Pain Hustlers
Netflix | Release Date: October 20, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
44
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
25
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Irish TimesTara BradyOct 27, 2023
Wells Tower’s screenplay creates a compelling, compromised hero in Eliza, one matched by Blunt’s charm and commitment. But the film is ultimately torn between raucous satire and social conscience. Read full review
60
The New York TimesAmy NicholsonOct 26, 2023
The movie is constrained by its own conscience. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeOct 22, 2023
It’s predictable but glossily watchable. The main redeeming feature is the crackling charisma of Emily Blunt, in the central role of a down-on-her-luck single mum turned pharma marketing genius. Read full review
60
TheWrapKristen LopezSep 13, 2023
Pain Hustlers entertains thanks to its strong leads but it’s hard not to find it a derivative look at a tough topic that relies on tropes from far superior movies. Read full review
58
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerOct 27, 2023
Though it may not be an awards contender, there are still sparks throughout to appreciate, especially in Blunt and Evans’ performances. Thanks to them, there’s a lot of humanity to be found in the film — the best and the worst of it. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 30, 2023
Emily Blunt is so emotionally present that she almost redeems the movie. She doesn’t, but she at least makes the first half of Pain Hustlers watchable. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 30, 2023
As the folks in this rise and fall of Pharma Frauds saga could tell you, it’s the third act where all the consequences show up and the piper must be paid. That’s where this story’s make-or-break moments are parked, and there are too few of them to let it get off the screen with as much promise as it opened with. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubManuel BetancourtOct 27, 2023
While it’s wildly entertaining to watch a performer walk such a tightrope, at some point you lament that the opioid crisis has been reduced to a circus sideshow. Read full review
50
Rolling StoneDavid FearOct 26, 2023
The movie itself ends up just hustling a stock redemption story window-dressed with issues as opposed to exploring them. Read full review
50
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckOct 26, 2023
Ultimately, Pain Hustlers feels like a retreading of the same ground covered in other recent works, bringing nothing especially new to the table and, in splitting the stylistic difference between slick/breezy and poignant/authentic, succeeding fully at neither. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comRobert DanielsSep 15, 2023
By playing with formalism, using faux documentary, and cranking out hedonistic scenes of excessive drug taking and partying, Yates aims to blend “Erin Brockovich” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.” But the director’s filmic language never offers quite enough sex, quite enough excess, quite enough of capitalism’s depravity. Pain Hustlers just doesn’t know how to commit. Read full review
50
Screen RantPatrice WitherspoonSep 14, 2023
Ultimately, Pain Hustlers is a mixed bag of entertainment that opts for flashiness instead of focusing on the important elements of the story at hand — the people affected by the carelessness of others. Read full review
50
SlashfilmRafael MotamayorSep 12, 2023
In the end, watching Pain Hustlers is about as numbing an experience as being prescribed the drug Liza spent her career selling. Read full review
45
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzOct 26, 2023
There is no guts to Pain Hustlers’ try-hard gonzo-ness, resulting in a sub-Scorsese style that both underlines and loses its point. Read full review
45
The Daily BeastNick SchagerSep 12, 2023
In a streaming landscape already saturated with takedowns of Big Pharma and its pill-popping perfidy, it’s a generic version of far more powerful originals. Read full review
42
Original-CinChris KnightOct 19, 2023
Pain Hustlers waits until very late in the game to really drive home some of the horrors behind the opioid epidemic. For too long we’re complicit with its characters. And maybe that’s what it’s going for; but if so, it left me with a mildly unpleasant aftertaste. Not quite what the doctor ordered. Read full review
42
The PlaylistAnkit JhunjhunwalaSep 13, 2023
The whiff of play-acting hangs over the entire enterprise as even director David Yates seems entirely unsuited to the material, and the whole project seems misconceived and half-baked from top to bottom. Read full review
42
ColliderRoss BonaimeSep 12, 2023
Yates makes Pain Hustlers part-rowdy dramedy, part-half-assed takedown, and entirely an underwhelming film that attempts to make apparent and bland points. Read full review
42
IndieWireDavid EhrlichSep 11, 2023
Long on voiceovers, short on specificity, and so high on the generic-brand Scorsese of it all that it glosses right over the gray areas that make its characters so tragic, Yates’ film is more focused on being easy to swallow than it is on meaningfully addressing the source of the pain. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyOct 28, 2023
It’s hard to extend much credit for the subject matter when it’s exploited for a “wild ride” that isn’t even wild, hawking a true story that isn’t even true. Read full review
40
EmpireBarry LevittOct 25, 2023
It offers the bones of a compelling story, but one-note characters, riskless storytelling and creaky pacing prevent this film from making an impact. This is a prescription best left unfilled. Read full review
40
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 14, 2023
The film follows a slick, predictable rise-then-fall narrative structure full of boisterous montages when things are going well and sombre music once the good times end. Read full review
40
Total FilmMatt MaytumSep 13, 2023
Despite a typically strong performance from Blunt - and a fun, if one-note, Evans - neither the rise nor the inevitable fall ever feel all that compelling. It lacks the sheer audaciousness of the similarly structured The Wolf of Wall Street, and doesn’t come close to the energy of The Big Short, which whipped up furious indignation while being massively entertaining at the same time. Read full review
40
BBCCaryn JamesSep 12, 2023
While Pain Hustlers is a perfectly fine title, the film probably should have been called Liza Drake, the name of the sales rep played by Emily Blunt, who single-handedly almost saves this tone-deaf drama from itself. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 11, 2023
Blunt remains committed to the end but even she can’t add a shine to the drab last act, the pleasure of seeing her on screen replaced with the pain of another undeserving project. Read full review
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