Off Label (2012) Tribeca 2012

One of the worst films of the Tribeca Film Festival...possibly the worst film because it completely takes an important subject, prescription drugs and blows it all to hell and back.

The film is about prescription drugs, their testing, their use, abuse and profit margins. Following 8 people in about 80 minutes this film moves you around a great deal but says nothing of any importance.

There is:
- a bi-polar women who takes truck loads of drugs to control her disorder, which she manages because her doctors won't. that's about all we learn other than she lives in a Bigfoot museum.
-an Asian man who is a test subject. I have no idea what he's doing here because he doesn't do anything
-an older test subject who barely gets by writing about drug testing. There might be something here but it's never explored.
-a 60ish man who has problems as the result of being a test subject in prison. There is something here but its lost by the shitty editing of the whole film. He Needs a whole movie to himself.
-an anthropologist who once worked for the drug companies and now studies how they do business. This is great and the only thing that works from start to finish in the film.
-a woman who's son killed himself since he had a choice of a mental institution or drug trial and he ended up in the trail. His end was truly horrific and it would be a warning if we had more than sound bytes. This is a features documentary unto itself and the shortness does everyone a disservice.
-A soldier who has issues as a result fighting in Iraq. He wants help and to talk about his problems but the doctors just want to medicate and forget him. Again a story here that wickedly short changed.
-a couple who financed their wedding with drug trial money. What they are doing in this film beats the shit out of me.

8 people in an 80 minute movie, meaning that minus credits they get about 9 minutes of screen time. maybe.

All the stories are jumbled. Nothing connects. There is a ten minute 60 minutes piece in all of this, that about it.

This is too long, its badly edited and in its current form totally pointless.

Its a wasted opportunity.

At the screening I attended there were several walkouts. Do yourself a favor and never walk in. This is the sort of film that gives entire film festivals a bad name.