Deep in the heart of the south, direct in the center of the great state of Texas, BJ Novak’s (“The Office,” “The Newsroom”) directorial debut “Vengeance”, which he also writes and stars in, takes a yuppie New York wannabe-true-crime-podcaster and puts him smack in the middle of conspiracy and paranoia as well as deep fried twinkies and rodeos.
After an abrupt phone call from her brother Ty, played perfectly by Boyd Holbrook (“Logan,” “Narcos”), Novak’s Ben Manalowitz flies from New York to West Texas for the funeral of a one-time fling from New York, Abilene Shaw, played via video footage by Lio Tipton (“Warm Bodies,” “Crazy, Stupid, Love”). However, after Ty tells Ben he believes she was murdered and wants his help to solve the mystery, Ben begins recording the search in the hopes of turning it into a true-crime podcast.
Rounding out the cast is Dove Cameron (“Descendants,” “”Dumplin’”) as Kansas City, Ty’s younger sister, Issa Rae (“Insecure,” “The Lovebirds”) as Eloise, Ben’s friend and producer, Ashton Kutcher (“That 70s Show,” “jobs”) as Quinten Sellers, a music producer based out of Texas, Isabella Amara (“Wilson,” “euphoria”) as Ty’s other younger sister Paris, J. Smith-Cameron (“Succession,” “Rectify”) as Sharon, the matriarch of the Shaw family, Louanne Stephens (“Friday Night Lights,” “Longmire”) as Granny Carol of the Shaws, and Eli Bickel as the youngest of the Shaws, referred to as El Stupido.
Even as the writing sometimes fails to do the characters justice, every member of the cast does a great job of bringing their characters to life with their performances. Sure, Kansas City might be a bit one note and Eloise spends a lot of time just talking to Ben on the phone, but even within that Cameron and Rae are doing their damndest to do right by these characters.
Novak has written plenty of smart things before, be they children’s books or television episodes, but “Vengeance” is clearly his most ambitious work yet for numerous reasons. Likely the biggest is the simple fact that he’s trying to turn the fish-out-of-water, us-versus-them American revenge story on its head. There’s clearly so much effort put into the characterizations of the “Texan yokels” to help set them apart from the more one-note stereotypes that have existed for years.
It's a kind film in that way. Novak clearly wants to give these people the time and respect they deserve. It leads to some odd bits of humor though when the jokes seem derived from how stupid they are, but things smooth out as the film’s real target for humor and for the message becomes clear.
Even as the mystery aspect of the film fails to rise to the heights Novak might have wanted, it all works so well because of the characterizations. Holbrook endears you to his character so early and so earnestly that it helps to open you to the rest of these Texans. He’s the heart and soul of the film and its so easy to love him and by extension love the film through him.
If there’s one thing that does suffer, it’s the film’s ending. While the overall themes and ideas work and are still in line with the rest of the film, there’s a particular moment in the film’s final ten minutes that feels extremely out of place and character.
Besides that, though, for a debut, the film looks nice enough, shooting the massive Texas open plains with an appropriately plain point of view that does end up working well. Oddly, the musical score from musician Finneas O'Connell might be the biggest standout aspect of the film, injecting a healthy amount of electronic vibes and heavy synths to this dusty trail mystery.
For a feature directorial debut, there are plenty of places that “Vengeance” could have gone wrong. And while it doesn’t avoid all of the pitfalls of both the “smart Yuppie” story or the first-time feature, Novak does construct an interesting mystery packed with fun and lovable characters that’s consistently interesting and amusing if not as profound as it expects it to be. Oddly enough, for a film about a podcaster, the biggest lesson that could’ve helped this film is “show, don’t tell.” 4/5
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