I saw “Union County” before Will Poulter and Noah Centineo were attached to it.
Adam Meeks’ original short played eleven festivals in 2020 and 2021, Berlinale, Palm Springs, Nashville, Vancouver, a Special Jury Mention at Florida, before a single movie star was ever attached to it. Fifteen minutes, no Poulter, no Centineo, just a drug court in rural Ohio and the people actually living through it. I watched it and felt something I don’t feel often watching addiction stories: recognition instead of distance. Not because my story looks like theirs. Because the room felt real. I could see myself in it, and I don’t think I’m the only one.
That’s the thing nobody outside of recovery understands about most film and TV depictions of addiction. They’re written for an audience that’s never sat in that room. “Union County” wasn’t. It’s the rare project that gets made by someone who actually showed up, sat down, and paid attention before he ever picked up a camera.
Six years later, that short is now a feature. Same title, same Ohio drug court world, now with Poulter and Centineo starring as brothers Cody and Jack Parsons working their way through a court-mandated rehab program. It premiered at Sundance 2026 in U.S. Dramatic Competition and reportedly earned an extended standing ovation. Based on what the short already got right, I believe it.
What stayed with me about the short wasn’t anything flashy. The cinematography got out of its own way. It didn’t perform. It just held the story steady and let the story be the thing. That’s rarer than it sounds.
What makes this one different
The counselor character, Annette, is played by Annette Deao, who isn’t an actress playing a counselor. She’s the real drug court coordinator in Logan County, Ohio, who has run that program since 2004. “Union County” is her first film role. Most of the supporting cast around her are real drug court participants and staff, not extras hired to look the part.
Meeks spent a summer in 2017 sitting in on actual drug court sessions after a family connection introduced him to the judge. He’s described that courtroom as feeling less like a place of punishment and more like a sanctuary, a room full of people building a case for their own second chance. That instinct is exactly what came through in the short, and it sounds like the feature didn’t lose it on the way to a bigger budget.
I think that’s worth stopping on. There’s no amount of acting that gives you what lived experience gives you. Even the world’s best actor is still acting. Annette Deao isn’t. That difference shows up on screen whether you can name it or not.
The look of it
The cinematography stuck with me. This isn’t the washed-out, gray-filter version of addiction that most films default to when they want you to feel the misery. Stefan Weinberger shot the short with an eye that treats rural Ohio like it’s worth looking at, not just a backdrop for tragedy. He’s back for the feature, and given his resume since (Cannes, Berlinale, Tribeca, work for Garrett Bradley and Questlove), I’d bet the visual language only got sharper.
It’s the same instinct that made the short work. Clear. Unadorned. Not trying to make you feel the misery through a filter. The gray-filter aesthetic is basically the visual language of addiction content that wants you to feel bad about yourself. This doesn’t do that. For a publication that’s spent years arguing sobriety doesn’t have to look like suffering, that matters.
Why this hits outside the cities
A lot of addiction media gets made by and for people who’ve never lived more than twenty minutes from a major metro. This film is set in a pocket of Ohio that got flattened by the opioid epidemic, and it’s telling that story through people who actually live there.
I grew up halfway between Seattle and Portland. I was in my active addiction in small towns and in cities. I got sober in Seattle, partly because the resources were there in a way they weren’t where I grew up. The world was different then. But the point stands: addiction doesn’t care where you live, what you earn, or what your zip code looks like. Most of the media covering it acts like it does.
There’s a whole population of people getting sober in small towns, without the wellness studios and the NA bottle shops, and this film is one of the only pieces of pop culture I’ve seen that seems to know they exist.
Where to see it
I saw the short in 2020. I told people about it then.
Now it’s a feature. (I’m not surprised. I’m really not.)
“Union County” opens August 14 at IFC Center in New York, and on the same day at four Ohio theaters: Esquire Theatre and Kenwood in Cincinnati, Gateway Film Center in Columbus, and The Nightlight in Akron. Oscilloscope put this film in Ohio on opening weekend. For a movie this rooted in a specific Ohio drug court, that’s not a small thing.
Go see it. Then tell someone else to go see it.
That’s how this works.
Union County – Short Film 2020
Union County (2026) – Official Trailer – Oscilloscope Laboratories HD
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Is “Union County” (2026) based on an earlier short film?
Yes. Director Adam Meeks made a 15-minute short of the same name that premiered at the 70th Berlinale in 2020. The 2026 feature expands that story with Will Poulter and Noah Centineo starring.
What is “Union County” about?
Two brothers navigate a court-mandated drug rehabilitation program in rural Ohio during the opioid epidemic.
Is “Union County” based on a true story?
It’s scripted, but much of the supporting cast are real drug court participants and staff from Logan County, Ohio, playing versions of themselves.
When and where does “Union County” open?
August 14, at IFC Center in New York, with same-day openings in Cincinnati (Esquire Theatre and Kenwood), Columbus (Gateway Film Center), and Akron (The Nightlight).
