YNOT at the Movies

A deeply divided political climate between blue states and blue states, an ostentatious culture war between the city elites and the less-educated rural population, a devastating opioid crisis, a phenomenally social-media addicted new generation—those are just some of the issues in the United States that are unexpectedly covered in B.J. Novak's impressive feature film directorial debut "Vengeance" (USA 2022 | 94 min.). With plenty of humor (like in his TV sitcoms) and several arresting characters, B.J. Novak, who also wrote the screenplay, produced the film and acted as the protagonist, crafted an engaging commentary on the current state of America. Like a popcorn machine, the film keeps delivering brainy and insightful lines from start to finish.

Living in New York City, between his dating scenes, Ben Manalowitz (B.J. Novak) is a writer for the New Yorker and the creator of a podcast about American life. One morning, he is woken up by a phone call from Texas informing him about the death of Abilene Shaw (Lio Tipton), a woman whom Ben hooked up with in the past and now can barely remember. The caller is a sobbing Ty (Boyd Holbrook), one of the brothers of Abilene, who believes Abilene did not die from an opioid overdose, but was murdered by drug dealers. Ty and his family believe Ben is Abilene's boyfriend and ask Ben to come to her funeral.

To get materials for his next podcast episode, Ben takes the trip to Texas and meets Abilene's interesting surviving family, who puts a photo of Ben and Abilene next to her casket during her funeral. They warmly welcome Ben and take him in as a family member. Agreeing with Ty to search for Abilene's killer but refusing to seek vengeance, Ben starts to look into Abilene's past, including interviewing Abilene's insightful music producer Quentin Sellers (Ashton Kutcher). The process of searching for the truth turns into a self-discovery experience for Ben with numerous amusing and thought-provoking moments of culture clash.

The director B.J. Novak never stops surprising us with these captivating characters. It's quite easy to go down the path of stereotyping them one way or the other, but he manages to avoid any of that and presents us with a few genuinely honest characters across the culture spectrum. He lets his characters break the barrier of prejudice and perception by being themselves and showing what's in their hearts. That's no small achievement.

As a terrific writer, B.J. Novak provides many great dialogues that are provocative, amusing, and catchy, and the terrific ensemble cast deliver them beautifully. Even though B.J. Novak has already directed a few TV episodes in the past, it's a big surprise that this is only his first film project. But what a solid and confident piece of work he delivered! Maybe he should be writing the State of the Union address next time because he can see America clearly through his characters' visions.

"Vengeance" opens on Friday, July 29, 2022.