REVIEW: ‘Anonymous Sister’ offers personal, painful portrait of opioid epidemic
Photo: Anonymous Sister is the new documentary from director Jamie Boyle and centers on her family’s struggle with opioids. Photo courtesy of film company / Provided by The 2050 Group with permission.
Anonymous Sister, the new documentary from director Jamie Boyle, is a moving and saddening testimony of how the opioid epidemic can forever impact a family filled with love and dreams. Boyle has been turning the camera on her sister, mother and father ever since she was a child, preferring the relative safety of being behind the lens and not under the scrutiny of the cinematic eye. That means she has a lot of footage to help tell this story.
In the film, she presents home videos of the so-called good years, when she was growing up with her sister, Jordan, and enjoying life in Colorado with Mom and Dad. But as the film progresses, Jordan and her mother start seeking pain relief, specifically OxyContin, and the addiction follows. All the time, Boyle’s camera is rolling.
There have been several opioid-focused documentaries in recent years, most prominently the Nan Goldin exposé All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, which was nominated for an Oscar earlier this year. What makes Anonymous Sister stand apart is its fine focus on one family, with a complete arc of how earlier dreams were dashed and addiction took hold. There are some experts in the field who provide helpful context, including one former salesperson who provides startling testimony, but these are secondary voices when compared to Boyle’s family. Anonymous Sister is truly about familial love, familial breakdown and familial survival — all in the shadows of a multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical company.
Boyle, because she’s a member of the family she’s documenting, has seemingly limitless access. Her own footage is used throughout the documentary, offering viewers a home-movie pastiche, and then there are sit-down interviews with her sister, mother and father. Everyone is honest about the dark days and when rock bottom eventually hit, and there’s also the triumph of the slow, but crucial ascent to being drug-free. As the audience is reminded throughout the film, the Boyles are lucky (in some ways) because they have lived to tell their story, while so many families have watched their loved ones die of overdoses over the last 20 years.
Ultimately Anonymous Sister is an instructive film that will help audience members understand this epidemic from an insider’s perspective. There’s a definite role to play for doctors, lawyers, experts and legislators in combating this ongoing problem, but having families hear from other families seems like a key element of addressing this health crisis.
When the film premieres at New York City’s IFC Center this weekend, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the audience not having a story that can connect in some way to what Boyle’s family experienced. This epidemic is so widespread throughout every community in the United States and beyond that the family members in Anonymous Sister are, sadly, not alone. They’re just an American family, like you and I and everyone else. That’s why this film is shocking, upsetting, maddening and necessary.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Anonymous Sister, directed by Jamie Boyle, opens today, June 2 at New York City’s IFC Center, where Boyle will be offering Q&A sessions after select screenings. Click here for more information and tickets.
