Films can be interesting time capsules of historical moments or can at least represent what movie studios think an audience is interested in. Right now, there seems to be a belief that we really want to know how the opioid crisis, which kill 136 Americans a day, came to be. Netflix, most recently, came out with the series “Painkiller,” looking at the topic and, in October, will release “Pain Hustlers,” a fictionalized exploration of a drug company that foisted opioids on doctors for personal gain.

“Pain Hustlers” is a weird look into the topic, with long-time “Harry Potter” director David Yates at the helm to tell a story with heavy shades of Martin Scorsese’s “Wolf of Wall Street” and Craig Gillespie’s “I, Tonya.” Those are certainly great movies to lift tones from but in the case of “Pain Hustlers” its never gels and, coupled with Wells Tower’s simplistic script,...