'Vengeance' embraces Abilene, Texas as a rich small town populated by complex people - not just one-note characters. The very nature of true crime exploits real-life tragedy to the morbidly curious, sometimes garnishing these stories with odd eccentricities - but rarely, if ever, truly connecting real-life heartbreak to horrific crimes. Novak's screenplay outlines the humanity and complexity invisible in most disposable true crime new media. And it's with Ben's misguided, self-satisfied arrogance where 'Vengeance' finds its footing: Ben's prejudices and very character are challenged time and again. He arrives at his podcast's thesis before recording a single interview. He outright dismisses the "Abilene was murdered" notion in favor of podcast that merely paints Abilene's grieving family as deluded. From the moment he pitches his podcast idea, Ben's preconceived notions of small-town Texas color and prejudice his very mission. He voices his yearning to tell a story that 'connects' with people - only moments after gleefully reveling in his disconnection from the many hook-ups in his contact list. Yet, if any one character is a parody, it's the condescending New Yorker who starts a bad faith "investigation" into Abilene's death.īen's introduction revels in his smug assuredness in his worldview. A stupider version of this story would have dropped a keen detective into an eccentric rural town, and let his razor sharp skills of observation crack the case in a story accented by a cast of background, one-dimensional caricatures.
Your standard "murder mystery" flick grabs the audience with audacious twists and turns - but Novak's script upends and plays with these expectations. Beneath the whodunit mystery take and its Texas backdrop, 'Vengeance' is a rebuke of the obsession for oversimplified true crime reduces human misery to easily digestible podcast episodes guided by pompous narrators.
The truth of what happened to aspiring musician Abilene (Lio Tipton) is merely the hook of this thoughtful little Texas tale that uses storytelling to scrutinize the very act of storytelling.
The commercials for 'Vengeance,' framing this wry satire as pretty straightforward murder-mystery, do Novak's directorial debut a bit of a disservice. Boyd Holbrook, Dove Cameron, Issa Rae and Ashton Kutcher also star. In short: New York City podcaster Ben Manalowitz (writer-director Novak) attempts to solve the death of a girl he hooked up with and travels to West Texas to investigate what happened to her. Novak's filmmaking debut drops a smug podcast investigator into a Texas-sized noir mystery in ' Vengeance' (opening in theaters nationwide July 29).
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