Ben Manalowitz, who writes for The New Yorker (he was played by BJ Novak, posted on that page), wants to get into podcasting. “Not every white man in America should have a podcast,” someone tells him, but this white man sees the platform as the perfect arena for his ambitions and big thoughts about America. .
Ben has a theory about the divided and discontented state of the country. Eloise (Issa Rae) is a receptive, well-connected and slightly skeptical producer who says what he needs is a story. Their brief discussion of the relative merits of theory and narrative distills a conundrum familiar to journalists and other writers. Are we looking for facts and ideas? Characters and historical forces? Generality or particularity? These questions are key to “Vengeance” trying to get it both ways by reverse-engineering a narrative about betrayal in storytelling from theory about the dangers of theorizing.
Novak, who wrote and directed the film, has his own take on America, more nuanced than Ben’s, but not always compelling. “Vengeance” is serious, thoughtful, and very funny at times, but it shows how difficult it is to turn political polarization and culture war hostility into a believable narrative. Too smart for your good, maybe not as smart as you think you are, but you shouldn’t dismiss the effort.
The same can be said of Ben, who is also the subject of Novak’s most brutal satire, at least at the beginning of the film. We first met him at a party on the terrace overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge. There he and his friends spin an elaborate philosophical justification for their cynical and transactional approach to sex and romance. The way Ben intellectualizes his superficiality is so accurate and so repulsive that I wonder if the movie can redeem him enough to make another 90 minutes in his company excruciating. You may be wondering.
But what seems like a self-conscious, New York-centric satire on white male media elite entitlements turns into something else. There are actually some, such as twisted detective stories that are both.
A late-night phone call sent him to West Texas, where an aspiring singer he had hooked up with several times in New York was found dead under an oil field pump jack. but you may not have known it stood for Abilene. (In a haunting video clip I saw after her death, she is played by Rio Tipton.) Ben’s phone number is on her cell phone, and her family knows he was the love of her life. I have the impression that
Ben flew out to the funeral, where he was greeted by a large Texas family from Abilene. Two sisters, Isabella her Amara and Dove her Cameron, were also named after the city. Of the two brothers, the younger (Eli Abrams Bickel) answers his El Stupido.
An older Ty (Boyd Holbrook) enlists Ben in a scheme to give the film a title and momentum. Ty believes that Abilene’s death was the result of a devious and devious conspiracy, and that those who killed her must be dealt with. In his frenzied ramblings, Ben hears an opportunity for Audio Gold. True Climb. A first-person meditation on American his life. An exploration into the essence of storytelling and the slipperiness of truth. Eloise agrees to “Dead White Girl: The Holy Grail of Podcasting” and ships him the necessary recording equipment.
The best part of “Vengeance” is in the middle, where Novak humanizes cultural stereotypes, including Ben himself, without losing his sense of humor. People are complicated and can surprise you. This is an insight that can easily be oversold because it relies on assumptions that the audience will think differently. But Ben’s superficial self-awareness is replaced by active curiosity (he’s a writer, after all), and he feels his heartfelt kindness to Ty, Granny, and the rest. will be He also meets other locals who know Abilene but don’t really, including a drug dealer (Zach Villa) and a mysterious record producer (Ashton Kutcher).
For a while, flirtatious sociology and easy intrigue are put on the back burner in favor of sharp, understated humanist comedy.Novak, who published a collection of short stories and children’s books, was an accomplished writer and (as we know “office”) light ensemble player. Her version of the sitcom “Revenge”, where Ben is embedded in his hometown of Abilene, could be worth a few seasons streaming on his platform.
Ben is Wata Burger and Fritopie learned a tough lesson about college football fandom, with rural red stars and urban blue stars sharing specific aspirations (fame, self-expression) and cultural reference points (Anton Chekhov, Liam Neeson). but not in sync. Other Matters. It’s when “Vengeance” gets shy and manipulative when it addresses those issues, or when it doesn’t. Gun culture and the opioid crisis get the rough spotlight, but the film is largely hoping to drive away the gear sands of American experimentation.
No one can say much about politics, race, religion, immigration, or any other issue we are constantly fighting. Perhaps Novak’s point is that, face to face, there’s nothing more to fight than an elected representative on social media. and busy storytelling can’t hide its essential mediocrity.
revenge
Rated R. Guns, Drags, Digital Audio. Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes. at the theater.