Snake Oil

Snake Oil is a dramatic thriller about the bonds of family, the power of deception, and the nature of being an outsider. When their sister is jailed for retaliating against her abusive husband, estranged brothers Mikey and Jerome must team up in order to raise her bail money. Drug dealer Mikey offers to take on debt to increase his distribution; grifter Jerome has a more colorful plan.

Set against the backdrop of New Orleans mid-Mardi Gras, Snake Oil is filled with colorful characters each vying for something elusive. For Mikey, that’s a brotherly bond, or a father-figure, or just a group to call his own. Ever since his dad left the family, and his brother departed shortly-thereafter, Mikey’s been on a quest to shake off his outsider status. He just wants to fit in, he wants to be wanted. And hey, everybody’s happy when their drug dealer rolls through. Jerome’s a lonewolf with dollar bills in his eyes - he’s only after the next score, and he’ll do or say anything, anytime, to manipulate a mark into forking over cash.

Their brotherly struggle is at the heart of this story - a mismatched pair trying to sell enough fake drugs to raise a hundred thousand dollars and bail their sister out of jail. Think Hell or High Water meets Matchstick Men.

The villains of this tale are equally mismatched. Corrupt cops Sonny and Louis make their bones ripping off drug dealers and selling the loot to a shady broker. Sonny’s a cowboy and a crackpot, and he wrongly believes he’s disenfranchised...or maybe that’s just an excuse for his bad behavior. Louis, on the other hand, feels alone in the world after the love of his life slips into a coma and the doctors pressure him to pull her plug. The hospital bills are piling up, and the constant cracks about Louis being the only Jewish police officer in New Orleans history have begun to wear thin. When he finally snaps and kills their broker after an offhand antisimitic comment, Louis and Sonny turn their attention to a successful young drug dealer who’s recently popped up onto their radar - Mikey.