A Good Person (2023)

There is no happy ending to the OxyContin epidemic. This drug has played a significant role in the broader opioid crisis, which claimed the lives of 645,000 Americans between 1999 and 2021. Although a nearly $6 billion settlement has been reached, aiming to offer assistance for drug addiction through counseling and therapy, as well as providing payouts to families who have lost loved ones to the painkiller, it only comes in the aftermath of a national affliction that has been wreaking havoc on the lives of individuals and communities for many years.

Meanwhile, the Sackler family, whose company Purdue Pharmaceuticals developed the drug and falsely marketed it as non-addictive, has been granted immunity from any future civil suits as part of this deal. With no criminal charges filed against them and still retaining billions of dollars in wealth, the Sacklers, according to the agreement, depart from the company they founded, which will be renamed Knoa Pharma. However, their family name and legacy are now synonymous with corporate greed and a callous disregard for human welfare on a very large scale.

A Good Person is one of several film and TV projects in recent years that depict the story of OxyContin and the broader issue of narcotics in the country. TV series such as Dopesick, Painkiller, and The Fall of the House of Usher serve as cautionary tales, focusing on drug pushers like the Sacklers, and the victims of their lies and misdeeds. However, A Good Person takes a different approach, placing less emphasis on the controversy of OxyContin and more on the addict – the individual who receives the pill from her trusted doctor. The film portrays a young woman with corrosive drug-seeking behavior and explores the impact on those closest to her.

Meet Allison (played by Florence Pugh), a young aspiring musician who is happily engaged to her boyfriend Nathan (played by Chinaza Uche) at the beginning of the film. The couple is interracial, and the opening party scene depicts their friends of different races celebrating the couple's bond in a convincingly harmonious fashion. Everything appears to be going well for Allison until she is involved in a car accident that alters the entire trajectory of her life.