Vertical Entertainment has released the official trailer for their upcoming crime thriller, “Body Brokers.” The film stars Jack Kilmer (“The Nice Guys,” “Hala”) as Utah, a young junkie who finds himself roaming the rustic highways of Ohio alongside his partner Opal, played by Alice Englert (recently seen in Netflix’s “Ratched”). After Utah decides to accept help from Michael Kenneth Williams’s (“Lovecraft Country”) seemingly well-intentioned Wood, he leaves his junkie life – and Opal – behind, heading for a California-based rehabilitation program. However, as teased in the trailer, he soon learns that the rehab program isn’t as purely-purposed as it seems to be.
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Here’s the official synopsis:
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Utah and Opal are junkies living on rural Ohio streets until a seemingly chance encounter with the enigmatic Wood (Michael Kenneth Williams) brings them to Los Angeles for treatment. While Utah finds sobriety with the help of the treatment center shrink (Academy Award®-Winner Melissa Leo), he soon learns that rehab is not about helping people—it’s merely a cover scheme for a multibillion-dollar fraud operation, enlisting addicts to recruit other addicts. Seduced by the money, but troubled by the hypocrisy, Utah must decide between what will make him rich and save Opal.
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The film also stars Frank Grillo (seen in a few “Captain America” movies, “Billions,” “The Grey”) and Melissa Leo (“The Fighter,” “Prisoners,” “Frozen River”) who both play potentially seedy rehabilitation center employees and, subsequently, beneficiaries of the underground, junkie-exploitation scheme at the core of the film.
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From the looks of the trailer, it seems like writer/director John Swab (“Run with the Hunted”) is borrowing the knowing, didactic elements of Adam McKay’s recent works (namely “The Big Short”) mixed with a dark comedic tone to the likes of “White Boy Rick” or even “The Wolf of Wall Street” (the scene that concludes the trailer is particularly reminiscent of the latter example).
Produced by Swab and Robert Ogden Barnum, Oliver Ridge, and Jeremy M. Rosen, “Body Brokers,” will hit theaters and VOD on February 19. Check out the trailer below.