Filmmaker R.J. Cutler on Big Vape and Juul’s Rush to Market: ‘Nobody Would Take a Cancer Drug and Put It Out That Way’
variety.comAddie Morfoot Contributor If you expect the Netflix docuseries “Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul” to be the ultimate takedown of controversial e-cigarettes, think again.The four-part series, directed by R.J.
Cutler and based on Time reporter Jamie Ducharme’s book “Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul,” examines all the mistakes Juul executives made, including marketing the e-cigarette to millennials.
The series also suggests that the product might very well be a better option than conventional cigarettes.Stanford graduate students and Juul founders Adam Bowen and James Monsee, who did not participate in the series, were on a smoke break when they had an “a-ha” moment.
Could they create a nicotine product that was less harmful than cigarettes? Bowen and Monsee wanted to “erase combustible cigarettes from the face of the earth.” The result was Juul, an electronic cigarette startup meant to save lives that came under federal scrutiny for its own health risks.
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