By Dan Skip Allen

One of the things that hit this country hard was the opioid epidemic in the 90s/2000s. There are a lot of places in America that aren’t that well off. The economy hasn’t been good for some states. That’s when people fell into drug abuse. The opioids take their minds off of their struggles that they have in life. Alcohol does the same for people, but not as fast as options do. “Union County” is a film that deals with the opioid epidemic in a realistic way. It’s a topic Americans shouldn’t forget, so we don’t fall back into the depressing terrible time for our country.

Cody Parsons (Will Poulter) is just out of prison. He gets set up with a program to help him get clean. He goes to a recovery court to tell how his progress is, but he lives out of his white Cadillac in the woods. He gets a job working at a sawmill with his brother Jack (Noah Centineo), who’s worse than he was. Occasionally, they go hang out at bonfires in the woods and meet new people. His brother is a bad influence on him, and so they both fall back on doing drugs and drinking, which gets him into trouble again. He has to start over from the beginning, and it’s not easy. He does get a place to stay, though, and that helps him go down the right path, but that can’t be said for his brother. 

The writer/director Adam Meeks gives an interesting perspective on this story. He uses real people with real problems in the court scenes telling their stories and uses a few other actors to fill in the rest of the cast. The mix of real people and actors works in the context of this story. As a viewer, I felt the importance of these people’s lives. Following the main character gives me a perspective on his life specifically. That mix gives the film a better feel. Add in some of the other actors, specifically female characters, and you have a well-rounded story overall. I genuinely got to know this man and his story, and I care about him. That’s when a movie works on its audience. 

Poulter is an actor who has done a lot in his career. He’s played a chef in “The Bear”, he’s played Adam Warlock in “Guardians of the Galaxy 3”, but the most important role I think he’s played that has prepared him for the one he plays in this film was that of an opioid salesman in “Dopsick”. He got to see the true story behind oxycontin and how it destroyed so many Americans’ lives while making a specific family, the Facklers rich. That’s the cost of what so many people’s pain and suffering come at getting others rich. That’s a travesty we have to deal with. Poulter saw this first hand and now had the chance to play the other side of the coin. He does a great job. This is the best performance of his career.  I’d like to see him do more roles like this in his career.

The technical aspects of the movie are pretty good. Meeks does a good job showing the rural Ohio area in a nice way. It’s juxtaposed to the ugly nature of the drug addiction that goes on as a parallel to the main story. In the winter, Ohio isn’t a beautiful place, but in this film, the state looks a lot prettier. The rolling hills and woods are  nice locations for the scenes that take place there. I feel like this may have been on purpose, and that’s a good decision.  There was also a score that added another element to the film. The music was somber at times. In other moments, it added a lighter tone to the dark material that was depicted on screen. The score was like another character in the film.

“Union County” is a movie that deals with difficult subject matter. The opioid epidemic has affected thousands across many states in America. The writer/director captures that feeling to good effect. The Poulter character is our eyes into the story, and he does a great job of bringing us the viewers into his world. The Centineo character is the dark side of this story, while the Poulter character shows what can happen when a person does the right things to try and get better. The mix of real people and actors worked very well in context to the story. This gave me a better perspective of how this system works regarding recovery and trying to get better. Overall, this was a good movie that she’d a light on a terrible time in America.

🌟 🌟 🌟 ½ stars