Vengeance Review: Novak's Podcast Movie is Full of Great Ideas That Don't Quite Connect

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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