It's a current-day mystery with ironic and humorous edges set in rural West Texas. It follows an elitist writer/podcaster from the New Yorker magazine who looks into the overdose death of a woman he hooked up with a few times.

Ben Manalowitz (B. J. Novak) is A New Yorker writer and aspiring podcaster who lives the life of hooking up at bars multiple times a week and engages in empty intellectual banter with friends. One night he gets a distraught call from Ty Shaw (Boyd Holbrook) from West Texas, saying that his girlfriend, Abilene (Lio Tipton), has died. Ben remembers hooking up with her a few times and finally agrees to come to her funeral since the family believes it was a close relationship.

The film follows his interaction with the family when he learns they all believe that Abilene's overdose death was not accidental. Ben stays with the family, feeling the family seeks a kind of vengeance by believing in a murder myth. We meet the Shaw family, which includes Ty's two remaining sisters, a younger brother, Mother Sharon (J. Smith-Cameron), and Granny (Louanne Stephens). Initially, he writes them off as rural rubes but comes to understand things are more complex than he first imagined. He also meets a music producer, Quinten Sellers (Ashton Kutcher), who spouts theories on life's meaning that intrigue Ben.

Ben interviews the drug dealer, the family suspects, and the four law enforcement agencies that had jurisdiction in where Abilene's body was found. A couple of abrupt plot twists at the movie's end influence the podcast, Ben's self-understanding, and shift the film's concept of vengeance.

I was very taken by the film. The characters that initially seem one-dimensional become more complex as the story unfolds. I didn't see the ending coming. B. J. Novak was excellent as the smug Eastern snob who learns a lot about himself. I thought there were some false notes with Ashton Kutcher's character, but overall I thought the storyline worked.

BJ Novak wrote, directed and acted an intriguing story that is funny, suspenseful, sad, and clever. One of the best things is how heartwarming most the characters are! For a movie that's mostly about finding the truth there's a lot of brilliance and fun scenes. I think if I didn't have a regal subscription I probably wouldn't have seen in the theater regardless I'm glad I did Vengeance is very good, I'd still recommend anyone see it and it was nice how some older folks talked to me.

SCORE: 2.9/10

The first 3/4 of this movie was so unbelievably bad. It tried to be funny and serious and failed at both. The jokes were not funny and completely undermined the serious moments that actually had a lot of potential. I cared about this story just as much as Ben cared about Abilene at the start of the film. As soon as I heard Dove Cameron's accent and discovered she had been casted as a 17 year old, I knew what I was getting myself into. The one thing I for sure walked away with was that I do not like Texas.

Anyways, back to the terrible story. It starts out with a comedic portrayal of Ben and Abilene's relationship and tries to spin it into something the audience is supposed to care about. If this movie went all in on the comedy, it would've been better, just like how it would've been better if they had decided to make the story serious. The decision to try and make it both really killed any connection I could've had to the story and it felt without purpose, up until the last 10 minutes of the movie. Once he unlocked her phone it did get a bit more interesting, but it was too little too late. There was pretty good dialogue throughout, but it was completely overshadowed by a boring story and the worst camera work I have ever seen in any movie. The editing was atrocious and there were multiple points where you could blatantly see errors, particularly during B. J. Novak and Ashton Kurcher's first encounter. Big swing and a miss with a concept that had lots of potential.