Hazard depicts the opioid disaster ravaging rural America with a uncooked and unflinching lens. Author and director Eddie Mensore pulls no punches as a drug consumer’s whole household is consumed by a lethal epidemic’s unsparing brutality. The movie takes an all-encompassing view that comes with a number of views. We see determined customers clamoring for his or her subsequent repair, whatever the penalties; a annoyed cop attempting to stem the tide; and ruthless profiteers supplying the carnage with out a thought to the devastating aftermath. Hazard is admittedly heavy-handed at occasions and affords few narrative surprises, however tells harsh truths that sadly can’t be discounted.
Set in Hazard, Kentucky, the majestic fantastic thing about the Appalachian mountain vary is juxtaposed by grime-covered coal miners leaving one other arduous shift. Will (Alex Roe) coughs and winces as a tablet mill physician writes one other prescription for OxyContin. He will get excessive earlier than driving in a daze previous dilapidated properties and shuttered shops. Poverty reigns as bluegrass nation music thunders from his rusty previous pickup truck.
A Household Portrait Shattered by Medication
A younger man confronts tough life selections and private tragedies whereas he strives to beat the cycle of dependancy that fractures his household.
- Launch Date
-
January 10, 2025
- Director
-
Eddie Mensore
- Runtime
-
1h 29m
- Solid
-
Alex Roe
, Sosie Bacon
, Steven Ogg
, Dave Davis
, Abigail Esmena Froehle
, Kevin Sizemore
, Mellanie Hubert
, Austin J. Rutherford
, Barbara Eaker
, Mark Helms - Writers
-
Eddie Mensore
- A non-judgmental however uncooked and unflinching have a look at a group torn aside by opiods.
- The movie refuses to compromise with its intimate have a look at struggling and drug use.
- Sosie Bacon is particularly poignant.
- The script may be very heavy-handed in its melodramatic strategy.
Will arrives at a trailer residence the place he was as soon as welcome. Sara (Sosie Bacon) can inform that Will’s drugged up, however permits him to take her to work and their younger son Morgan to highschool. She listens as he guarantees to provide them a greater life. Sara, additionally a recovering addict, can not help however be enamored by Will. She’s nonetheless in love with him regardless of every thing they have been by way of. Will swears he’ll cease by the home once more later. Sara would not assume that is a good suggestion.
Will visits one other trailer however nobody’s residence. He heads to a park the place native addicts meet sellers. Carl (Steven Ogg), Will’s disabled father, sits handed out in his van. Will struggles with Carl, who can barely transfer with out crying out in ache. He begs his son to assist him get proper.
Hazard’s portrayal of intravenous drug use is ugly and disturbing. There is no glamorous heroin stylish right here. Carl’s physique is damaged from his years toiling within the mine. What began as ache administration has insidiously developed to finish dependancy. Will injecting Carl to cease his father’s struggling is each tragic and heartbreaking. Their drug-addled codependency speaks to the bigger downside. The vicious cycle of dependancy pervades all through the city with no generational hole.
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Cogs in a Wheel of Destruction
Dave Davis co-stars as Officer John Lang, Sara’s older brother and Will’s former classmate. He watches in horror as his beloved sister and the group are torn to shreds. Hazard addresses legislation enforcement’s woeful lack of sources in tackling a juggernaut. John wants assist, however there’s nothing the federal government can do. Larger cities with wealthier populations have the identical downside however worse. Our bodies piling up in a small county is only a blip on the radar. This infuriating response leads John to take issues into his personal fingers, a flip of occasions which once more illustrates the scope of a shedding struggle with seemingly never-ending casualties.
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Hazard factors the blame instantly at pharmaceutical corporations and the unscrupulous docs churning out bogus prescriptions. Gun-toting cartel drug sellers aren’t working wild by way of the streets in a hail of bullets. Opioids are handed out like sweet in broad daylight. Will merely has to park in entrance of the pharmacy to seek out the supply of his subsequent hit.
Prescribed drugs have worth in a spot the place cash’s scarce. These promoting their provide have hungry bellies and mouths to feed. That is if they don’t seem to be hooked. These individuals aren’t villains to be demonized however cogs in a wheel of destruction. Mensore, recognized for his documentary The American Buffalo and have movie Mine 9, is cautious when inserting blame. Will, Sara, and his father are merely merchandise of their setting. They’re attempting to outlive in a spot with no choices.
Tragedy in Appalachia
Hazard hits a somber and compassionate observe with tender glimpses of day by day life in Appalachia. Sara tries her finest to be a superb mom. She’s already been by way of hell with Will and understands the hazards of relapsing. However dependancy is a illness that is by no means really crushed. Your finest efforts will not be adequate towards withdrawal’s terrible severity. Addicts are at all times one step away from falling again into the pit. They pay a steep value after they stumble. The chance of shedding sobriety and its rigorously laid progress is actual.
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Will’s decisions in a fraught third act are pretty predictable. However Mensore is not aiming for salacious twists and shock leisure worth. His plot stays firmly grounded in actuality. Addicts should make the tough and excruciating resolution to interrupt freed from drug abuse. He needs the viewers to know these individuals need assistance, not incarceration. Hazard is a tricky tablet to swallow, however a needed one.
Hazard is a manufacturing of Emphatic Movies, Beside Productions, and Slated. It’s going to have a restricted theatrical launch on January tenth throughout Appalachia, increasing on the seventeenth, after which opens in New York and Los Angeles on the thirty first, with extra markets on February seventh from Concourse Media. You’ll find theaters and tickets right here.