Vengeance (2022)

If a film carries the title Vengeance, one would predictably expect an action movie. Or a revenge picture. But one probably wouldn’t expect first-time writer/director B.J. Novak’s crime story that humorously attempts to get to the root of the increasing division between Americans in today’s self-obsessed society.

Novak also stars as Ben Manalowitz, a writer for The New Yorker who also dabbles in podcasting. After a night out, he’s awakened by a phone call from Ty Shaw (Boyd Holbrook,) who regretfully informs him that his girlfriend (and Ty’s sister,) Abilene (Lio Tipton,) has passed away. This comes as a surprise to Ben, who is a serial dater and master of non-committal relationships. As Ben tries to explain that Abilene was just a girl he’d hooked up with a few times, Ty convinces him to come to Texas for her funeral since Ben meant so much to her. Ben, who has been looking for an idea for a podcast subject, decides to turn this mix-up into a possible story.

Ben barely has time to get to know the names of Abilene’s family when Ty tells him that he thinks Abilene was murdered. Ty wants Ben to help him track down the killer and avenge her death. Ben figures that Ty simply can’t accept the truth that Abilene died of a drug overdose and has created a conspiracy story to help him deal with the situation. Ben calls his producer, Eloise (Issa Rae,) and pitches his podcast idea. He and Ty will hunt for the killer even though there is no killer. And, with that, Ben embeds himself into Ty and Abilene’s family and begins recording.

At first, Novak’s script appears to reinforce stereotypes about less-educated, rural people. Thankfully, he spends just as much time destroying those same stereotypes in humorous and rather unexpected ways. Where it falters, though, is in maintaining a balance between telling Abilene’s story and Novak’s social commentary. At its core, Vengeance is about questioning the accuracy of our opinions regarding people who don’t share the same desires and values as ourselves. Its intentions are noble but the detour the script takes through a darkly comedic fish-out-of-water tale causes the message to get lost in the more absurd aspects of the story. It never digs deep enough into the heady stuff and when it does, meaningful dialogue can feel like throw-away lines.

There are a number of truly funny moments in Vengeance which are helped by an exceptionally talented cast. While I appreciate Novak’s attempt to combine social commentary with comedy, he hasn’t gotten the mixture quite right just yet. I’m looking forward to seeing what he does in the future. This one just misses the mark.