Written and Directed by BJ Novak
Starring BJ Novak, Issa Rae, Boyd Holbrook, J. Smith-Cameron, and Ashton Kutcher
Rated R for Language and Brief Violence
Running Time: 1 hour and 47 minutes
In theaters July 29

by Ian Hrabe, Staff Writer

I don’t want to say that BJ Novak is an enigma, but his career certainly is eclectic. The Harvard-educated comedian is best known for his role as Ryan Howard on The Office. He was also a prominent member of that show’s writer’s room and considering that series’ enduring popularity nearly ten years after it ended, it almost feels like anyone Office adjacent found a Wonka-style golden ticket. Novak also signed a SEVEN FIGURE book deal with Knopf in 2013 which certainly seems like a lot of money for someone who had never published a book. That said, his 2014 short story collection One More Thing was very good and his 2014 children’s book The Book with No Pictures is something of a modern classic of children’s lit. Now Novak is getting into the writer/director game with his debut film Vengeance and it’s clear that despite Novak’s various creative outlets, at the heart of it all is a passion for storytelling. Does that mean Vengeance is a great film? Well, no. But there is certainly enough here to admire the effort. 

Vengeance tells the story of an aspiring podcast host Ben who goes to Texas to investigate the death of a girl he was casually hooking up with after being invited to her funeral by her brother (who, along with the rest of his family, think Ben was her serious boyfriend from the big city). It’s a fish out of water story, a murder mystery, and a critique on new media. It’s fine. The most fascinating thing about it though is watching a first-time director struggle to make a decent feature film. Novak’s screenplay is solid enough, but man oh man does he struggle with nailing the tone here. While his character is meant to be a smug big city asshole with designs on producing the next Serial, he’s so unlikable that it forecasts how the whole thing is going to resolve. I.e. he’s going to go to Middle America and he’s going to come back humbled after learning a thing or two from the hayseeds. 

Despite this predestined trajectory, what was most compelling was how this movie hooked me once the murder mystery got underway in earnest. It felt like out of nowhere I went from “I get it I get it, he’s an asshole learning to have a heart of gold” to genuinely invested in the storytelling. Once I started thinking about Novak’s pedigree as a short story writer this whole thing worked a lot better because this feels like a short story. One where the stakes are a little bit lower than a novel and you can get away with some more surprising plot elements to drive your themes home. Given the short story structure the film itself feels stretched and would have worked better with some of the fat trimmed off, but then again it does resolve in some pretty compelling ways. Ways I didn’t see coming and was ultimately grateful for having trudged through 45 minutes of “We get it, he’s an entitled white guy.” 

Like many middle-of-the-road films, the balance between good and bad comes down to the cast, and the cast here is excellent. Novak is definitely a writer who acts rather than an actor who writes, and his punchable face (that’s a compliment) is pretty much perfect for this character. Issa Rae is always a welcome sight on my screen and her natural charisma helps cover for the thankless role as Ben’s podcast editor who guides him on his quest to complete his podcast, which is hilariously referred to as “Dead White Girl,” in case you didn’t know this is a satire. Boyd Holbrook (Narcos) and J. Smith-Cameron (Succession) do terrific supporting work as the erstwhile dead white girl’s brother and mother and are responsible for giving this movie as much heart as it has by the time the credits roll. Smith-Cameron is a known quantity given her god-level work as Gerri on Succession, but Holbrook really shines here and humanizes the idea of The Texan. 

Ultimately the solid cast and quirky storytelling tips this into the good side of so-so, and Novak shows enough promise with his screenwriting. He has a long way to go as a director, however, and this film is marred by uninspired cinematography, bad ADR, and inconsistent tone. I’m curious to see what he does next, if only for how thoroughly he was able to hook me and change my whole opinion about the film in the last 30 minutes. The last 30 minutes of this movie are excellent, and it feels like it’s just a case of someone needing to grind for a while before finding their voice. That doesn’t really help us, the viewer, but overall it does come across as a net positive. The ending took this somewhere I absolutely did not expect it to go, and while I’m not entirely sure I loved it, I did appreciate Novak closing out with a bold move that kept me gnawing on what would have been just another throwaway indie flick.