vengeance movie review 2022

“Vengeance” sounds like the title of an action thriller. There have been films with that name before. But although vengeance is discussed in “Vengeance”—the first feature from writer/director/star B.J. Novak, co-star and co-writer of the American version of “The Office”—it has a lot more on its mind. Too much, probably. 

The story begins in earnest when New Yorker writer and aspiring public intellectual Ben Manalowitz (Novak) gets a call at his Manhattan apartment late one night from Ty Shaw ( Boyd Holbrook ), who lives in one of the flattest backwaters in West Texas, a small town five hours’ drive from Abilene, which is two hours and forty minutes from Dallas. Ty is calling to tell Ben that his sister, Ben’s girlfriend—who is oddly also named Abilene, Abby for short—has died. 

Ben doesn’t have a girlfriend named Abby. He’s a player who hooks up with many women. But a quick check of his phone confirms that he did indeed have sex with an aspiring singer named Abby ( Lio Tipton ) a few times and then forgot about her. Somehow he ends up letting himself be talked into traveling to Abby’s hometown, attending her funeral, and commiserating with her grieving family, which also includes her younger sisters Paris ( Isabella Amara ) and Kansas City ( Dove Cameron ), her kid brother El Stupido (Elli Abrams Beckel), and her mother Sharon (J. Smith-Cameron). Then Ty tells Ben that Abby was murdered, probably by a Mexican drug dealer named Sancholo ( Zach Villa ), and asks if he’ll help the family seek, well, you know.

Ben is a narcissist who seems to view every relationship and experience as a way of raising his status as a writer and quasi-celebrity, so it seems unbelievable at first that he’d travel to Texas to attend the funeral of a woman he didn’t really know. But the notion begins to seem more plausible once he starts talking to the family and slotting them into his prefabricated East Coast media-industrial-complex notions of “red state” and “blue state” people, and spinning his theories about temporal dislocation. Modern technology, he says, allows every person to exist in every moment except the present if they so choose. The desire for vengeance, we are told, is exclusively a backward-looking urge.

Intrigued by the possibility of writing the equivalent of a great American novel in the form of a podcast (he even name-checks Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood ) Ben decides to stick around to gather material for an audio series, which will be created under the supervision of his friend Eloise, a New York-based podcast editor for a National Public Radio-like organization. (As Eloise, Issa Rae works wonders with a thinly written role.)

If Ben’s creative vision sounds like the kind of navel-gazing blather that you’d hear on a true crime podcast in which an actual person’s murder becomes a springboard for brunchy rumination on law and truth and the nature of yadda yadda  by a group of Ivy League college graduates based in Brooklyn, well, Ben is aware that he’s sliding towards that cliché—and so is Eloise, who early on makes a joke to the effect that Ben is the only white man in America without a podcast. And yet, true to media form, they embrace the templates, tropes, and clichés anyway. 

Unfortunately, so does the movie. Like “The Daily Show” and its many imitators—and like Jon Stewart’s recent film “ Irresistible “—this is a movie that chastises its protagonist and the “red state” people he engages with for failing to look beyond the clichés they’re fed by their own self-enclosed media loops, while at the same time dining out on them. On one side of the great divide is a nation of “coastal elites” (driven by Harvard-educated Jewish people like Ben) who name-drop cultural tidbits that they learned in college and never revisited; sneer at monogamy, and think everything between the coasts that’s not a Top Ten city is a barbaric wasteland. The inhabitants of said wasteland are people whose favorite restaurant is Whataburger and have several guns in the house for every person (including the kids) and use them to settle their differences rather than calling 911. 

Intriguingly, though, even as “Vengeance” checks box after box on the op-ed chart of American shorthand, it also presents a number of characters with idiosyncrasies and layers that we’ve never seen in a movie before. Ben himself is quite a piece of work, and it’s to Novak’s credit that we eventually dig past Ben’s buzzwords and NPR-ready voice and see the character’s self-loathing (and, it would appear, the filmmaker’s) at realizing that he’s a prisoner of the same limited thinking he decries. (Ben often plays more like the protagonist of a French comedy than an American one—or like the characters played by Canadian satirist Ken Finkleman in “The Newsroom” and “More Tears.”) There’s little discussion of racial grievance as a motivation for politics in the film, and nobody mentions Trump, Greg Abbott, or the transformation of Texas into an authoritarian nation-state. The movie takes the audience into a minefield but tactfully declines to point out most of the mines. But these threats lurk under the surface, and they do occasionally explode—particularly when the drug epidemic that’s decimating white middle-America comes to the forefront of the story.

The supporting cast boasts a number of characters who seem one-note during their introductions but quickly assert their spiky individualism. Smith-Cameron seems underutilized at first, but becomes the emotional anchor of Ben’s story, and her final scene is powerful. There are several terrific scenes involving Abby’s onetime record producer Quinten Sellers, kind of a Phil Spector of West Texas who lives and works in a combination home, studio, and cult compound, and regales his talent and hangers-on with monologues about time, space, individuality, art, drugs, and hedonism that Marlon Brando or Dennis Hopper might have delivered in a 1970s American art film. Sellers is played by  Ashton Kutcher in what might be a career-best performance. With his polite but eerie intensity, ten-gallon white cowboy hat, and lanky frame, it’s as if Sam Shepard had come back to play Col. Walter Kurtz.

Novak is a thoughtful writer with a lot of things to say about the United States of America in the year 2022. The problem is that he seems determined to say all of them in one feature film. The result is a jumbled, fitfully amusing, occasionally fascinating effort, but one that shows promise even when it’s stumbling over its ambition and falling prey to some of the same stereotypes about “red” and “blue” (or reactionary and progressive) America that it keeps intimating that Americans need to get beyond. The first 15 minutes are borderline awful, but the movie gets better and more surprising as it goes, and the final act is impressive in its determination not to give the audience what it wants. Novak is famous enough that he could’ve cobbled together an onanistic two hours of nothing and still gotten into South by Southwest with it, but he decided to try to make a real movie. 

Now playing in theaters.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor-at-Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

• B.J. Novak as Ben Manalowitz
• Boyd Holbrook as Ty Shaw
• J. Smith-Cameron as
• Lio Tipton as
• Dove Cameron as Kansas City
• Issa Rae as
• Ashton Kutcher as
• Isabella Amara as Paris
• Hilda Rasula
• Plummy Tucker
• Finneas O’Connell

Cinematographer

• Lyn Moncrief

Leave a comment

Now playing.

His Three Daughters

Rebel Ridge

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Piece by Piece

Merchant Ivory

The Deliverance

City of Dreams

Out Come the Wolves

Seeking Mavis Beacon

Latest articles

Wrapping Up My Experiences at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival

Peacock’s “Fight Night” Largely Entertains But Pulls A Few Punches

Telluride Film Festival 2024: Memoir of a Snail, Better Man, The White House Effect

Telluride Film Festival 2024: Blink, Apocalypse in the Tropics, Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid!

The best movie reviews, in your inbox.

Advertisement

Supported by

‘Vengeance’ Review: A Dish Best Served With Frito Pie

In this comedic culture-war thriller, B.J. Novak, who wrote and directed, plays an aspiring podcaster chasing a true-crime story in West Texas.

• Share full article

By A.O. Scott

Ben Manalowitz, who writes for The New Yorker (he’s played by B.J. Novak, who has been published in its pages ), wants to break into podcasting. “Not every white guy in America needs to have a podcast,” someone tells him, but this white guy sees the platform as a perfect stage for his ambitions and his big thoughts about America.

Ben has a theory about the divided, discontented state of the country. Eloise (Issa Rae), a receptive, well-connected, somewhat skeptical producer, tells him that what he needs is a story. Their brief debate about the relative merits of theories and stories distills a conundrum that will be familiar to journalists and other writers. Are we looking for facts or ideas? Characters or historical forces? Generalities or particulars? These questions are the key to “Vengeance,” which tries to have it both ways by reverse engineering its story about the treachery of storytelling from a theory about the danger of theorizing.

Novak, who wrote and directed the movie, has his own thoughts about America, subtler than Ben’s but not necessarily any more convincing. “Vengeance,” while earnest, thoughtful and quite funny in spots, demonstrates just how difficult it can be to turn political polarization and culture-war hostility into a credible narrative. Its efforts shouldn’t be dismissed, even though it’s ultimately too clever for its own good, and maybe not quite as smart as it thinks it is.

The same could be said about Ben, who is also, at least at the start of the movie, the object of Novak’s most brutal, knowing satire. We first meet him at a party on a terrace with a view of the Brooklyn Bridge, where he and a pal spin elaborate philosophical justifications for their cynical, transactional approach to sex and romance. The way Ben intellectualizes his own shallowness feels so accurate — and so repellent — that you may wonder if the film can redeem him enough to make another 90 minutes in his company anything but insufferable.

But what looks like yet another self-conscious, New York-centric satire of white male media-elite entitlement turns into something else. A few other things, really, including a fish-out-of-water comedy and a twisty detective story, with Ben as both fish and gumshoe.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

‘Vengeance’ Review: B.J. Novak’s Terrific Directorial Debut Is a West Texas Murder Mystery That’s Like Preston Sturges Meets Film Noir Meets NPR

Novak introduces redneck stereotypes only to detonate them in a one-of-a-kind movie that's so wide awake and sharp-edged it marks the arrival of a potentially major filmmaker.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

• ‘Queer’ Review: Daniel Craig Shows a Whole New Side in Luca Guadagnino’s Bold and Trippy Adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ Ahead-of-Its-Time Novel 2 days ago
• ‘The Room Next Door’ Review: Tilda Swinton Gives a Monumental Performance as a Woman Confronting Death in Pedro Almodóvar’s First English-Language Drama 3 days ago
• ‘Wolfs’ Review: George Clooney and Brad Pitt Are Rival Fixers in a Winning Action Comedy Spiked With Movie-Star Chemistry 4 days ago

B.J. Novak ’s “ Vengeance ,” which premiered last night at the Tribeca Film Festival (it opens July 29), is an irresistible original — a heady, jaunty, witty-as-they-come tall tale that’s just grounded enough in the real world to carry you along. It’s at once an ominous heartland murder mystery; a culture-clash comedy that finds Ben Manalowitz (played by Novak), an acerbic New Yorker writer and podcaster, descending into the bleak depths of West Texas; and a meditation on blue state/red state values that gradually evolves into something larger — a cosmic riff on how the two sides of America are working, nearly in tandem, to tear the country apart.

Novak, an actor best known for his role on “The Office” (where he also served as a writer, executive producer, and director), brings off what could have been a rickety conceit as if he were holding the audience in the palm of his hand. “Vengeance,” which he wrote and directed (it’s his first feature), has been made with such confidence and verve, and it’s held together by a vision — of loss, ambition, addiction, conspiracy theory, and how we’re all victims of the contemporary image culture — that is so wide awake and sharp-edged, it marks the arrival of a potentially major filmmaker.

Related Stories

How Much Should AI Giants Pay Hollywood? What Insiders Say Has Stalled Any Licensing Deals

Barry Keoghan Set for Netflix's 'Peaky Blinders' Movie

After a prelude set on a dark-as-midnight Texas oil field, with murky hints of foul play, the film kicks off with Ben and his buddy, played by John Mayer, scoping out women at Soho House, exchanging tips on how to play the hookup game. In the space of four minutes, the attitudes they express about serial dating and “commitment” — a concept as foreign to them as some ritual from a distant galaxy — are put forth with a compact misanthropic assurance that makes us think we’re seeing some 21st-century version of “Swingers.” (I have no doubt that Novak could make that movie, and that it might be as good as “Swingers.”) The ritual phrase of agreement they keep saying is “a hundred percent,” as if they were sure of it all. “Vengeance,” among other things, is a comic poke at the fake armor of cosmopolitan male certainty.

Popular on Variety

At the party, Ben makes a pitch to a podcast producer, Eloise, played with twinkling cynicism by Issa Rae, and we hear the intricate yet slightly annoying way his mind works. Ben’s theory that what’s actually fragmenting our lives is our newly controlled sense of time has much to be said for it. Yet we also can’t help but hear how in love he is with the sound of his own mind. He’s a brainiac narcissist, too full of theories, and Novak gives him a crackling surface and a saturnine depth. The actor, with his large eyes, whip-crack delivery, and glare of geek suspicion, would be well cast as Lou Reed. Yet in “Vengeance,” he makes Ben a thumbnail portrait of the new generation of New York writer careerists whose idealism is dunked in opportunism.

Ben has a date (when the woman arrives at his apartment, he greets her with a friendly “How’s book world?,” not realizing that she’s not the hookup from publishing). In the middle of the night, after they’re in bed, he’s awakened by a call from a scary-sounding Southern stranger, who tells Ben that his girlfriend is dead. This would be news to Ben, since the concept of a “girlfriend” is also from that distant galaxy. But he did know the young woman in question (they hooked up a few times), and before long he finds himself speaking at the funeral of Abilene Shaw (Lio Tipton), right next to a photo of her with a guitar (“She loved music. I know that”), in rural Texas.

Why would he even be there? You have to roll with that one (though it’s actually explained down the line). Ben meets Abby’s family members — her mother, granny, and two sisters, her little tyke of a brother, and her older brother, Ty (Boyd Holbrook), a wild-boy yokel who has decided that Abby was murdered and wants Ben to help him solve the crime. He wants his vengeance. All this seems, for a scene or two, like a very movie-ish setup. Ben is the kind of New Yorker for whom Texas is not a real place; to him, Texas is the Austin of “South-by.” And as we glimpse the family pickup truck, with its twin rifles mounted on the back window, we wonder if the movie is going to be some glib Manhattan-swell-among-the-gun-nuts, geek-out-of-water comedy.

It quickly transcends that. Novak introduces clichés and stereotypes only to detonate them — or, better yet, fill them in in ways that show us how the stereotypes are real and not real. Abby’s family members are a bunch of rednecks, but that doesn’t mean they’re dumb, or unworldly, or not plugged into the currents of urban technology. They’re characters who keep surprising us. Ben, sensing an opportunity, decides to stay and make a podcast out of Abby’s death, keeping his digital phone recorder on during every conversation. It will be like “In Cold Blood” for the age of progressive radio, with Ben as the murder investigator and reporter. “I will find this person,” he tells the family, “or this generalized societal force. And I will define it.” He titles the podcast “The Dead White Girl” (Eliose, back in New York, is editing and advising), and “Vengeance” turns into the story of an East Coast creative telling a tale of backwoods locals even as his own blindness becomes central to their story.

The film’s perceptions arrive as jokes, and vice versa, whether it’s Ben trying (and failing) to get Ty and the others to define why they love the WhatABurger fast-food chain beyond the fact that it’s always right there. Or Ben being hilariously outed at a rodeo for the Northern wimp he is. Or Abby’s sister Paris (Isabella Amara) accusing Ben of cultural appropriation, to which he responds that her use of the term “cultural appropriation” is an act of cultural appropriation (they’re both right). Or a local music producer named Quentin Sellers, played with dashingly sinister aplomb by Ashton Kutcher in a white cowboy suit, explaining how and why conspiracy mania took over the heartland. Was Abby killed, or did she die of an opioid overdose? That’s the mystery, and it’s resolved in a way that puts a haunting cast of mythology over the spiritual despair of Middle America.

In a good way, “Vengeance” makes up its own rules. It’s a one-of-a-kind movie, like a Preston Sturges comedy fused with the free-floating what’s-it-all-mean? dread of “Under the Silver Lake.” But this movie, unlike that one, has a pretty good idea of what it all means. It’s voiced by the film’s most brilliant and disturbing character, who explains, in a way that may blow your head open a little bit, why the very way our culture now dissects and explains everything has had the paradoxical effect of robbing anything and everything of meaning. It’s the death of communication not just by social media but by all media, and in “Vengeance” the way it plays out in the heartland, where indifference can be a form of hate, makes a statement that reverberates. In “Vengeance,” B.J. Novak proves a born storyteller with the rare gift of using a film to say something that intoxicates us.

Reviewed at Tribeca Festival, June 12, 2022. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 107 MIN.

• Production: A Focus Features release of a Blumhouse production, in association with Divide/Conquer. Producers: Jason Blume, Adam Hendricks, Greg Gilreath. Executive producers: B.J. Novak, Leigh Kilton-Smith.
• Crew: Director, writer: B.J. Novak. Camera: Lyn Moncrief. Editors: Andy Canny, Hilda Rasula, Plummy Tucker.
• With: B.J. Novak, Boyd Holbrook, Issa Rae, Ashton Kutcher, J. Smith-Cameron, Lio Tipton, Dove Cameron, Isabella Amara, Eli Abrams Bickel, Louanne Stephens, Zach Villa, Clint Obenchain.

More from Variety

Reality TV Survived the ’07 Writers Strike. Why Is It Hurting in 2024?

Fubo’s Battle With Venu Sports Is a Stopgap Measure

More from our brands, how to watch ‘the bachelorette’ finale online.

This Egyptian Billionaire’s Coastal Retreat Can Be Yours for $12.5 Million

Commanders Fire VP Over Goodell, Jerry Jones, Fan Comments

The Best Loofahs and Body Scrubbers, According to Dermatologists

Zatima Season 3 Sets BET+ Premiere Date, Adds Sistas’ Trinity Whiteside to Cast — Watch Trailer

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

A writer from New York City attempts to solve the murder of a girl he hooked up with and travels down south to investigate the circumstances of her death and discover what happened to her. A writer from New York City attempts to solve the murder of a girl he hooked up with and travels down south to investigate the circumstances of her death and discover what happened to her. A writer from New York City attempts to solve the murder of a girl he hooked up with and travels down south to investigate the circumstances of her death and discover what happened to her.

• Boyd Holbrook
• 300 User reviews
• 119 Critic reviews
• 65 Metascore

Top cast 46

• Ben Manalowitz

• Abilene Shaw

• Quentin Sellers

• Kansas City Shaw

• Sharon Shaw

• El Stupido Shaw
• (as Eli Abrams Bickel)

• Granny Carole Shaw

• Sancholo's Associate

• Sheriff Jimenez

• Brunette RandomHouse Party

• Officer Dan

• Officer Mike
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia On an episode of the Office Ladies podcast, B.J. Novak said that he first got the idea for the film when he saw a poster for another film titled Vengeance at a film festival. He said that he was struck with the image of his face on a poster with that name on it, believing audiences would be surprised, since that's not the type of work he's known for.
• Goofs At around 1h 2 mins, Monahans, TX is spelled Monohans on the map on the wall.

Sharon Shaw : It's all regrets. You run as fast as you can from the last regret and of course you are just running straight into the next one. That's life. It's all regrets. That's what they should say. No other way to be alive. It's all regrets. Make 'em count.

• Connections Featured in Half in the Bag: I Love My Dad, Watcher and Vengeance (2022)
• Soundtracks Red Solo Cup Written by Brett Beavers , Jimmy Beavers (as Jim Beavers), Brad Warren , Brett Warren Performed by Toby Keith Courtesy of Show Dog Nashville

User reviews 300

• bryanmartin1
• Feb 3, 2023
• How long is Vengeance? Powered by Alexa
• July 29, 2022 (United States)
• United States
• Official site
• The Hollywood Reporter
• Manh Mối Báo Thù
• Albuquerque New Mexico, USA
• Blumhouse Productions
• Divide/Conquer
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• Jul 31, 2022

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 47 minutes

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed.

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

• About Rotten Tomatoes®
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening This Week
• Top Box Office
• Coming Soon to Theaters
• Certified Fresh Movies

Movies at Home

• Fandango at Home
• Prime Video
• Most Popular Streaming Movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• 78% Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Link to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
• 73% Blink Twice Link to Blink Twice
• 95% Strange Darling Link to Strange Darling

New TV Tonight

• 100% Slow Horses: Season 4
• 97% English Teacher: Season 1
• 54% The Perfect Couple: Season 1
• -- Tell Me Lies: Season 2
• -- Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist: Season 1
• -- Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos: Season 1
• -- Outlast: Season 2
• -- The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives: Season 1
• -- Selling Sunset: Season 8
• -- Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Season 14

Most Popular TV on RT

• 74% Kaos: Season 1
• 83% The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Season 2
• 88% Terminator Zero: Season 1
• 100% Dark Winds: Season 2
• 92% Bad Monkey: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV

Certified fresh pick

• 97% English Teacher: Season 1 Link to English Teacher: Season 1
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

59 Best Football Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer

Venice Film Festival 2024: Movie Scorecard

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Awards Tour

Joker: Folie à Deux First Reviews: Joaquin Phoenix Shines Again in ‘Deranged, Exciting, and Deeply Unsettling’ Sequel

Renewed and Cancelled TV Shows 2024

• Trending on RT
• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
• Top 10 Box Office
• Venice Film Festival
• Popular Series on Netflix

Vengeance Reviews

Though the script ventures into the unrealistic with its over-the-top Texas spirit and overused philosophical messages embedded throughout, Vengeance gets one important thing right. It finds a way to compel viewers emotionally...

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 25, 2024

Even with a flawed story and some underdeveloped characters, Vengeance shines through a hilarious script and a colorful bunch of Shaws that protagonist Ben interacts with.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Mar 6, 2024

The film has quite a hard time negotiating between the serious and the comedy... you don't need to see it on the big screen.

Full Review | Jan 3, 2024

Who knew Ryan from the office would one day direct, write, produce, & act in a film that is smartly written in such a straight forward comedy

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

Vengeance, more than anything, is a plea for life to have meaning without being distilled into content generation. It’s a plea for presentness, a willingness to embrace regrets, and a promise to do better.

Full Review | Jul 24, 2023

After an admittedly slow start, Vengeance kicks into extremely compelling gear...

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 10, 2023

Vengeance makes some of its cultural stereotypes too broad and heavy-handed, and the movie's ending could have been better. Overall, the story can hold viewers' interest, as long as there's tolerance for what the movie is saying about personal biases.

Full Review | Jan 12, 2023

...a solid debut from Novak...

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 23, 2022

From Ashton Kutcher to Whataburger, B.J. Novak’s shrewd feature length directorial debut quite literally comes out of left field swinging.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Dec 10, 2022

This film has a lot to say about our perception of things and how our biases skew how we feel. The result is a little blander than it could have been, but it ultimately works as a smart, decently written debut from Novak.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 30, 2022

Beginning as a fast-talking comedy with something dark lurking underneath, this film sends its central character into an amusingly alien culture before shifting into a mystery thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 12, 2022

As a comedy about contemporary American society it feels weirdly anachronistic, with an uninspired story told with little urgency or novelty.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 10, 2022

It’s mildly amusing stuff that delivers no surprises, but may muster a few laughs.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 10, 2022

Novak imbues the yokels with dignity and unfussy sophistication.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 7, 2022

It’s caustic, clever, and shallow entertainment, usually all at once.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 7, 2022

Some of this is very funny, sometimes the comedy feels forced, and sometimes, not entirely successfully, it is abandoned altogether. Cautiously recommended.

It feels like Novak’s trying to use the crime podcast angle to satirise the mythology of a decaying Middle America and explore a creative existential crisis. Instead, we get an enjoyable and genuinely funny satire on the class divide.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 5, 2022

Novak's feature debut is an ingenious social satire with the right balance of humor and mystery. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 5, 2022

BJ Novak nails the nuance and humor of Texas culture in a way that only he could.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Sep 26, 2022

Both the funniest movie I've seen in quite a while and an example of something really good progressively falling apart.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Sep 26, 2022

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy . We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

‘Vengeance’ Review: B.J. Novak’s Very Funny Directorial Debut Is a Razor-Sharp Podcast Noir

David ehrlich.

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Share on LinkedIn
• Show more sharing options
• Submit to Reddit
• Post to Tumblr
• Print This Page
• Share on WhatsApp

Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival. Focus Features releases the film in theaters on Friday, July 29.

At the risk of damning an impressively strong debut with faint praise, B.J. Novak ’s “ Vengeance ” is perhaps the best possible movie someone could make out of a murder-mystery that starts with John Mayer standing on the rooftop bar of a Soho House (where he’s waxing philosophical about the pointlessness of monogamy in a world so fractured that people have been reduced to mere concepts, like “Becky Gym,” “Sarah Airplane Bathroom,” or any of the actual names he’s assigned to the scores of semi-anonymous women in his phone), but doesn’t end with the musician dead in a ditch somewhere.

In fact, Mayer never shows up again. He sticks around just long enough for you to assume the worst about what’s to come — oh yay, the other, other guy from “The Office” remade “Swingers” for the Tinder set, and cast someone who once referred to his dick as a white supremacist in the Vince Vaughn role — and then recedes into the background of a wickedly sharp film that satirizes our rush to judgment in a society where unprecedented chaos has forced people to rely on the stabilizing confidence of their own convictions.

Whatever you think of Novak, or even if you never think of him at all, there’s no doubt that he knows what he’s doing here. He knows that it’s hard to root for a rich and famous white Harvard alum who’s got enough chutzpah to star in his own first movie, just as he knows that most people will suspect he made it on a whim instead of white-knuckling his way through it for years on end. And so he’s leaned into the skid, leveraging the sheer insufferableness of his own project (along with the specific appeal of his “Buster Keaton meets Ira Glass” screen persona) into a very funny movie that’s strong enough to lift the crushing weight of our worst assumptions about each other and shine a light onto the regrets that fester underneath.

And hoo-boy does “Vengeance” sound insufferable. Once the movie reveals its maddeningly clever premise — equal parts “why has God forsaken us?” and “why didn’t I think of that?” —  you might find yourself desperate for Mayer and his “David Duke cock” to come back and keep talking. Novak plays Ben Manalowitz, a self-absorbed staff writer for the New Yorker who’s so eager to have a voice that he doesn’t really care what he says with it. Much like his close personal friend John Mayer, Ben merely sees other people as concepts, and can’t abide the idea of a meaningful relationship with someone who has their own agency or perspective. I mean, how would that even work?

Maybe that’s why he only starts fixating on Abilene Shaw (Lio Tipton, their performance confined to iPhone video clips) after she has a fatal overdose in a Texas oil field, when he can make whatever he wants out of her memory. In life, she was just some doe-eyed singer chick who Ben half-remembered hooking up with a couple of times. In death, she’s the perfect subject for the “Serial”-esque podcast that falls into Ben’s lap when Abby’s brother (an exquisite Boyd Holbrook as Ty) calls him in the middle of the night and strong-arms Novak’s avocado milquetoast Brooklyn millennial into flying to the heart of “No Country for Old Men” Texas for the funeral.

For some reason, Abby’s gun-toting, rodeo-loving family thinks that Ben was her boyfriend. For some reason, Ty thinks that his sister was murdered. And for some reason, Ben decides to help him get to the bottom of it.

What starts as a fish-out-of-water story about a New York Jew in #MAGAland, full of broad characterizations (Ty says that Ben reminds him of his least favorite Liam Neeson revenge thriller, “Schindler’s List”) and sitcom-like misunderstandings (e.g. the cringe-worthy scene where Ben is forced to give an impromptu speech at Abby’s funeral) soon gives way to something a bit more curious. The transition begins to take hold from the moment that Ben starts recording his time in Texas, collecting audio for the podcast he pitches to his producer friend at NPR or whatever this movie’s fictional stand-in for it is called.

Eloise is played by Issa Rae, who’s very good at her job of convincing us that “Dead White Girl” is something that could actually make it to air. “Not every white guy needs a podcast,” she tells Ben, but turning Abby’s death into content is the only way he can mine any meaning from it. So he pledges to find and identify the person who killed her. And what if she wasn’t actually murdered? “I will find the generalized societal force responsible, and I will define it.”

Imagine “Under the Silver Lake” remade as a crowd-pleasing segment of “This American Life” and you’ll have a rough idea as to how “Vengeance” unfolds from there, as our not-so-humble narrator begins to look under the surface of our hopelessly divided country and see beyond his own shadow for the first time in his life. The discoveries cut both ways. Not only does the Shaw family defy Ben’s condescending expectations for such red state folk, but listening to them talk — recorder always in hand — opens his mind to things he never realized about his own place in the world.

That proves doubly true of Ben’s conversations with local music producer Quentin Sellers ( Ashton Kutcher in full tech-guru mode), whose Marfa studio might seem cultish if not for how lucidly he speaks to the fragmentation of our social fabric, and how even the smartest of people will seek refuge in myth once their civilization abdicates any greater responsibility for collective truth. In some places, that means perpetuating conspiracies about the Deep State and stolen elections. In others, that means drawing thematic connections between disparate events and punctuating them with ads for Mailchimp.

Of course, there isn’t any doubt over which group Novak is addressing here. “Vengeance” is clearly made by and for the kind of “coastal elites” who haven’t been within spitting distance of a Republican since Act II of “Hamilton,” an audience this film often flatters, sometimes condemns, and always speaks to in a shared lingua franca . If Novak’s script takes great pains to subvert our expectations of its Southern characters, it typically does that by playing into them at the same time (a tactic enabled by the genius of casting Kentucky native J. Smith-Cameron as Abby’s warmly bullshit-intolerant mom, the “Succession” star wrapping her savage wit around a core of countrified truth).

The results can be laugh-out-loud funny even when they’re schematic, and vice-versa. Case in point: The bit when Granny Carole (a riotous Louanne Stephens) gives Ben the stink-eye when he gets a Raya notification, not because this Whataburger-worshiping “Friday Night Lights” extra doesn’t know what that is, but rather because she can’t believe some wannabe podcaster — “Joe Rogan meets Seth Rogen” — was allowed to register for the site. Abby’s little brother is a deranged yokel named El Stupido (Elli Abrams Bickel) who sleeps with a loaded Glock instead of a stuffed animal, but does so on the floor next to Abby’s bed because he’s a sweet kid who’s scared of ghosts even now that his sister has become one. Abby’s sister Kansas City (Dove Cameron) is a Tik-Tok obsessed wannabe celebrity who’s excited by Ben’s relative power in the media world… and sees right through his intentions for the podcast.

And then there’s Ty, a wonderful character who could easily have been a himbo doofus in lesser hands. “Vengeance” is only able to get away with so much — possibly even murder? — because of how well Holbrook keeps us guessing whether the story of Abby’s death is much simpler than it appears, or much more complicated. Even when the jokes miss the mark or the central mystery seems too easily solved, “Vengeance” is sustained by the question of what its characters mean to each other; a question asked sweetly but shrouded by an ever-growing darkness that allows the film to wander into dangerous territory by the end, as cinematographer Lyn Moncrief gradually chips away at the camerawork’s streaming-ready sheen until his images assume the grit of a border town neo-noir.

If that slow-burn sourness never feels the least bit forced, perhaps that’s because Texas has long been home to stories about people using each other’s memories for personal motivation. Remember the Alamo? But what use are we to each in a world so atomized into separate truths that people can mean anything to anyone, and therefore nothing at all? It’s a modern idea that “Vengeance” successfully explores in a hard-boiled context, Novak’s movie held together by the unexpected overlap it finds between those two dimensions.

Nowhere is that more clever or damning than in the sequence where Ben interviews the various authorities who passed the buck on investigating Abby’s death, all of them (local cops, border cops, highway cops, etc.) claiming that the corpse wasn’t found in their jurisdiction. Everyone gets their turn, everyone has their take, and by the time her case has been run through the news cycle, nobody seems to care about the victim at the center of it anymore. She’s just another season of “Serial” waiting to happen. Unless, that is, Ben is able to write a better ending for Abby’s story — unless he’s willing to find his own measure of truth in it.

“Vengeance” premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival. Focus Features will release it in theaters on Friday, July 29.

Most Popular

You may also like.

Review: B.J. Novak sends up media and looks for America in smart satire ‘Vengeance’

• Copy Link URL Copied!

“Vengeance,” the debut feature of writer-director-star B.J. Novak, opens with a scene of acidic social commentary that sets the tone for the smart satire of contemporary media culture that ensues. In a scene that targets the mating rituals of the urban-dwelling modern American cad interspersed into the opening credits with an almost jarring violence, Ben (Novak), a writer for the New Yorker, and the unlikely, sometimes unlikable, hero of “Vengeance,” parries back and forth with his friend John (played by singer John Mayer ) about their vapid dating lives.

As they debate the merits of seeing six women or three, question whether a cellphone contact labeled “Brunette Random House Party” refers to a woman met at at publishing event or just a “random house party,” and falsely declare that they’re not afraid of emotional intimacy, Novak does something important with his character: he first and foremost makes him a buffoon in this bracing setup that allows him to carefully thread the needle on his American tale.

For your safety

The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic . Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the CDC and local health officials .

In “Vengeance,” Novak sets his sights on lampooning the big-city media types who go chasing stories in middle America and return with observations from the “flyover states” that are usually condescending, preachy, or inauthentic, and in doing so, he finds the humor, and something honest too.

Ben ends up in small-town Texas thanks to one of his numerous hookups. The family of aspiring musician Abilene (Lio Tipton), who has met a tragic end in what appears to be an accidental overdose death, is convinced that Ben was her serious boyfriend, and implores him to come to her funeral. When Abilene’s brother, Ty ( Boyd Holbrook ), insists that his sister was murdered and enlists Ben in his quest for revenge, his journalist ears perk up — this would be a great podcast. He quickly pitches it to a producer back in New York, Eloise ( Issa Rae ), and equipped with some Amazon flannel and the Voice Memos app, he sets out to tell the tale of a dead white girl, and of course, America itself.

The way in which Ben finds himself embroiled in the mystery swirling around a stranger’s death is reminiscent of the Serial podcast “S-Town,” and it’s clear that Novak knows this genre of “prestige journalism” well: when Ben speaks, even as we know we’re supposed to chuckle at his purple descriptions of the Texas sunset, he nails the style and cadence, the slick language of a media-savvy writer. It’s funny, but it’s also insightful. Ben’s work passes muster, which lends Novak’s film merit, and adds another layer to the complexity of this film.

“Vengeance” is fast and loose, moving quickly, the punchlines barely landing before we’re on to the next joke. The fantastic ensemble cast, including J. Smith Cameron and Ashton Kutcher make meals out of their dialogue, and though some of the plot’s twists and turns are a bit facile, and too heightened, it serves the mystery that churns the story along.

In “Vengeance” Novak’s linguistic blade is simultaneously incisive and skewering. He indicts Ben’s pretension and the craven way he seeks to extract Abilene’s story for his own gain, inspecting the media’s role in the “culture wars,” and the socially constructed divisions in our country. But the film manages to land somewhere between sour and sincere, as Ben makes meaningful connections with both Abi’s family, and Abi’s story, finding the heart after all. As Ben does, so does Novak, unearthing some profound truths, wrapped in comedy, about America right now, too.

'Vengeance'

Rated: R, for language and brief violence Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes Playing: Starts July 29 in general release

More to Read

Review: Matt Damon and Casey Affleck play half-smart criminals in overfamiliar ‘The Instigators’

Aug. 2, 2024

Review: Charming and disarming, ‘Hit Man’ overcomes its own identity crisis

June 6, 2024

Review: ‘The Strangers - Chapter 1’ is a rote rehash that lacks the original film’s creepy suspense

May 16, 2024

Only good movies

Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

More From the Los Angeles Times

Move over, Michael Douglas. Michael Keaton wants to start using his real name

Review: Star-making performance propels Netflix revenge thriller ‘Rebel Ridge’

Sept. 5, 2024

Not just ‘Bonjour Tristesse’ with cellphones: At TIFF, a classic gets a modern update

Anderson .Paak called in big-name favors to make ‘K-Pops’ sing: ‘I owe a lot of people’

Home » Movies

Vengeance (2022) review — self-assured, confounding, and worth your time

B.J. Novak’s self-assured Vengeance is a darkly irreverent Texas Noir that shows enough promise to be worth your time, but the confounding experience leaves much to be desired.

I admire creatives who try and bring opposing sides together. The problem is most are complete, eye-rolling disasters. John Stewart’s Irresistible was an exercise on how both sides can piss into the wind without getting their pants wet. At least Craig Zobel’s The Hunt is clever and gory and admits how difficult it is to come together. And then we have B.J. Novak’s first time behind the camera. He tries to take this sensibility woven into an irreverent Texas Noire that is forced and does not always work the way it was intended. However, there is enough promise with Vengeance to make it worth your investment. Just enough.

Novak plays Ben Manalowitz, a journalist and hopeful podcaster. After hanging out day after day being the cool guy at the poor glued to his phone and taking home a different woman every night, he runs into a famous podcast producer, Eloise (Issa Rae). He wants to make something real, a podcast that will bring a divided country back together. He gets that chance with a phone call from a man he never met before. His name is Ty Shaw (Boyd Holbrook), and he tells Ben that his girlfriend, Abilene ( Crazy Stupid Love’s Lio Tipton), is dead. Here is the rub — Ben has no idea who he is talking about. Even more awkward, the hot blonde he embedded his plug-in with is lying beside him.

Who was Abilene? She is a woman he hooked up with twice and texted a handful of times that felt something for him. So, Ben travels to Texas to find out what happened here. He meets his “girlfriend’s” family. He finds out Abilene told her mother, Sharon (J. Smith-Cameron), and grandmother (Louanne Stephens) all about Ben. She also had two sisters, Jasmine (Dove Cameron) and Paris (Isabella Amara), who could not be more different. A little brother, whom Ty affectionately calls “El Stupido,” but do not worry, the kid does not speak Spanish. That’s what he tells Ben, anyway. After the funeral, he is ready to leave, but Ty wants him to stay so they can find her killer. Ben takes him up on his offer and decides to make a podcast on his new adventure.

Novak’s script is darkly funny and combines big city cynicism and Ben’s moral ambiguity with a small-town noir where a close-knit community keeps terrible secrets. However, I will get right to the problem. Much of the film is uneven and forced. Novak is interested in the theme behind finding common ground between opposing groups. He forces the fish out of water film tropes that are far from subtle. His attitude towards small town people is less of a joke on him as it’s about New York City attitudes.

For example, Texas folks don’t know how coffee can be taken with cream, sugar, or neither. In another scene, this group cannot communicate why they would pick Whataburger instead of McDonald’s. When there is an eventual clash between Ben and Abilene’s family, Novak’s character comes across far more arrogant than needed. Lastly, the tradition of Texas lawmen has skipped a couple of generations. Simply put, small towns do not investigate murders with state or federal help and oversight.

Vengeance , though, hits its stride when the mystery behind Abilene’s demise is ratcheted up a notch with a threat to Ben’s life. The reveal is clever, and a character represents ideals from both sides, which is unusual. Some would say that is a fairy tale. A white whale that does not exist. Where that plot point ends up is the key behind Novak’s thought process. We live in a time where partisan politics do not exist, and there is no pretending anymore. All we can do is communicate, listen, and respect one another.

Yes, Vengeance is uneven, and the praise I have heard about how thoughtful and intelligent it is are woefully exaggerated (a podcaster in media is the new posh Columbo). Though Novak’s debut is self-assured, the third act will spark a thought-provoking conversation and is entertaining enough to be enjoyable. Even if the entire confounding experience leaves much to be desired.

Article by Marc Miller

Marc Miller (also known as M.N. Miller) joined Ready Steady Cut in April 2018 as a Film and TV Critic, publishing over 1,600 articles on the website. Since a young age, Marc dreamed of becoming a legitimate critic and having that famous “Rotten Tomato” approved status – in 2023, he achieved that status.

Night Sky season 1, episode 7 recap – “Lake Diving”

Creature Season 1 Ending Explained - Does Ziya Die and What is Ihsan's Plan?

This website cannot be displayed as your browser is extremely out of date.

Please update your browser to one of the following: Chrome , Firefox , Edge

Screen Rant

Vengeance review: novak's podcast movie is full of great ideas that don't quite connect.

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

58-Year-Old Historical Movie Is Deemed The Most Accurate Depiction Of Tudor Family By Expert

Mark hamill's 10 best roles outside star wars, saving private ryan's half-track ambush with miller's team gets perfect score from historian.

B.J. Novak's writing-directing-starring hat trick, Vengeance , is a thoughtful and humorous film debut packed with the comedian's caustic social commentary; however, much like its main character, the narrative struggles to communicate anything truly memorable about life, death, or the power of storytelling. Novak has a lot to say in Vengeance,  tackling everything from hook-up culture, predatory opportunism, and increasing tensions between east coast elitism and heartland conservatism. While the film's central premise (finding the "story" in a murder investigation podcast) provides an excuse for the filmmaker to meander from one idea (and crazy character) to the next, by the end Novak is straining to weave everything together - resulting in some very heavy-handed exchanges that are at-odds with the movie's otherwise deft methods.

In Vengeance , Novak plays New Yorker  columnist Ben Manalowitz, an aimless NYC bro who spends his days dreaming up podcast ideas and his evenings bedding one-night stands that he callously anonymizes in his cell phone contacts: i.e. "Brunette Random House Party." Though, when Ben receives a call from Ty Shaw (Boyd Holbrook) informing him that Ben's girlfriend Abilene (aka "Abby Texas" aka one of Ben's hookups, definitely not his girlfriend) recently passed away while visiting her West Texas hometown, the aspiring storyteller decides to travel south to attend Abilene's funeral - only to be drawn into Ty's belief that Abby's death was not an accident and that, instead, she's a murder victim. Seeing Ty as the perfect vehicle through which to tell a story about American denial as well as the country's increasing reliance on conspiracy theory to avoid reality, Ben elects to stay in Texas and begin work on a podcast that would use this "Dead White Girl" and her family as a means to find his own voice.

Related:  Vengeance Trailer Reveals Murder Mystery Comedy From The Office Writer

Novak is no stranger to social commentary, thanks to writer and producer credits on  The Office , and Vengeance is loaded with clever ideas, insightful viewpoints, and well-timed laughs. It's an entertaining tale that successfully hews to and then subverts true-crime podcast tropes - providing a fun, and surprisingly accurate, reflection on what makes murder stories so enticing. Abilene's fate, and circumstances that led the Shaw family to believe Ben was Abby's boyfriend, strike a smart balance and provide a fun (but fittingly down-to-earth) twist on expectation that'd be right at home in an actual true-crime investigation.

The film shines when Novak is seated with the Shaw family and living in the aftermath of their grief; yet, as Ben ventures out and makes contact with other individuals (and suspects) that were in Abilene's orbit, Vengeance begins to lose sight of nuanced family drama in favor of quirky caricatures, dense monologues, and predictable conflicts that, with one exception, follow traditional plot setup and payoff templates. As Ben, Novak provides a well-realized performance (not to mention skillful direction). The actor doesn't exactly disappear into the role - as Ben is the kind of uptight, arrogant, and selfish individual that Novak has become famous for playing. Nevertheless, Ben is a solid pilot for the story and Novak commits to the interactions that he's scripted. He meets the moment - albeit if for no other reason than to let his co-stars to shine.

Fortunately, Novak is surrounded by a capable ensemble that viewers will absolutely enjoy. The writer-director takes care to avoid painting the Shaw family (and Texas in general) with mean-spirited stereotypes and, instead, endeavors to unpack the ironies of Lone Star State life with one-part commentary, one-part reverence. The approach provides ample room for the Shaw cast, in particular, to flourish. One scene that perfectly encapsulates this balance sees Abilene's younger sisters Kansas City (Dove Cameron) and Paris (Isabella Amara) complaining about their hometown - only for the girls to turn on Ben when he makes the mistake of joining in.

Boyd Holbrook absolutely thrives as Ty, injecting the character with charm and naivety that make for an electric juxtaposition to Ben. Ty is the motor of the film, pulling Ben down one rabbit hole after another - but his shenanigans never wear out their welcome and Holbrook crafts a surprisingly sincere turn that, in other hands, might have been more comedy and story mechanics than a well-realized, albeit ridiculous, human being. Similarly, J. Smith-Cameron ( Succession ) shines as Abilene's mother, Sharon, and is responsible for a number of delicate scenes (of emotion, grief, and rage) that go a long way in unpacking what Novak is actually trying to say in  Vengeance .

Rounding out the supporting cast is Issa Rae, playing Ben's friend and podcast producer, who is charged as in-film barometer - saying out loud what viewers might be thinking in an effort to ensure the audience understands how they should feel about Ben's actions at any given time - as well as setting the stage for the writer-turned-true-crime podcaster to begin disobeying orders and jeopardizing their project.

Ashton Kutcher is on the delivering side of a couple lengthy scenes of exposition - in which his character, local music producer Quinten Sellers, and Ben discuss the nature of everything from storytelling, to small town life, to the dangers of unfulfilled creative impulse. Novak asks a lot of Kutcher and the former That 70's Show  star makes it work but it's dense stuff - and, frankly, not everything works. Lastly, it's worth noting that the most affecting scenes in the movie occur between Ben and Abilene's young brother, nicknamed El Stupido (and played by Elli Abrams) - who carries a side-story that powers one of Vengeance's most cohesive, haunting, and rewarding throughlines.

Vengeance is about what moviegoers likely expect: it's well-written and fun - like just about everything Novak has a hand in crafting. Moment-to-moment scenes come together for an overall satisfying film, one that is sure to play a lot of the right notes for true-crime podcast-obsessed moviegoers. That said, select scenes and characters in the  Vengeance  lean hard on outright explanation and pontification - making it hard to trust Novak is in complete control of his narrative from beginning to end. Instead, the movie asks a lot of questions and juggles a lot of ideas, most of them good, but key pieces don't stick their landing - undermining the overall impact of what Novak, clearly, intends to say. A missed opportunity, given that "finding your voice" is one idea that  Vengeance  spends a lot of time exploring.

Next:  Every Movie That Came To Theaters In July 2022

Vengeance  releases July 29th and runs 107 minutes. The film is rated-R for language and brief violence.

Vengeance is a comedy mystery movie directed and written by The Office's B.J. Novak. The film centers on Ben Manalowitz (Novak), a New York-based writer who travels South to investigate the murder of a woman he once hooked up with. Alongside B.J. Novak stars Boyd Holbrook, Lio Tipton, and Ashton Kutcher.

• Movie Reviews
• 3 star movies

• Stranger Things Season 5
• Deadpool and Wolverine
• The Batman 2
• Spider-Man 4
• Yellowstone Season 6
• Fallout Season 2
• The Last of Us Season 2
• Entertainment

Vengeance review: a mystery with more on its mind than just murder

When we meet podcaster/reporter Ben Manalowitz, the lead character in B.J. Novak’s directorial debut Vengeance , he’s engaging in the kind of behavior that seems typical of a single New York male asshole. At a bougie publishing party in Brooklyn, he’s busy rating and ranking random women in his DMs with his equally cringy friend John, played all too well by the singer John Mayer. Unlikable protagonists are all the rage these days, and after just five minutes, Ben not only qualifies as one but also threatens to become too sleazy and insufferable for the movie’s own good.

Dead White Girl

Not just another mystery.

Yet the beauty of Vengeance , which Novak also stars in (as Ben) and wrote, is that nothing is what it seems, and for a murder mystery that doubles as a culture clash comedy, that’s an extremely good thing. Alternatively funny and moving, the movie is always intelligent and sensitive to the characters it could have just mocked. It’s the rare mystery that prioritizes the life of the victim, and rarer still, it’s one of the few summer films with something to say.

The mystery begins when Ben is called by the brother of one of his past hookups, Abilene Shaw, informing him that she’s been found dead of a drug overdose in an empty field. Sensing a story opportunity (the podcast is eventually called Dead White Girl , which is both on-the-nose and bluntly accurate to the exfoliative nature of true crime media), Ben agrees to attend her funeral in Texas, unsure as to why he’s been so fondly remembered by someone he himself can barely recall. Once there, he meets Abilene’s family: brother Ty ( Boyd Holbrook, excellent), a handsome urban cowboy; mother Sharon (J-Smith Cameron); sisters Paris (Isabella Amara) and Kansas City (Dove Cameron), both eager to be famous; grandma Carole (Louanne Stephens), who likes to solve problems with a shotgun; and little brother El Stupido (Eli Abrams Bickel), who does not live up to his nickname.

On paper and when you first meet them, these people are Texas caricatures who are instantly looked down upon by Ben, who can’t relate to them at all. But as Ben’s editor Eloise ( Insecure ‘s Issa Rae , sharp as ever) insists on him staying in Abilene’s desolate town to get to the bottom of her murder, he begins to connect them and the other citizens as less like subjects of a podcast and more like people genuinely rocked by their shared tragedy.

It’s to Novak’s credit that he takes the time to give every character, even possible suspects like possible Mexican cartel member Sancholo (Zach Villa), nuance and life. For instance, Kansas City may want to become famous and leave her town for good, but she’ll take umbrage if Ben, or anyone else, insults it in front of her. Ty may be a good old cowboy who loves drinking beer, but he also is deeply committed to his family, and it’s this desire that fuels his need for vengeance and, eventually, Ben’s need to find her killer.

Most prominently is Abilene’s music producer Quinten Sellers (Ashton Kutcher, surprisingly good), himself an outsider who is first introduced rhapsodizing over another young girl’s singing voice. We’ve seen this character before, the sleazy mogul taking advantage of his naïve students, yet both Novak and Kutcher don’t push Quentin’s menace. You’re not entirely sure what his deal is or whether or not you can trust him, and that’s entirely the point.

Ben’s quest for answers in solving Abilene’s death leads him to experience the small town life that many Texas natives can relate to and outsiders can chuckle at. In one scene, Ben attends a rodeo and incorrectly names the wrong university as his preferred school of choice in Texas. Only a city slicker would cite UT-Austin over Texas Tech, and Ben’s embarrassment is played for well-earned laughs. It’s good to see the arrogant New Yorker get taken down a peg.

In another scene, Ben accompanies the Shaw family to their gourmet eatery of choice: Whataburger. When he asks what makes the Texas-based chain so special from other fast food restaurants, each Shaw blankly asserts that “it’s there.” What more explanation does he need? It’s Whataburger ! These scenes are comedic, and there’s a subtle clash of cultural humor that isn’t overdone or played too broadly.

Yet the heart of the movie is the mystery of Abilene’s death, and it’s here that Novak reveals his intentions to not only provide a good whodunit but also to critique the true crime genre itself. There’s a third act monologue by a character that explicitly states who Novak is condemning: us, or more specifically, the culture which encourages hot takes without context and division without empathy. Vengeance argues that the revelation of Abilene’s murderer, and the story of how she died, shouldn’t be consumed by us or anyone else beyond her family. We’re using her death as entertainment, something to pass the time and sell to advertisers.

In its final moments, Novak doesn’t let us off the hook or provide easy answers. We got what we wanted, but did we have any right to in the first place? Vengeance is many things: a compelling murder mystery , a funny City Slickers update, and a critique on true crime and podcast culture. That it succeeds at all three, while also leaving us entertained and challenged, is a small miracle in a summer full of easy delights and superficial pleasures.

Vengeance is out now in movie theaters nationwide.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Like Fast X? Here are 5 more action movies just like it
• Apple’s MLS Season Pass is about more than just streaming games
• The Office star B.J. Novak on how Vengeance is more than just a crime thriller

Amazon Prime Video is a little light on originals in September, but there are new episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 coming throughout the month. However, the focus in September is largely on the new additions to the Prime Video movie library, including Election, a film celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

Some of the classic Universal Monster flicks are also arriving on Prime Video this month, like Dracula, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, and even Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Other film highlights this month include Dredd, Crimson Peak, Nocturnal Animals, Red Eye, The Big Lebowski, and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

Netflix is one of the most popular streaming services in the world, with nearly 270 million subscribers. And just what do those people tend to watch? In particular, what is the most popular movie on Netflix? Each week, the streaming service releases a list of its 10 most-watched movies over a recent seven-day period to keep subscribers in the loop regarding its most popular titles.

Horror rules Netflix this week. The Deliverance, an exorcism thriller from Lee Daniels, is the No. 1 movie on Netflix. The teen comedy Incoming comes in at No. 2, followed by the animated Migration at No. 3. Untold: Sign Stealer, a documentary about Michigan's sign-stealing scandal, debuted at No. 5, receiving a bump from the return of college football. Below, we've listed the top 10 movies in the U.S. from August 26 to September 1, along with general information about each film, such as genre, rating, cast, and synopsis.

Despite almost exclusively offering original content, Apple TV+ has built up a strong repository of quality movies and TV shows. The strategy has had a surprisingly strong track record, with original film CODA winning Best Picture at the 94th Academy Awards and several shows taking home Emmys.

Unlike other streaming platforms, only a few new arrivals grace Apple TV+ each month, but they tend to be pretty good. To help you stay on top of the new releases, we update this list every month.

‘Vengeance’ review: B.J. Novak’s directorial debut is a smart, edgy and unlikely love letter to Texas

• Updated: Jul. 26, 2022, 6:11 p.m.
• | Published: Jul. 26, 2022, 7:58 a.m.

(L to R) Ashton Kutcher as Quentin Sellers and B.J. Novak as Ben Manalowitz in VENGEANCE, written and directed by B.J. Novak and released by Focus Features. Credit: Patti Perret / Focus Features Patti Perret

• Joey Morona, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- “Vengeance” sounds like the name of a Liam Neeson action movie, not a clever and insightful dark comedy/murder mystery starring two guys from MTV’s “Punk’d.” But the title isn’t the only way B.J. Novak (Ryan in NBC’s “The Office”) subverts expectations in his feature film directorial debut. Not even close.

Novak, who also wrote the script, does triple duty as the lead. He plays Ben, a charming and contemplative, yet presumptuous and condescending writer for the New Yorker who hangs out with John Mayer because of course. He spends his days in search of a story to turn into the next great American podcast and his nights in his DMs looking for the next woman to hook up with.

Those two endeavors converge when one of the women in his phone turns up dead in an oil field in West Texas. Her brother Ty (Boyd Holbrook, Netflix’s “Narcos”), thinking Ben is his sister’s boyfriend, insists he come to the funeral.

But Ty has an ulterior motive for inviting Ben. He doesn’t believe Abilene (Lio Tipton), an aspiring singer, died from an opioid overdose as the cops say she did. Instead, he thinks she was murdered and asks Ben to help him avenge her death. Ben, reminding Ty he isn’t in fact a character in a Liam Neeson action movie, declines on the avenging part, but immediately recognizes the potential for a podcast. Because what Ty’s theory lacks in evidence, it makes up for it with all of the elements Ben’s producer (Issa Rae, HBO’s “Insecure”) is looking for: a mysterious death, an interesting cast of characters, baseless conspiracy theories, an almost mythological setting in Texas and, perhaps most enticingly, a dead white girl at the center of it.

He moves into the family’s home, which includes caring mom Sharon (J. Smith-Cameron, HBO’s “Succession”), fame-hungry sisters Kansas City (pop singer Dove Cameron) and Paris (Isabella Amara), eccentric Granny Carole (Louanne Stephens) and little brother Mason (Eli Bickel), whom the family calls El Stupido. Don’t worry, he doesn’t understand Spanish, we’re told.

For Ben, the Shaws are every bit of the quirky, gun-toting, football-obsessed, raised on Whataburger, Alamo rememberin’ brand of Texan he expected them to be. But helping them find Abeline’s killer, at least not at first, isn’t necessarily his primary goal. Telling a great story -- “the story of America” -- is.

“I am especially good at drawing thematic connections between seemingly disparate elements and using them to illustrate the larger point or theory and define it,” he tells them in film’s most self-aware moment.

His investigation leads to a couple of suspects including record producer Quentin Sellers (Ashton Kutcher, “Dude Where’s My Car?”), a disarmingly articulate man who says astute things like “we are all inspirations for the record of ourselves.” There’s also Sancholo (Zach Villa), a purported Mexican gangster with alleged ties to the cartels. In a recurring theme, neither turns out to be who they seem. Along the way, Ben starts to develop feelings for Abilene -- something he was incapable of while she was alive -- by watching YouTube videos and listening to recordings of her music. He also begins to grow closer to her family, too.

He realizes they’re much deeper than the stereotypes he initially encountered. Sure, they’re brash and bold with big personalities, but their hearts are even bigger. They’re genuine, protective and sharper than Dan Rather on election night. Ben didn’t plan on falling in love with Texas and I reckon Novak didn’t either. But people can, and often do, surprise you.

So, he becomes more determined than ever to solve the mystery of Abeline’s death, but shoots mostly blanks in his search for answers. Novak, on the other hand, hits the bullseye on nearly every one of his intended targets: the vapidness of modern dating, the exploitative nature of true crime podcasts, the disconnect between perception and reality in the social media age, the rise in conspiracy theories, the inanity of pundit and influencer culture, the danger of collective consciousness, Americans’ insatiable obsession with fame, just to name a few. If the film was a current Top 40 song about the state of the country today, it might be called “10 Things I Hate About You.”

Indeed, that’s what makes “Vengeance” so smart. Disguised as a sort of absurd fish-out-of-water story with elements of a revenge movie and a murder mystery thrown in, the film is actually an examination of some of the reasons behind the polarization of America that’s told in a way that’s not overhanded, but eloquent, succinct and funny. Novak and Holbrook are both exceptional, bringing vulnerability and depth to their roles as the archetypal privileged white bro and the tough guy, country bumpkin, respectively. But the revelation here is, gulp, Kutcher, who sheds his goofy persona and delivers a thoughtful and convincing performance as the smooth-talking svengali of a dream maker. You’ll find yourself hanging on to every word in a late scene in which his character reveals “the defining truth of our time.”

Not everybody is going to enjoy “Vengeance” the same way I did. The ending, in particular, is likely to divide audiences. This is an ambitious film with a lot to say. Some of it probably sounds more profound than it actually is. But, heck, I bought it, and if you don’t, well, bless your heart, as they say in Texas. Either way, Novak teases enough brilliance as a first-time filmmaker you can’t help but get excited about what he comes up with next.

And, no, you haven’t just been punk’d.

“Vengeance” is rated R and opens in theaters on Friday, July 29 with preview screenings the night before.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

‘Vengeance’: Many funny moments in B.J. Novak’s satire of a connected but disconnected world

The ‘office’ alum plays a new yorker sensing a podcast opportunity in the death of a texas woman he barely knew..

When Ty (Boyd Holbrook, left) suspects his sister’s death was a murder, Ben (B.J. Novak) sets out to prove it on a podcast in “Vengeance.”

Focus Features

They had a story arc on “The Office” in which B.J. Novak’s duplicitous and disdainful hipster Ryan somehow got promoted way up the corporate ladder and moved to New York, where he proceeded to become an even bigger jerk, got hooked on drugs and was eventually arrested for committing corporate fraud. In writer-director-star Novak’s scathing social satire “Vengeance,” he plays a character who isn’t all that different from Ryan—only this guy might be even more cynical, more immersed in his smart phone, more of an opportunistic narcissist.

It’s a smart and insightful performance in a film that has a lot to say about the personal disconnect we feel in today’s Wi-Fi world; the stereotypes held by Blue Staters about Red Staters and vice versa, and the manner in which millions of us consider every waking moment as potential material, to be memorialized in a selfie or a tweet or a Tik-Tok video or a podcast. At times Novak the writer-director is shooting fish in a barrel, but those fishies are worthy targets.

Novak’s Ben Manalowitz is a sardonic writer for the New Yorker who gets a call in the middle of the night from someone who tells him his girlfriend Abilene has overdosed and died, and the family is hoping he’ll attend the funeral in West Texas. This comes as a huge surprise to Ben, seeing as he had just a couple of casual hookups with Abilene and barely remembers her. Nevertheless—and here’s where we have to take a generous leap of faith—Ben agrees to attend the funeral, and the next thing you know it he’s spending time with Abilene’s family, including her brother Ty (Boyd Holbrook), who is convinced Abilene has been murdered, possibly by a cartel.

Light bulb moment. Ben calls his friend Eloise (Issa Rae), who runs a trendy podcast company, and pitches a meta, true-crime series about a Dead White Girl. He ingratiates himself into the family by fake-sincerely saying, “I will find [the killer], or this generalized societal force. And I will define it.”

As Ben finds himself continually surprised when members of Abilene’s family prove to be smarter and more worldly than he expected, “Vengeance” plays out like a 21st century version of a Preston Sturges film. There are some great comedic moments, as when “Deep In the Heart of Texas” plays at a rodeo and Ben is caught using the Shazam app to identify it, and, like Ben, we get to know more about Abilene (played by Lio Tipton) in video snippets, who was a lot more complicated than even her family knew.

Then there’s the local music producer Quentin Sellers, a charismatic figure who dresses like a cowboy cult leader, spins New Age wisdom like it is cotton candy and is either brilliant or a con man or maybe both. Ashton Kutcher is so effective playing Sellers, I’d watch an entire movie about this character’s back story. It’s mesmerizing work in a film that constantly surprises us, and mostly in a good way.

VENGEANCE (2022) – Review

As Summer begins its transformation into Fall, the studios are still offering virtual getaways at the local multiplex. This newest “travel tale’ also combines the popular theme of the “fish out of water” with a protagonist in very unfamiliar surroundings. Now, the movie marketing folks are hitting this aspect hard in the trailers and TV spots, making it appear to be an edgy modern spin on the cult fave TV sitcom “Green Acres” where a “city feller'” was flummoxed by the simple “country folk” (who often got the better of him). Oh but don’t be misled. There’s a lot more going on in this film since it comes from one of the busiest creative minds in the media today. And he stars in it, as an intellectual who’s never really felt a burning desire for VENGEANCE.

The story’s cerebral center is Ben Manalowitz (B.J. Novak), a writer/podcast journalist living in the Big Apple. Actually, the film’s opening sequence is far from NYC as we watch a young woman frantically texting on her cell phone as she crawls past several oil derricks on a remote dusty hill. But back to Ben. That same night, his unexpected “booty call” is interrupted by an early morning “unknown” caller. The distraught voice tells Ben that his “girlfriend” Abeline is dead and pleads with him to attend her funeral. The fact that Ben doesn’t recall her indeed complicates things even further. And he really doesn’t want to travel all the way to Texas. Oh, but this could end his “writer’s block”. Ben contacts his editor at the podcast communication company, Eloise (Issa Rae), and sells her on the idea of making his “journey” into an audio series highlighting the divide in the nation. She agrees to ship him the recording equipment. After several connecting flights Ben meets the “caller” at the airport: Abeline’s still distraught brother Ty Shaw (Boyd Holbrook), who drives him straight to the memorial. The photos of him with the “dearly departed” jog Ben’s memory. They “hooked up” a few times over the last couple of years, but she told everyone that he was her long-distance beau. Soon Ben meets the family who insists he stay at the Shaw house (and he can take Abeline’s room). At dinner, Ty tells Ben that they will track down those drug dealers responsible for his sister’s overdose death (“She never even took an Advil!”). But can the meek Manhatten writer really join Ty on his quest for vengeance?

In the lead role, Novak confidently hits all the required emotional ‘marks”. In the opening scenes he’s required to almost be the “straight man” to many of the “great unwashed” he encounters on his travels. But Ben subtly shifts, his journalistic curiosity “kicks in” and he’s a determined seeker of truth, even as he’s out of his element amidst the escalating violence. Though mainly known as a “master of snark”, Novak makes a compelling though unlikely screen hero. Also drawing us in is Ashton Kutcher as a most engaging and enigmatic ‘suspect”, Quentin Sellers, the smart and shady owner of the recording studio where Abilene Shaw pursued her dreams of performing. In their “interrogations” Quentin bobs and weaves like a fighter, never allowing Ben to “land a punch”. And Kutcher’s “trash-stash” just oozes evil. More straightforward is Holbrook as Ty, whose bravado masks his crippling grief, with a swaggering “good ole’ boy” way of seeking justice. And though he adds to the humor with his ignorance, he’s a protective partner to Ben. J-Smith-Cameron brings a lot of grit to her role as the wounded family matriarch Sharon, who opens her heart to Ben without revealing everything. Her mother, played by Louanne Stephens, is rougher ‘around the edges” as she tosses off bits of unfiltered wisdom to Ben. Lio Tipton is a sad specter as Abilene, who is haunting in the images and videos that inspire Ben. Ms. Rae makes for a great emotional and professional anchor for Novack as the boss who slowly begins to care about him more than the story. Kudos also to Dove Cameron as the kid sister who, like many of her age, only desires to be famous, no matter the reason.

And Mr. Novak does the “hat trick’ by also writing and directing this, his first feature film (after lots of TV work, most notably the US version of “The Office”). As with his acting work, director Novack “switches gears” going from boozy NYC nightlife to the eerie desolation of dusty Texas (actually New Mexico doubling here)., with the churning oil derricks belching fire into the dark night sky, giving it a Hellish glow. The humorous scenes are never overplayed with quick close-ups or choppy editing, allowing the tossed-off retorts to sneak in and build. But as the story progresses it begins to take on the tempo of the classic film noir, with Ben as the gumshoe that’s not intimidated by the boisterous “packing” yahoos. Unfortunately, the film’s final act becomes a bit too “talky” with characters delivering long soliloquies, hammering in a sometimes clever, sometimes obvious commentary on the current state of America. But the final denouncement should inspire some thought about the resolution and how it would affect the protagonists. So, though it’s not what the marketers are selling, VENGEANCE gives viewers more to ponder than the usual “city slicker” farces.

2.5 Out of 4

VENGEANCE is now playing in select theatres

Jim Batts was a contestant on the movie edition of TV's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" in 2009 and has been a member of the St. Louis Film Critics organization since 2013.

You may also like...

• Sundance Live
• SXSW 2010 Film Festival Live Coverage
• Twitter Feed
• WAMG Text Service

Copyright © 2013 Lanier Media

Latest News

Win passes to the st. louis advance screening of my old ass, will & harper trailer stars will ferrell and harper steele – see the netflix documentary september 27, james gunn’s creature commandos hits december 5 on max kicking off the new dc universe, from the producers of a quiet place and the purge film series, watch the trailer for paramount+ apartment 7a – prequel to rosemary’s baby, jason momoa and jack black star in hilarious first trailer for a minecraft movie – in theaters april 2025, kevin feige makes surprise appearance at the hollywood bowl and michael giacchino wows fans with 4 minutes of new score for the fantastic four: first steps during marvel studios’ infinity saga concert experience.

Vengeance (2022): Movie Review & Ending Explained

Vengeance (2022) movie review:.

Many films of late have obsessively latched on to the idea of detachment. Although the namesake film starring Adrien Brody remains the quintessential thinkpiece, several efforts have reshaped the feeling in a changing world. As we go digital in every walk of life, the feeling becomes more enhanced. It is felt with a powerful swoop of loneliness and grief. Social media is one of the most favored thematic vehicles that filmmakers are using now. Isolating characters through the constant need to match up to other people’s perceptions of them is the preferred route. What Vengeance does so well and differently is defy those expectations. The protagonist Ben comes afront with his own emptiness and shallow existence through an exercise of creating an alternate self – the one that feels at peace going along with the world’s pace. Vengeance isn’t solely a character study: it is the canvas of an entire nation.

BJ Novak (our least favorite character from our favorite ‘The Office’) writes, directs, and stars as Ben. Other notable members of the cast include Issa Rae, Jean-Smith Cameron (Gerry from ‘Succession’), and Ashton Kutcher. Vengeance is conceived not just as a plain investigative effort on the part of an aspiring writer looking for “the story” to springboard him into the limelight but also as a journey of self-discovery through the mirror of regrets. Disparate elements of story are brought together in well-fleshed-out themes about individuality, the hollow dating and hookup culture, and the lost value of human connection. At the same time, Novak ensures the dialogue remains light and the depths of his commentary about society hits you hard with a softened touch. He makes you woefully aware of the emerging distance between the world (as he puts it so aptly, “divided by time”); the lack of compassion and real feelings.

This sense of misplaced priorities and human exhibitions sails through in a painful buildup with an epiphanous conclusion. Vengeance’s first half leaves you reeling with its effects. The “big city vs. small town” divide suffers from familiar markings, although the inclusion of the Shaw family makes the difference. BJ Novak doesn’t give an earnest performance in the purest sense of the word – the way in which it has been etched into cinematic acting. But in the scheme of things in the way he is supposed to play the part he is earnest; honest in the way he does not care. So, Vengeance takes the shape of a pseudo-mockumentary of genre themes and narratives, where the killer is chased down. It’s already darkly intense and bleak universe doesn’t need any more “ghosts”. Vengeance defies those tropes and presents something very refreshing. It is a “vengeance story” without emotion.

Before connecting with the world, we must try to reconnect with ourselves. Seeing others through the prism of our thoughts and reflections is futile in the long run, Eventually, the truth will catch up with you. Another likable thing about the film was Novak’s clever storytelling. Through Issa Rae’s Eloise, Vengeance lays out its work’s intricacies. You are kind of seeing a meta deconstruction of what the story and characters really mean. And all Ben learns is how empty he is. He has himself fallen into a narrative he has weaved around the record/memory of a girl he never knew. It is mildly revolting and strongly hypocritical but immensely beneficial to the narrative’s artistic appeal.

There is a slight mishap in terms of focus that leaves lukewarm feelings about the final outcome. Novak isn’t too sure of how to find his voice as an artist through Kutcher’s Sellers. He compensates for critical and essential exposition with delirious, unfulfilled monologues about abstract notions somehow creating conflicts in the real world. He is supposed to be the antagonist but comes across as very unclear. Thus, he isn’t too useful for Novak in his efforts to make an excellent film. Vengeance seems too concerned with the broad strokes at times, leading to distracted execution. The third act, hence, feels really weak and the overall structure lob sided. Vengeance has fleeting similarities to The Guest (2014) and The Lives of Others (2006). Recontextualizing the latter with modern sensibilities in a way is probably a good way to describe the film. Our review of it does not end here. Read on to the next segments that explain the ending and other burning questions about the plot.

Why is Ben revered by Abilene’s family?

As you might have noticed, Ben was confused when Ty mentioned Abilene’s name on the phone. Off it, he admitted to having hooked up with her without creating an emotional connection. Abilene apparently did create one and when Ben went to her room, he saw pictures of him on her walls. Later, when Ben is able to guess her phone’s passcode, he sees messages that she exchanged with someone who was fed in her phone as “Ben”. Those messages entail the real answer to this question. She was keeping up appearances and wasn’t actually smitten with Ben. She even confessed in the messages to using his name to chat and talk with someone else.

Abilene saw Ben in the same way he did her – a random hookup in a strange city. Their relationship was nothing more. But Abilene’s family didn’t know this and were fooled by her clever attempts to hide Quentin’s identity. They thought Abilene was madly in love with Ben because of the pictures and how she talked about him. Ben was such a huge figure in her life that not only did Ty call him to attend the funeral, he even asks him to join the quest for vengeance.

Why does Ben agree to go when he knows the truth about the relationship?

As it is revealed early in the movie, Ben is a writer for the New Yorker. His journalism career hasn’t taken off yet and as is the norm, he will have to break a big story to be successful. At first, he does not think about the story and goes just because he can not say no to a grieving Ty on the phone. Maybe, deep down, he is a good person. Or he is another one of the humanoids on earth keeping up appearance. Anyway, he takes the flight out to Texas and interacts with Ty. The brother springs the revenge idea on him out of nowhere and Ben, instead of reacting, responds in a thinking manner.

It is only then that the idea of a story hits him. Ben did not want to exploit the narrative and make a story out of the tragic incident but he felt it could be the big break that launches him. Eloise encourages him to explore the idea he pitched to hr earlier at the party of creating a podcast about the idea of America and how it is divided by time. Ben concurred and felt that it would tie up really well with his other ideas for a podcast.

What was Quentin Sellers’ criminal conspiracy?

Sellers (Ashton Kutcher) came across as a very genuine, thoughtful, and sage individual when we first met him. He was also the only “friend” that had Ben’s back in the town. Ben was impressed by his recording studio and ideas about individuality and the optimism he had about Texas. As the climax reveals, it was all a show. Or maybe not a show but it was far from the moral truth that we like to believe in. Remember how Ben is moved from one authority to the other in a sequence? All the law enforcement agencies say to him that the spot where Abilene was found  – the oil pumps – is a spot where the jurisdiction of all the four agencies overlaps. That is why they have never been able to investigate any murders or deaths that have happened in the region.

When Ben went to the Sherrif’s office, he told Ben that a purple drug was being brought into the town from the highway that they had been tracking. Ben then makes the connection that since the region also includes a passageway from the highway, it would be easier for someone to smuggle them in and still go unnoticed. This was Sellers’ conspiracy. He used to smuggle in the drugs and then allow the youngsters to use his product and even overdose due to it. But because of the overlapping jurisdiction, he was never caught.

How is the idea of “vengeance” represented in the film?

Vengeance does not manifest as a slight thing in the film. Because of how Novak paces and constructs his ideas, the revenge theme rests on the sidelines for much of the duration. It is only later in the film, probably the climax, when it manifests and does so with a bloody rage. Ty and the Shaw family probably had other ideas of avenging Abilene’s death but their planning was incoherent, just like real-life. We did anticipate something right in the world of movies wherein Ty, with his mates, would take on the drug cartel and decimate them in true Western savagery. But all of that does not happen and that is why I felt Novak kind of defied expectations with his actual execution.

Ben shooting Quentin was not how Novak wanted to represent revenge. He felt that Ben’s coming-0f-age and caring about other people, letting go of his empty conscience was the real revenge upon the world. There is a monologue where he berates the Shaw family and people of the region when Abilene’s grandmother casually lets out that Abilene was a heavy drug user. She actually died because of an overdose but Ben did not hold back and saw this as an attempt on Ty’s part to deceive him, failing to see his own deception. I love how the part where the family comes to check on him after his car explodes and this monologue are placed right after each other.

This was the real idea of avenging this indifference and lack of compassion. The world is becoming a colder place every passing day and Novak wanted to address this uneasy truth through his narrative. People are divided by different ideas and the media but also by their own selfishness.

Vengeance (2022) Movie Ending, Explained: Why does Ben delete all the recordings?

So Vengeance ended with Ben shooting Quentin in the tent and then deleting all the recordings. The Shaw family eventually got to know what Ben did for Abilene when Sharon drops him off at the bus stop. But why did Ben delete all the recordings when they were approved, collated by Eloise, and set to feature on a national radio network? It is difficult to answer it in absolute terms. An altruistic analysis suggests that Ben did it because he did not want the family to become “famous characters” that people talked about and discussed. Their grief was shared by Ben, not by virtue of a personal connection but by a human connection that he discovered late in the film. Despite the revelation that Abilene was probably not the sweet angel she was made out to be, Ben decided to stand up for the idea of a moral wrong going unnoticed; a true journalistic achievement.

It was his investigative instinct that brought him face to face with the truth and he decided to act and not just keep quiet. He could not bare Quentin getting away with what he did with the young girls and boys in town. It was not his intention to avenge Abilene but avenge the idea of evil forces overcoming the good. Ben realized that the Shaws were dealing with the loss o Abilene like a family and wanted her memory and the truth of her story contained within that safe space. Mass media coverage of incidents like these is the ugly truth of our societies.

Someone’s suffering and trauma becomes a titillating news feed for everyday people who have gotten used to changed sensibilities. Novak creates an anti-thesis to this idea and salvages all those who prefer to look the other way with the character of Ben Manalowitz. He is the true modern anti-hero we all need to head to make the world a better place.

Read More: Beast (2022): Movie Review & Ending Explained

Vengeance (2022) trailer.

Vengeance (2022) Movie Links – IMDb , Rotten Tomatoes Vengeance (2022) Movie Cast – B.J. Novak, Boyd Holbrook, Dove Cameron, Issa Rae, Ashton Kutcher

Where to watch vengence.

Self-effacing and self-absorbed. College at RGNUL. A Cùle forever. Driven, ambitious, and "I hate most people". Oh, and I love movies if that wasn't obvious.

Similar Posts

Train to Busan [2016] – A High-Speed Ride with the Undead

Tokyo Vice (Season 2 Premier), Episodes 1 & 2 Recap and Ending Explained – Who are the New Players in the Yakuza Plot?

A Gentleman in Moscow Finale (Episode 8) Recap and Ending Explained: Did Sofia Gain her Freedom and What Happens to Anna & Alexander?

Beating Sun [2022] ‘Venice’ Review: Swann Arlaud is Superb in This Assured Phillppe Petit Drama

The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh Part 2 (2023): Movie Ending, Explained- What is the Significance of Lancelot and Tristen’s Dynamic?

Paddington [2014] Review: A Sweet-Natured & Warm-Hearted Delight For All

Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Movie Review – Vengeance (2022)

October 5, 2022 by Robert Kojder

Vengeance , 2022.

Written and Directed by B.J. Novak. Starring B.J. Novak, Boyd Holbrook, J. Smith-Cameron, Lio Tipton, Dove Cameron, Issa Rae, Ashton Kutcher, Isabella Amara, Eli Bickel, Grayson Berry, Ben Whitehair, Gonzalo Robles, and Clint Obenchain.

A radio host from New York City attempts to solve the murder of a girl he hooked up with and travels down south to investigate the circumstances of her death and discover what happened to her.

In Vengeance , B.J. Novak’s popular podcaster/writer Ben Manalowitz finds himself traveling from New York City to middle-of-nowhere Texas, attending the funeral and eulogizing the death of his aspiring singer girlfriend Abilene Shaw (Lio Tipton). However, the circumstances are anything but ordinary.

Ben has been pressured into making the trip by Abilene’s brother Tyler (Boyd Holbrook) over a late-night phone call where the former doesn’t seem to recognize Abilene’s name. That’s because Ben is a hook-up guy that doesn’t see the point in monogamy. He also doesn’t seem to realize when one of these women (they mostly go into his phone under dehumanizing labels reducing them to a single talent or personality traits) perceives their dynamic as a serious relationship.

Self-absorbed and woefully missing the point, Ben also believes there is a story here about America’s identity, the correlations between mythology and conspiracy, and a good old-fashioned murder mystery set amongst a backdrop of problematic yet well-meaning Texans deliciously right there to be transformed into larger-than-life comedic characters serving the story. He’s perfectly comfortable exploiting the community and immediate family surrounding a woman he didn’t actually love for some more fame and to pretentiously be seen as an intellectual that got to the bottom of America’s rotten core.

This all comes about when several friends and family of Abilene swear up and down that she would never go anywhere near drugs, let alone enough to overdose, and had to have been murdered. In fairness, considering that before her death, her body was dragged to an area with no cell service that crosses into four different territories (meaning that local law enforcement, border patrol, and more can keep kicking the case back and forth to one another without making a real effort to solve it), they have a point.

However, Ben sees an impoverished, uneducated community in denial and refusing to accept the truth (which is different from the facts in one of the film’s many intriguing provocations). It could also be argued that he also has a point, as we meet Abilene’s family, which amounts to most Southern stereotypes.

Put it this way, a scene of black comedy depicts a 10-year-old child (referred to as El Stupido because he doesn’t understand Spanish) coming into Ben’s guest room asking for help unjamming a handgun. Not to mention, most of these people seem to have very shallow life ambitions whenever they are not being wowed by eating at Whataburger.

B.J. Novak also writes and directs Vengeance (marking his debut), smartly homing in on the characters and less about the murder investigation (which is somewhat easy to solve for anyone familiar with movies). There’s a line from Abilene (a performance given through screens) mentioning “heart sees the heart,” and it’s not hard to see the heart in any of these characters despite their shortcomings and questionable behavior.

Even as Ben looks through Abilene’s laptop and revisits previous text conversations, there’s a sense of shame and regret that he ignored her emotions and needs, never stopping to assert that he wasn’t looking for anything serious. There’s a wave of responsible guilt that crashes over him and conflicts with his misguided career move of turning this into a broader picture of America.

There are also some pleasant supporting turns here, ranging from Issa Rae’s handler and superior to Ben and Ashton Kutcher as a recording executive that forces Ben to look inward regarding what he is trying to accomplish. It’s also shocking that in a movie littered with darkly hilarious bits, Ashton Kutcher is one nailing a dramatic role.

Vengeance poses plenty of thoughtful questions, but does someone get lost tying it all together with an ending that feels rushed that also leaves some of its themes missing a sense of profundity that should be there. Otherwise, it’s a solid calling card from B.J Novak. who clearly has a lot to say as a filmmaker. He deserves more opportunities to do so.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★  / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check  here  for new reviews, follow my  Twitter  or  Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

JOIN OUR FREE PATREON

FMTV – Watch Our Latest Video Here

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

The Most Obscure and Underrated Slasher Movies of the 1980s

10 Essential Frankenstein-Inspired Films

15 Great Feel-Good Sing-a-Long Movies

The Essential Modern Day Swashbucklers

Ranking The Best Episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace at 25 – Still a franchise low-point?

The Essential Revisionist Westerns of the 21st Century

The Most Incredibly Annoying Movie Characters

The Most Overlooked Horror Movies of the 1990s

Spider-Man 2 at 20: A Superhero Sequel That Improves Upon Its Predecessor In Every Way

• Comic Books
• Video Games
• Toys & Collectibles
• Articles and Opinions
• Flickering Myth Films
• About Flickering Myth
• Write for Flickering Myth
• Advertise on Flickering Myth
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy

Vengeance (United States, 2022)

Vengeance tries for something different and succeeds. But, although screenwriter/director B.J. Novak swings for the fences, he doesn’t quite get the ball out of the park. This Blumhouse production marries fish-out-of-water elements with some philosophical musings and offbeat characters that might remind viewers of (Robert) Altman lite. The ending feels a little forced, as if the filmmakers felt that not providing some kind of punch might disappoint viewers, but there are enough little pleasures along the way to more than compensate.

Novak plays Ben Manalowitz, a New York-based podcaster who is looking for the perfect subject when one falls into his lap. He is contacted by Ty Shaw (Boyd Holbrook), the brother of Abilene Shaw (Lio Tipton), a woman with whom Ben once had a brief fling. The two haven’t seen one another for a while, both having moved on to other bed partners, and it wasn’t serious in the first place. Somehow, however, Ty and his family believe that Ben was Abby’s serious boyfriend. Sobbing over the phone, Ty informs Ben that Abby is dead. Initially, the nonplused podcaster tries to deny everything but then it dawns on him that by playing this role, he might be able to produce something special. It gets better when Ben arrives on the ground in Texas and learns that Ty thinks Abby was murdered (even though the official cause of death was an accidental overdose), so the podcast-in-progress, dubbed “Dead White Girl,” becomes an investigation.

The murder mystery plays a distant second to the people populating Ben’s narrative. He arrives in Texas with a series of preconceived notions and stereotypes and, although some are validated, most are spectacularly exploded. And the more he learns about Abby, the more he wonders about this woman who briefly crossed his path. He comes to know the members of her family – Ty; her mother, Sharon (J. Smith-Cameron); her plain-spoken grandmother (Melissa Chambers); and her sisters and younger brother – as more than “colorful” characters used to fill in the creases of his podcast. He wonders at his own role as an outsider worming his way into the family’s confidence in order to exploit their grief. His editor, Eloise (Issa Rae), increasingly loves the material he sends her but with every new clip, Ben feels less upbeat about what he’s achieving.

One of the most offbeat peripheral characters is record producer Quentin Sellers, who’s played by Ashton Kutcher in full charismatic sleazeball mode. Sellers worked with Abby and has a compelling philosophy about the impermanence of life’s unrecorded moments. It’s a perfect explanation for the popularity of social media and why so many people are driven to do crazy things in pursuit of “fame.” Yet, while popularity may be fleeting, those clips, archived online, have a permanence that may outlive the people who made them. In the end, Sellers opines, all that remains of any of us are our recorded moments. Everything else fades away.

Vengeance doesn’t break new ground or do anything staggeringly original but it doesn’t feel like it was churned out by someone seeking blockbuster returns. It’s the kind of movie that came out with regularity around the turn of the century but has become increasingly rare. Flawed but fresh, Novak’s feature debut got me to laugh with him and at him while simultaneously taking the story seriously and becoming involved in all its quirks and twists.

Comments Add Comment

• Fight Club (1999)
• In the Company of Men (1997)
• Apollo 13 (1995)
• Cosmopolis (2012)
• Cruel Intentions (1999)
• Bad Lieutenant (1993)
• Inglourious Basterds (2009)
• Saving Mr. Banks (2013)
• Founder, The (2017)
• (There are no more worst movies of B.J. Novak)
• Logan (2017)
• Walk Among the Tombstones, A (2014)
• Run All Night (2015)
• Host, The (2013)
• Predator, The (2018)
• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
• Lot Like Love, A (2005)
• Butterfly Effect, The (2004)
• (There are no more better movies of Ashton Kutcher)
• Guardian, The (2006)
• Valentine's Day (2010)
• Jobs (2013)