Vengeance

AroView: The directorial debut of writer-actor B.J. Novak (“The Office”) is a deft and thoroughly contemporary comedy-noir in which he plays a journalist-podcaster who travels from New York to Texas to investigate the death of a former tinder date.

His often-hilarious script carries a sober message about the bruising cultural wars in a post-Trump, post-truth America, with an affectionate parody of archetypes extended to those on both sides of the divide. Seemingly inspired by crime podcasts (especially “Sh*t Town), Novak’s script is choc-full of pithy one-liners and philosophical monologues that do their darndest to make sense of these crazy times, and he surrounds himself with an impressive cast - Ashton Kutcher, Boyd Holbrook, and J. Smith-Cameron (“Succession”) in particular.

“B.J. Novak proves a born storyteller with the rare gift of using a film to say something that intoxicates us.” ~Owen Gleiberman, Variety

“Manages to balance its self-effacing and sentimental tones in a way that is extremely satisfying and entertaining to watch.” ~Hoai-Tran Bui, Slashfilm