Fighting to overcome addiction is a difficult journey, one that’s often made worse by the fact that reacclimating and reintegrating into society after incarceration involves many hurdles and opportunities for crippling setbacks. It’s rewarding and inspiring, therefore, to see a program depicted and showcased whose purpose is to set people up for success, working with them to provide benchmarks that will lead to lasting recovery and repair. Union County blends actors with real program participants for a poignant and effective look at what it means to travel a healing path.
Cody Parsons (Will Poulter) has entered a recovery court program in Ohio, which involves regular meetings with a judge to track progress, sobriety, and to be asked whether there’s anything the program can do to help. His much more affable and enthusiastic foster brother, Jack (Noah Centineo), is also on the same track, and begins training him at a new job as they both chart a proper course forward. But as they follow the steps they’re supposed to, their addictions prove challenging to suppress, testing the limits of what they’re able to endure as they envision how the future could look.
This film, based on Adam Meeks’ short film of the same name from 2023, began when Meeks returned to his Ohio hometown to care for his grandmother. As he saw how the community had been intensely affected by the opioid epidemic, Meeks began working with Annette Deao, a counselor who plays herself in the film. She serves as a resource for the people in the program, offering constant support to help them stay on the right path rather than fall prey to negative influences and the impulse to revert to what feels easier and, in the moment, better.
Poulter, who previously earned an Emmy nomination for another project about the opioid epidemic, Dopesick, is sedated and pensive in most of his interactions, offering very little of himself to others but always polite and respectful. Watching him struggle is particularly affecting, especially since he seems to be more focused and organized than Jack, who Centineo plays as a social charmer who often puts on a front to hide what he’s going through. The professional cast also includes Emily Meade as Katrina, the third sibling whose life has apparently gone much smoother, and Elise Kibler as a graduate of the program who continues to work with current participants.
Where this film achieves its true resonance is from the incorporation of real people in the program seamlessly into the narrative. The check-ins they go through with Judge Braig are their own personal stories, and they’re sharing vulnerable parts of themselves as Cody and Jack’s scripted lines reflect authentic accounts amalgamated from others. It’s an extremely rewarding strategy, hearing how both Judge Braig and Deao speak to those they have been charged to supervise, emphasizing an openness and willingness to understand, and to give more if needed to help prime them for success.
Meeks smartly chooses to begin his story without any explanation of Cody’s past or what specifically got him into this program, instead meeting him on his first day as he steps up to the microphone to hear from the judge. The details of his addiction are gradually revealed but are less relevant than the fact that this is his reality, and it is indeed affirming to know that something like this exists. In a world where people rarely look out for each other, this film serves as an illuminating spotlight on how criminal justice reform may in fact be headed, in small pockets, in the right direction. Meeks blends documentary into fiction in a very effective way to tell a story of endurance and community that feels quite needed right now.
Movie Rating: 8/10
Union County premieres in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
