Puncture

Puncture (2011) is a fact-based legal drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Adam and Mark Kassen and starring Chris Evans well before his Marvel years. A drug-addicted Houston attorney takes on a medical-supply cartel that is blocking a safer needle design from reaching hospitals.

Lawyer Mike Weiss picks up the case of a nurse infected with HIV by a used syringe. The opponent is a coalition of industry giants with deep pockets and deeper ties to Washington. Weiss knows the science is on his side. The trouble is that every court date is a fight against his own body as much as the corporations.

Evans plays the role without any of his usual charisma intact — this is a wired, exhausted, genuinely uncomfortable performance. The film is brisk and unsentimental, and it lands hardest as a portrait of what happens when a broken man turns out to be the only one willing to keep pushing. Stream Puncture (2011) online on iFILM.