Pain Hustlers Release Date, Cast, Plot, Trailer And More Details

When it comes to true crime, Netflix has pretty much cornered the market with documentaries like "The Tinder Swindler," "The Keepers," and "Making a Murderer." They also have a pretty solid line-up of narrative movies and TV shows based on terrible true deeds, a la "Mindhunter," "Unbelievable," and Ryan Murphy's "Dahmer" series. Now, they're about to add another true-crime feature film to their extensive collection, one inspired by a scandal ripped straight from recent headlines.

Titled "Pain Hustlers," the crime drama involves a deadly conspiracy and an impressive amount of star power, both working in front of and behind the camera. In other words, the movie has all the ingredients to become one of the most exciting films in Netflix's 2023 lineup (which has been pretty stacked so far and continues to impress as the year goes on). Here's everything we know about "Pain Hustlers," from the source material it's based on to when exactly it will release on the streaming service.

If you're looking forward to watching "Pain Hustlers," you won't have to wait much longer. Netflix has revealed the hotly anticipated drama will hit the streaming service on October 27, 2023. (If you want the theatrical experience, the film hit select theaters on October 20.) Of course, "Pain Hustlers" won't be the only big movie coming out that day. The true-crime tale will find itself competing against the long-awaited horror flick "Five Nights at Freddy's," which will try to lure eyeballs away from Netflix over to movie theaters and rival streaming service Peacock. 

"Pain Hustlers" tells the story of Liza Drake, a down-on-her-luck woman from Florida who's trying to balance raising her daughter and sorting out her troubling financial situation. Strapped for cash, Liza takes a job at a failing pharmaceutical start-up, but as the official logline tells us, she soon becomes "involved in a dangerous racketeering scheme."

If the plot sounds at all familiar, that's because the movie is drawing inspiration from a real-life incident, which was brought to light by journalist Evan Hughes in his 2018 New York Times Magazine article "The Pain Hustlers" and his 2022 book "The Hard Sell." Hughes' reporting exposed the bizarre and corrupt tale of Insys Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company that covertly employed nefarious racketeering tactics with prescription drugs. 

While Liza Drake isn't a real person, the damage done by Insys and their drug, Subsys, is very real. As a result, the movie will let us view the medical conspiracy through the eyes of a fictionalized saleswoman who's selling drugs and possibly her own soul.

The cast of "Pain Hustlers" features some major Hollywood stars and some super recognizable character actors. Leading the film is Emily Blunt, who's had a pretty solid 2023. In addition to starring in the upcoming Netflix film, she also played in one of the best-reviewed movies of the year so far — "Oppenheimer." The actress also starred in popular hits like "A Quiet Place" and "The Girl on the Train," and here, she portrays Liza, the charismatic protagonist who finds herself embroiled in a dangerous criminal plot.

Co-starring opposite Blunt, we've got Chris Evans. Obviously, the man is best known for his stint in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing Steve Rogers in movies like "Captain America: Civil War" and "Avengers: Endgame." Also, this isn't Evans' first rodeo with Netflix, as he portrayed the antagonist in the streamer's popular action flick "The Gray Man." We're not sure exactly who Evans is playing in "Pain Hustlers," but based on the snippets we've seen of the film, he looks to be a driving player in the pharmaceutical conspiracy. 

Rounding out the cast, it looks like Andy Garcia of "Ocean's Eleven" fame will be key to the story, and he'll be joined here by the legendary Catherine O'Hara ("Schitt's Creek"). You can also expect to see the likes of Jay Duplass ("Transparent"), Brian d'Arcy James ("West Side Story"), and Chloe Coleman ("Gunpowder Milkshake"). Suffice it to say, the cast for "Pain Hustlers" is looking pretty stacked.

"Pain Hustlers" is directed by David Yates, who pop culture fans may best know as one of the most prolific directors in the "Harry Potter" franchise. Yates directed the final four films in the original saga, from "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" in 2007 all the way to "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2" in 2011. He's continued work on the franchise as the director of all three of the "Fantastic Beasts" spin-off movies.

A semi-nonfiction crime drama may seem like a pretty major departure from the bulk of Yates' past work, but the creative has dipped his toe into this less fantastical realm of cinema before. In fact, Yates' directorial debut was 1998's "The Tichborne Claimant," a crime drama based on the historical Tichborne case from the 1800s. Yates has also directed other well-received dramas like "The Girl in the Café," so he's got plenty of experience on this front.

The "Pain Hustlers" teaser is a dizzying whirl of money, drugs, and ambition. We glimpse prescriptions getting written, cash being counted, and ambitions growing larger. Things look great for Emily Blunt's Liza ... but only for a while. Soon, characters grow visibly paranoid, fights begin to break out, and the cracks in her industry begin to grow.

In the official "Pain Hustlers" trailer, we dig a bit deeper into the story. We witness Liza's extreme financial straits, but as her desperation mounts, we hear her positive affirmations — "I will not give up on myself. I will not give up on my dreams. I will make my life count."

It's that self-belief coupled with extreme despair that drives Liza into a world of corruption and pharmaceuticals, where she and Chris Evan's character start making money beyond Liza's wildest dreams. The official trailer has strong "Wolf of Wall Street" vibes, with our antihero giving inspirational speeches as her bank account grows and grows. Of course, the trailer for "Pain Hustlers" also promises great drama as the whole company starts to crumble and Liza's life starts to collapse.

Remember how we said "Pain Hustlers" has "Wolf of Wall Street" vibes? Well, that definitely reflects in the rating. The Netflix film has been rated R for "language throughout, some sexual content, nudity, and drug use." The drug use should come as absolutely no surprise — the whole movie revolves around that very subject after all. The high-stakes environment is bound to generate all sorts of colorful language, and as our characters descend into wealth and debauchery, that's where the sexual content and nudity will probably come into play.