B.J. Novak’s thriller satire Vengeance could use a few more sharp edges

polygon.com:

Podcasting and television have some mutual compatibilities: Podcasts become TV shows, TV shows inspire watch-along podcasts, and just about everyone loves the half-spoof/half-tribute pulled off by Only Murders in the Building. Podcasts and movies aren’t quite so chummy. Plenty of podcasts talk about cinema, but apart from the occasional sneering joke (like the nerdy audio-obsessed character Podcast in Ghostbusters: Afterlife) the minutiae of podcasting generally seems beneath the interest of most movies. That emphatically isn’t the case with B.J. Novak’s new thriller, Vengeance, which may include more details about the podcasting process than any mainstream movie that isn’t a documentary.

It’s not that podcasting is truly a passion for New York City writer Ben Manalowitz (Novak). It’s more of an item on a checklist for a successful, young-ish big-city media person. Ben is already a contributor to The New Yorker (not, as he keeps correcting people, New York Magazine), but he hungers for a next step. When he corners successful podcast producer Eloise (Issa Rae) at a party, he wants to pitch something for her NPR-like company — even though he doesn’t really have a concrete story in mind.

But a story falls into his lap due to a mishap from another form of checklisting: Ben’s indulgence in hookup culture, evident from his first scene of banter with a friend played by musician John Mayer. Ben gets a call from the family of Abilene (Lio Tipton), informing him that his girlfriend has died. The catch is, Abilene wasn’t Ben’s girlfriend, just a casual hookup he barely knew. At the insistence of Abilene’s brother Ty (Sandman villain Boyd Holbrook), Ben heads to Texas for Abilene’s funeral, where the rest of her family insists that