidden behind their charitable works and received pats on the back from numerous art and educational programs. They’ve had their good press. We don’t need a “complicated antihero,” but rather the acknowledgment of how much Richard and the rest of the family knew about the addictive properties of Oxycontin. Dopesick doesn’t do that, showing the family burying their heads in the sand and not listening to the ample warnings doctors, the DEA, and FDA gave them.
You can watch Dopesick on Hulu. Watch the trailer below.
Fans of veteran director Abel Ferrara have come to expect the unexpected, and that certainly hasn’t changed. He remains busier than ever, with five films over the last couple of years, and with his new thriller Zeros and Ones he takes the idea of global lockdown and gives it a new spin with Ethan Hawke along for the ride.
Hawke, looking every bit like Ferrara staple Willem Dafoe, stars as an American soldier who must thwart a terrorist attack while stationed at the Vatican as it’s under lockdown. Also in the cast arePhil Neilson, Valerio Mastandrea, Dounia Sichov, Korlan Madi, Mahmut Sifa Erkaya, Ferrara’s wife Cristina Chiria, and daughter Anna Ferrara.
Zeros and Ones opens in select theaters and VOD on November 19th.
In the aftermath of an apocalyptic siege, Zeros and Ones follows the American soldier JJ as he navigates a locked-down, murky world of fear, paranoia, and eventual hope in the shadow of the Vatican. A war between history and the future plays out until dawn breaks. A casbah-esque landscape of noir streets, the feeling of Paris at the end of the occupation – but set in today’s post-modern, ancient and unchangeable Rome.
As a kid growing up in the 80s there was nothing more scary then a windowless van. They were the symbol for kidnappers and every parent told their kids to stay away. We all knew the story of Adam Walsh, and the dangers of taking candy from a stranger. Kids are still warned today, obviously, but back then it seemed more at the forefront of real world dangers…just behind quicksand.
This is the place that the new Blumhouse feature by Scott Derrickson, The Black Phone, is taking you. Small town America in the 80s. This particular small town has a rash of abductions and the streets are littered with flyers notifying the public of its missing junior citizens. It’s after this intro that we see Finn, our lead kiddo, get abducted by a terrifying looking Ethan Hawke who looks like a mixture of the Babadook and a demon. Just seeing the story behind this would have been enough to hold my interest but Blumhouse is great with a twist, and this one is no slouch. While being held in the basement a black phone on the wall begins to ring, on the other end of the line is every victim of the mysterious and sadistic killer. Their goal? Helping Finn escape and getting revenge on the man that took their lives.
The Black Phone hits theaters on February 4th, 2022
Debuting earlier this year at SXSW, Lissette Feliciano’s Women is Losers beat to the punch In the Heights when it comes to inspiring stories set within the Latinx culture. The film stars Lorenza Izzo (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) as a young Catholic woman in 1960s San Francisco who has always done the right thing in hopes of making her dreams come true. But when she makes just one mistake, it has consequences that threaten everything she’s worked for.
The film also stars Pitch Perfect actress Chrissie Fit and some guy named Simu Liu who starred in something called Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Never heard of it.
I had some issues with the film overall, calling it “uneven” despite a performance from Izzo that “attacks her role with maturity, showing a chameleon-like ability to shift from quiet teen to forceful adult.” She’s a highlight so definitely don’t miss her in this.
Women is Losers opens October 18th exclusively on HBO Max.
In 1960’s San Francisco, bright and talented Catholic school girl Celina Guerrera (Lorenza Izzo) survives a difficult home life by following the rules. That is until an indiscretion creates a series of devastating consequences. As Celina faces the compounded obstacles of being young and alone, she sets out to rise above the oppression of poverty and invest in a future that sets new precedents for the time. Inspired by real women and the Janis Joplin song of the same title, WOMEN IS LOSERS world premiered at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival, where it finished as one of the most-watched of the festival.
Luzzu is a heartfelt film more comparable to a documentary; a Docudrama. Jesmark (Jesmark Scicluna) is a hardworking Maltese fisherman faced with an agonizing choice when it comes to career and family. He comes from a familial culture passed down by generations of Maltese residents who handcraft boats and fish off the local shores. These handcrafted boats are called Luzzu’s. A Luzzu is a traditional, multicolored wooden fishing boat often painted three bright colors of Blues, Yellows, and Reds. Jesmark has been handed down his leaky Luzzu from his father and grandfather which is in need of desperate repair. He hopes to live as they did and make a meager living at sea for his wife and newborn son. However, there’s a mounting economic strain affecting Malta and its fishing industry all while Jesmark scrambles to acquire money to take care of his wife Denise (Michela Farrugia) and slow developing newborn son, Aiden.
Maltese-American writer-director-editor Alex Camilleri shines a cinematic spotlight on an island nation rarely seen for it’s local traditions and economic impact. Camilleri takes a close, tough view of Maltese fisherman increasingly driven from the trade they respect and love. He drives the realism even further by using non professional actors in a gamble that highly pays off. Luzzu won a Sundance Jury Prize for its nonprofessional lead actor Jesmark Scicluna, a real-life Maltese fisherman, and heralds the arrival of Alex Camilleri. His touching film operates in a neo-realist tradition, also featuring the work of Camilleri’s mentor and producer of this film, Ramin Bahrani (Man Push Cart, The White Tiger).
Jesmark Scicluna is a stand out lead who’s real life dilemma parallels that of the striking character he so wonderfully plays. There’s a clear reflection of his own life embedded within the young father and struggling fisherman he portrays. Jesmark is a quiet yet dominant persona who sets the tone of the film around him. Between Brexit and climate disruption, the EU (European Union) has dove deep into severe industry regulations that have caused a depressing impact on small trade and local, often generational fishing families. Jesmark has a hostile new boss (Stephen Buhagiar) who’s selling his fish short at the market, his son requires more costly care, and the relationship between him and his wife Denise are reaching a breaking point. Jesmark is forced to decide whether he will hold on to a collapsing industry or move on from a long celebrated livelihood that no longer holds sustainable value.
Luzzu is an honest film that features real life scenarios and people who convey a heartbreaking message of the Maltese world/livelihood that these families have known and thrived on for decades. It is painstakingly crumbling before their very eyes. Fisherman families are caught between a ‘rock and hard place’ circumstance that is largely manipulated and controlled by the EU. The film exposes a sinister black market operation all too familiar with documentary films focused on oceanic life/industries. This time, the viewpoint is how it directly impacts the Mediterranean fish population and the local families who depend on it. Camilleri and Bahrani include vivid imagery with a minimally spoken dialogue more readable through body language with simple yet effective direction. Their beautiful and artistic approach can come across and slow and wanting to know more about the characters who Jesmark knows and meets throughout the film. Truly a must see film that pulls at your heartstrings and opens your eyes to the smaller regions of the world who are greatly impacted by shitty and uncaring conglomerates who dictate and control livelihoods in more frequent and devastating ways. Highly recommend.
Luzzu opens in Select Theaters on October 15 (NY) October 22 (LA), followed by a National Rollout.
Will Poulter doesn’t play your typical pharmaceutical rep in Hulu’s upcoming miniseries Dopesick. Sure, his Billy is first enticed by the money and the prestige, but he also truly believes the Oxycontin he is selling for Purdue Pharma is helping patients.
Of course, if you’ve been following the opioid crisis in the last 10 years, you know that Purdue and the Sackler family lied to everyone about the drug’s addictive qualities through false advertising and lies. Dopesick follows the lives of the all involved in the crisis from the patients, to the doctors, to the legal and federal agencies trying to regulate it, to the Sackler family, to Billy’s sales rep side.
I had the chance to sit down with Poulter to discuss his role in Dopesick, how the show holds those in power accountable and what is was like working with the great Michael Keaton.
Dopesick is available on Hulu now.
Note: This interview was conducted before Marvel’s announcement that Poulter has been cast as Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence teaming up with the guy behind comedies Bad Teacher and Good Boys? Sounds like a strange mix, especially given how picky she’s been lately, but it’s definitely happening with the upcoming film, No Hard Feelings.
THR reports Lawrence will star in No Hard Feelings, a comedy from director and co-writer Gene Stupnitsky. Sony recently acquired the rights to the film, which has no plot details at the moment but is being compared to Risky Business and Bad Teacher. So we can assume Lawrence is playing some sort of rebel? Also on the script with Stupnitsky is John Phillips.
Lawrence has been stepping up her activity after taking a break for a few years. She’ll be seen next in Adam McKay’s starry Don’t Look Up opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as A24’s Red, White and Water.
Ridley Scott doesn’t get enough credit for the sheer diversity of his filmmaking. The same guy who gave us Alien and Blade Runner also is among the best at brutal medieval period pieces. And that certainly is the true for his latest, The Last Duel, which is bookended by breathtaking swords ‘n armor clashes, leading you to believe this is what the movie is going to be. And if it were, that would be great because we know Scott can do it. But what we get is surprisingly much more, a nuanced look at patriarchy and power and royal politics and how it all comes crashing down on women, or in this case, one woman played by the extraordinary Jodie Comer.
While it’s Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Adam Driver who bag all the headlines for The Last Duel, it’s Comer who is the actual centerpiece and the showstopper. Ironically, the notice they’re getting over her sorta validates the entire theme of the film, which is that women have always been subjected to the will of men, no matter how flawed they might be. Based on a true story in 14th-century France during the time of King Charles VI, the film follows a Rashomon/The Handmaiden look at a single event, the rape of Marguerite de Carrouges (Comer) by accused attacker Jacques Le Gris (Driver), the best friend of Sir Jean de Carrouges (Damon), a headstrong knight who has fallen out of favor with the hedonistic Count Pierre d’Alencon (Affleck) who instead favors Le Gris.
Penned by Damon and Affleck, their first together since winning an Oscar for Good Will Hunting, the film makes no bones about the time period and how dangerous a time it was. A plague has swept the kingdom and sent Jean into ruin, while at the same time his supposed best friend is reaping the benefits of his downfall. Le Gris claims Jean’s familial inheritance, but also the dowry owed to him for marrying Marguerite. Ultimately, he also takes Marguerite, with or without her consent. That they had sex at all is never in doubt.
Telling the same story three times has its challenges, but it’s to the credit of everyone that each brings something new to the table. Subtleties in the performances and dialog add new wrinkles, with each version showing a character in a different light. Damon’s role is particularly tricky; what looks like an act of honor and loyalty in one telling looks like arrogance the next. He stands as a righteous servant of God and the King, but also something of a party-pooper with a chip on his shoulder. He’s bled and nearly died for France, and feels he hasn’t gotten all that he deserves for it. His negative qualities are heightened in subject retellings, with Le Gries putting shine on himself. The interesting thing about Le Gries is how little he denies; he admits to being a womanizer, for lusting after Marguerite, and even for seeing the benefit of Jean’s downfall although it’s purely coincidental.
The nuances are subtle and profound, and this is especially true when Marguerite’s version of the story is told, “the truth” vanishing into smoke as her chapter begins. Comer is incredible here, as she’s largely just part of the decoration in the sections focused on the men. One could easily feel, given Ridley’s history of male-focused epics, that The Last Duel would leave her as the side piece to the guys’ rivalry. Instead, she bursts forth as the only one offering any real humanity, and an honest appraisal of the way men, all men, treated women like property or sexual objects. Even the ones who seemingly mean well, like Jean, put their personal pride ahead of a woman’s justice. For women, redress for a crime such as rape is unheard of. Jean is seen as the aggrieved party, with Marguerite the damaged property. Worse, if Jean loses the duel it’s her who will be executed for committing perjury.
While this is serious dramatic storytelling for the most part, The Last Duel can also be quite funny and I’m not sure it’s always intentional. Damon’s performance is so grim, with that ugly starfish scar on his face so loudly visible, that you want to laugh even louder at his shaky accent. Affleck goes full-blown camp as the Count, his voice reaching Bozo high levels as he asks Le Gries which pair of shoes is best: the silver or the gold. It’s the gold, of course. Driver is a charismatic force exuding knightly energy, but he’s also a bit of a ham. It’s like the men are here doing an Arthurian sketch comedy and they forgot to tell everyone else.
It’s Comer who really classes up the joint, and like Marguerite, she refuses to sit quietly in the shadows while the men get all of the attention. She totally owns this movie, and that makes it disappointing her story gets the shortest amount of time and that so much of it is spent unnecessarily on the rape. The Last Duel misses the mark by not giving Marguerite even more of a voice just because Comer is so good you can’t turn away from her.
The Last Duel concludes with a clashing of swords well worth the 152-minute runtime. This is Scott in true Kingdom of Heaven mode, showing the grim reality of trial by combat, free from the glamorous flourishes Hollywood often puts on knight battles. And because of the compelling, complex storytelling that preceded it, every swing of the sword or thrust of the joust has so much added emotional weight. Honestly, I prefer this Scott to the director who gives outsized theatrics like this than stuff like All the Money in the World or his upcoming House of Gucci. When Scott goes epic-scale there are few better. He’s one of the last filmmakers I’d expect to be able to pull off a period “Me Too” blockbuster but The Last Duel shows that Scott is still at the top of his game.
When Denis Villeneuve was confirmed to be making Dune his next movie, I was skeptical like a lot of people. Personally, Frank Herbert’s book did nothing for me, and that’s coming from a sci-fi junkie. There are a bunch of people who consider David Lynch’s adaptation a cult classic, but it was also a gigantic flop that appealed only to a niche audience, and Villeneuve already had one of those on his resume with Blade Runner 2049. In short: the world of Dune has never meant much to me…until now.
My goodness, Dune is everything you could want from a huge, star-powered Hollywood movie event full of spectacle and grandeur. Within moments you’ll forget all about what Lynch did before and be totally wrapped in the spice war that has enveloped the royal House of Atreides. It’s incredible how far Villeneuve has come. Since Prisoners he has been operating on another level, and Dune is the culmination of everything leading up to now. Visually, it’s absolutely breathtaking to behold, from the insect-like crafts to the shimmering shield armor worn by the Atreides, to obviously the desert landscape of Arrakis which appropriately looks like someplace you could be lost forever if you aren’t swallowed up by the mammoth sandworms. Hans Zimmer’s ominous, ethereal score delivers on every level, too.
Villeneuve hasn’t been shy about his desire to turn this into a franchise, establishing Dune as a clear “Part 1”. In doing so, the film is largely set up during the first hour, as Timothee Chalamet embodies Paul Atreides, heir to House Atreides and a boy with a messianic destiny. Visions, some showing death on a massive scale, others of the beautiful blue-eyed Chiani (Zendaya) of the Freemen, occupy his mind. His father, Duke Leo (Oscar Isaac) has been put in charge of the desert planet of Arrakis, where spice is the most valuable commodity in all of the galaxy. But the Fremen who live there reject the violent rule of past outsiders, mostly the warmongering House Harkonnen. Leo hopes to build a lasting partnership with the Fremen and not rule them with an iron fist, but political mechaniations by the Emperor and those within House Harkonnen conspire to doom House Atreides from the start.
Dune wraps itself up in political machinations for a good stretch of its 150+ runtime, but at no point does it ever drag. In part that’s due to the slow evolution of Paul, who grows more confident as things get deadlier for House Atreides. There’s also the mysterious maneuverings of his mother, Lady Jessica, played with enigmatic force by Rebecca Ferguson (Honestly, does anyone do mysterious and dangerous better than her?), and sisters of the Bene Gesserit who have big plans for Paul…assuming he can survive. Action is initially sprinkled in by measured doses, most of it by the movie’s most exciting character, Jason Momoa’s Duncan Idaho, the swashbuckling hero of House Atreides. Momoa’s big personality leaps off the screen, and he has by far the most physical moments in all of the film, often battling hordes of Harkonnen solo. Josh Brolin as Paul’s grizzled mentor Gurney Hallack also gets his share of excitement, and I was happy to see veteran character actor Stephen McKinley Henderson getting quite a lot to do as mentat Thufir Hawat.
Other prominent actors get only a few minutes to shine, with the promise of much greater exposure if the sequel happens. Zendaya’s Chani is one whose presence looms large, although she is rarely seen until the final act. The same goes for Javier Bardem as Fremen leader Stilgar, although he makes an impression. Too bad we don’t see more of Stellan Skarsgard and Dave Bautista in their Harkonnen roles, as the villains are thinly-drawn in this first chapter.
Of course, the film really lives and dies on Chalamet’s performance, though. I’m not one of those who necessarily subscribe to him as this great actor, but I like him when taking on characters that must grow into power. He’s exceptionally good at depicting Paul’s hesitancy to embrace his future, while becoming the leader that he is meant to be.
Dune is Star Wars-level space drama and easily one of the best movies of the year. My biggest complaint is that I wanted more, and I wanted more quickly. As long as Villeneuve is involved, Dune is the must-see sci-fi on the big screen right now, and you’ll want to see it on the biggest screen possible.
Dune opens in theaters and HBO Max on October 22nd.
