Vengeance

Young beautiful women aren't attracted to old broke men especially those that push their political ideology on others and try unsuccessfully to make fun of people using old stale stereotypes that not only isn't true in such a diverse world of 2022 but also isn't the least bit funny except maybe in the feeble minds of the woke.

Big city guy is better cause he's from the big city, ramming his ideologies down everyone's throats. Nobody believes u dated the southern belle u old talentless hack of a writer. Keep your political and society views out of the cinema we come to be entertained not annoyed by u having to act in your own movie cause nobody wanted the part. Ashton was great though.

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.

This movie tries to play both sides of the fence. The main character wants to mock and humiliate the simple people of 'fly-over country' as being unwashed and uneducated rubes. But then, he starts to embrace these people as real and authentic. But then it changes again and he delivers a mini speech about climate change and people who believe there are microchips in vaccines. A speech I suspect he was dying to deliver. At first the Texans seem sincere and meritorious and then they come off as loony, double dealing liars and it is all presented in an unbalanced and almost random way. It is scattered and unfocused as if the original screenplay was altered at the last minute. So you take a vapid, shallow and unfeeling intellectual writer from New York, throw him into a cauldron of less educated and silly characters from Texas and then listen to his musings about Life as he gathers info for a biased and inaccurate podcast to be on NPR. The dialog is actually quite good, it is the plot and direction of this movie that cause it to go off the rails. I think BJ Novack tried to please everyone with this movie but ended up pleasing few. Many of plot questions are left unanswered and the movie ended with a sudden, unsatisfying thud. This could have been a lot better. So, Are people alike all over? Are the educated New Yorkers superior to the Texas simpletons or do the Texans possess some wisdom that eludes the New Yorkers? Why did the main character even GO to Texas? How did they get 3 disparate Texas characters all to use the exact same line that "she wouldnt even take an Advil"? Was that all random or was there some conspiracy? Sloppy. Unsatisfying. Skip it.

Hollywood wants us to think that a 40+ year old man sleeping with dozens of young girls he doesn't care at all about is somehow cool. No, it's just sad. Sad for the women, sad for the man. Blaah, stop trying to make bad behavior cool. I mean I could see it if the guy was an immature 22 year old, but not 43. Could not finish this one.

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.

Although this is a movie written, directed and staring B. J. Novak it's actually Boyd Holbrook's film. What could've been an offbeat detective tale with a darkly comedic twist soon degenerates into a story about a New York snob going to Texas to take the piss out of the hicks to gain favour with his racist editor back in NYC. It's not half a clever as it thinks it is because we're not as dumb as Novak thinks we are. There's a nice cameo by John Mayer at the beginning but even that is a Novak flex, "I hang out with John Mayer, how cool am I?"

'Vengeance' is a film unlike any other. And I mean that in the best possible way. Just when the viewer thinks he or she understands the film and / or knows where it's going, the film changes direction. And with each change, the stakes increase, the tension as well, and the viewer is more caught up. The film's Director / Screenwriter, BJ Novak (creator of the American TV Series 'The Office'), is also its star. He does an entirely credible job as a cynical New York City writer / reporter Ben Malakowitz who, through a case of mistaken understandings, becomes involved with a West Texas family mourning the loss of its beloved daughter / sister. The Novak character looks down his nose at the Texas good-ol' boys and girls, until he finds himself emotionally linked to their lives. The cast is great, but a particular standout is Ashton Kutcher as a brilliant Texas record-producer. Issa Rae as Ben's editor is lovely when she has to be, tough when necessary. But if you think this is where the tale is going - city guy learns to love country life - you are wrong wrong wrong. It would be a terrible disservice to you and the film to disclose anything further. What I can say is that each time the film appears to be at its end, it's actually just beginning a whole new chapter. And you will be glad that you stayed through to its end.