February 26, 2021
CRISIS is a well-intentioned and-well shot – on 35mm, no less – thriller about the opioid epidemic. Director/writer Nicholas Jarecki has a lot on his mind here – so much, in fact, that he’s got three distinct plotlines running here. One of these never links up with the other two, which is among the film’s several problems.
A serene, snowy landscape is interrupted by the hectic arrest of a young drug smuggler at the U.S./Canada border south of Montreal.
Then we’re in Detroit, where grumpy high-level drug dealer Jake Kelly (Armie Hammer) turns out to be an even grumpier Federal agent. Jake is trying to bring down both a Fentanyl-selling Detroit-based gang and a Montreal-based supplier by setting up a deal between the two. This requires him going to Montreal and convincing criminal boss Mother (Guy Nadon) that he’s the real thing. In his personal life, Jake is coping with a drug-using younger sister (Lily-Rose Depp).
Opioid Thriller Crisis Doesn t Have the Payoff to Match Its Noble Intentions Directed by Nicholas Jarecki
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Review: Messy and clichéd opioid drama Crisis is aptly titled, no matter Armie Hammer s involvement
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Photo: Philippe Bosse
“Crisis,” the thoughtful film directed and written by Nicholas Jarecki, is definitely worth your consideration. Timing, as has long been said, is everything and this film should have been blessed by the timing of the revelations into the OxyContin industry and the part played by Purdue Pharmaceuticals and the Sackler family. Instead it is damned by the timing of the sexual abuse allegations against the film’s star, Armie Hammer. Still, in a baby with the bathwater comparison, the message and the storytelling in “Crisis” should override the ick factor.
“Crisis” tells three intersecting stories about the opioid epidemic.
RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON: 3 ½ STARS If you look on IMDb, there are dozens of titles containing the phrase “dragon slayer.” Movie dragons, by and large have been of the Smaug variety, a beast “The Hobbit” author J.R.R. Tolkien described as “a most specially greedy, strong and wicked worm.” There are exceptions of course, like the “How to Train Your Dragon” creatures and the wyvern in “The Reluctant Dragon” who would rather recite poetry than cause havoc. “You’ve got to be mad to breathe fire,” he says, “but I’m not mad at anybody.” This week we can add Sisu the self-deprecating water dragon voiced by Awkwafina in Disney+’s animated “Raya and the Last Dragon,” to the happy dragon list