Junction

Greetings again from the darkness. Actor Bryan Greenberg's (PRIME, 2005) first feature film as writer-director could have been subtitled, "those who suffer vs those who profit." Most of us can agree that businesses providing a desired product or service are entitled (not guaranteed) to turn a profit. And on a seemingly unrelated note, most of us can agree that those suffering from addiction deserve and need assistance in breaking the cycle that is destroying their life. The road where these two intersect is when drug companies produce an effective yet addictive product that is prescribed by doctors. The issue arises when profits soar due to the spread of addiction.

The story focuses on the Opioid crisis, and evidently, it's a topic that filmmaker Greenberg feels strongly about. He serves up three perspectives so that we better grasp the full reach. Greenberg himself plays Michael, a restaurant owner in desperate need of a refill on his Oxycodone prescription. Ashley Madekwe ("Revenge") plays Mary, a doctor whose practice has grown due to her willingness to write these prescriptions. Griffin Dunne (AFTER HOURS, 1985) and Ryan Eggold ("The Blacklist") play CEO father Lawrence and ambitious son Jacob, who run one of the drug companies producing and marketing Oxy.

The three-tiered approach works as we see Michael, divorced from Allison (Sophia Bush), is no longer attentive to his work or family, Mary has good intentions but carries the guilt of the drug's effect on her patients, and the heads of the drug company are facing an FDA hearing to determine their level of guilt and damages. It's a bad day for everyone. Perhaps Greenberg over-complicated the story unnecessarily with some additions like Mary's afternoon delight with the drug rep, Jacob's planned corporate coup over his dear old dad, and Michael's, umm, digestive issues at his son's basketball game. Of course, all of these elements are meant to show the progression of cause and effect when it comes to addictive drugs. One subplot that I couldn't make work was that of the doctor having financial troubles with patients lined up for the next prescription. It makes sense that she wants to escape the oxy world, but with her practice booming, why the financial woes?

Familiar faces appear throughout, and include Dash Mihok ("Ray Donovan"), Jamie Chung ("The Gifted", married to Greenberg), Josh Peck (THE WACKNESS), Yara Martinez ("True Detective"), Michaela Conlin ("Bones"), Hill Harper ("CSI:NY"), and Dascha Polanco ("Orange is the New Black"). The cycle of addictive drugs presents itself as causing money issues, trust issues, personal and marital issues, health issues from addiction, kids that can't count on parents, and political ramifications that lead to corruption. While it has the look and feel of one to stream, the film's message is quite clear and powerful.

The film will be in theaters and on demand on January 26, 2024.

Ooooof that line had me in tears.

I had the thought to watch this movie after listening to Sophia Bush's podcast "Work In Progress" which I actually wasn't aware existed until they started recently putting it under the Drama Queens podcast. Bryan Greenberg played one of my favorite characters in the show this podcast is about and when they brought him on that podcast I loved hearing them all talk about their experiences on set. I had huge respect for him

This newer podcast was all about Junction and Bryan seemed so passsionate about making the film I just had to watch it. Did you know it was filmed in 17 days?? Truly amazing!!

I love how all the characters tied together in the end.

As a long time chronic pain patient I can fully attest to the accuracy of this movie. In 2006 I had a CT Scan of my lower back and they found advanced degenerative disc disease and arthritis in my neck. One day in '06 I went to the ER because the pain was so bad and they put me on IV Dilaudid and wrote a script for Vicodin. This was before the opioid epidemic when doctors were pushing Percocet and Vicodin like candy. They would prescribe pain meds based on a pain chart of 1-10. I believe Purdue Pharma was responsible for that.

After returning to the ER several times in a few months span they told me I need to go to a pain specialist and NOT back to the ER for pain meds.

I started seeing a pain specialist out of pocket because I left my job and had no health insurance at the time. Each monthly visit to the pain Dr cost about $1,200, visit and meds included. This pain specialist started me on Fentanyl patches 25 mcg/hr AND Dilaudid pills. Over the next year or so the doctor increased my Fentanyl patch dose from 25 mcg to 100 mcg /hr (that's 10mg, enough to knock out a horse). Obviously with the rapid increases in dosage I was addicted to opioid pain meds. For the next few years I ended up throwing away over $200,000 on pain meds.

In 2013 I got health insurance with MediCal and by then the opioid crisis was real. Doctors started cracking down on pain meds and the Gov started cracking down on big pharma for their role in this crisis. I lost over $200,000 because of opioids that was pushed on me and got me addicted. Life was brutal, just trying to get by day by day, hour by hour even.

Under my new health plan I was assigned a new pain specialist who started tapering me down off the Fentanyl patches over a 2 years period. Remember that I was also taking Dilaudid previously and the new doctor switched me to Percocet with a taper plan.

By 2018 I was off the Fentanyl patches and just on the Percocet with a steady dose regimen and slow tapers over the next several years.

Into the 2020's the opioid epidemic reached a boiling point and most pain doctors by then stopped prescribing opioid pain meds to new patients and tapered existing pain patients off what they were taking. Substance abuse was out of control doctors started treating patients with methodone or Suboxone (Suboxone is buprenorphine with nalaxone) and works by eliminating the crave for pain meds since it works to similar to opioid pain meds by binding to the pain receptors in the brain.

In 2022 I was given Suboxone after over 15 years of being addicted to pain meds and missing out on so much of my life.

This movie really hits home the reality of the opioid epidemic where the father and CEO of a Pharma company and the son who is addicted to opioid pain meds, and comes full circle when a patient who testified at a hearing said to the CEO that he specifically is at fault for being part of the cause of this crisis saying that he was killing people. At that same moment the CEOs son died from an overdose.

I wish more was done to combat this crisis by helping people who are substance abusers as well as genuine chronic pain patients like I was/am. I hope a clean bill can pass in Congress that can help solve this epidemic or at least take it on head on.

Such a paint by numbers, brainless movie. The story, script, production and and acting are terrible. Yuck. I couldn't finish watching it. Had to stop in disgust. Very unrealistic, the script is ludicrous. The acting is very amateurish. The production reeks of film school 101 as well. The dramatic soundtrack etc. Eww. So so cliche in every possible way. I cant think of any redeeming factors whatsoever. Its complete garbage. OK i've said my piece now. Watch this at your own peril. I'm just exagerrating now to fill the word count. Watch this if you want to degrade your own IQ by 40-50 points at one go.