Frank Grillo takes his place in a smart ensemble cast in Body Brokers, an indie drama about the dark side of America’s rehab system.
Just the other week we saw the trailer launch for Boss Level, an upcoming action comedy starring Frank Grillo. Now, alongside a host of other familiar faces, Grillo pops up again in a decidedly darker turn, this time with the trailer for Body Brokers.
This one’s an indie film that examines the sordid underbelly of California’s rehab system. Body Brokers looks at the failure of capitalism to create a working rehabilitation system for drug addicts, instead fostering a ‘profit-first’ approach where drug addicts are used to target and recruit other users to a new addiction that rehab centres can profit from.
It’s a sombre topic, with the film’s writer/director John Swab writing from personal experience as a former drug addict who was introduced to the business of ‘body brokering’. There’s a longer interview with Swab over at Collider where he discusses his experiences.
The film’s official synopsis and cast list reads as such:
Jack Kilmer (Lords of Chaos) and Alice Englert (Beautiful Creatures) star as Utah and Opal, a couple of junkies living on the streets of rural Ohio until a seemingly chance encounter with the enigmatic Wood (Michael K. Williams) brings them to Los Angeles for drug treatment. Utah appears to find sobriety with the help of a therapist (Oscar winner Melissa Leo), and he soon falls for a former addict (Jessica Rothe from Happy Death Day) who now works as a tech at the treatment center. However, Utah eventually discovers that drug treatment is just a cover for a predatory business that enlists addicts to recruit other addicts, and Utah is no exception. Wood and his drug treatment mogul partner (Frank Grillo) take Utah under their wing and introduce him to the good life, though Utah’s addiction remains his biggest obstacle.
Body Brokers looks to be an absorbing project. It’s available on video on demand platforms in the UK now, and we’ll be chatting more about it in the next issue of Film Stories magazine. In the meantime, here’s the trailer..
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