"Vengeance" 2022 is an intelligent, interesting movie that I felt compelled to talk about immediately after it finished. Mind: when I say that "Vengeance" is an intelligent, interesting movie, I am *not* saying that it is pretentious, or that it goes out of its way to be difficult to understand, or that people dressed entirely in black in Manhattan will brag about sitting through it. This is not a movie trying to be intelligent. This is a movie that is intelligent.
"Vengeance" is *not* a chore to watch. I laughed out loud several times, I also had to close my eyes tight during a suspenseful scene, and I cared about Abby, a Texas girl from a very small town who ended up dead. The movie felt so real to me that I wondered throughout if it were based on something that actually happened to the film's writer, director, and star, B. J. Novak.
"Vengeance" includes some plot twists, and it defies genre boundaries, so it's hard to give much information without spoiling it. Abby, a wannabe singer from a small Texas town, dies. Her brother phones Ben, a journalist living in New York City, and invites him to Abby's funeral. Ben travels to Texas and realizes he is in a world very different from the one he inhabits in Manhattan. He decides to produce a podcast entitled "Dead White Girl." His topics and themes will include the big divides in America and the opioid crisis. And much more than that, I can't say.
Again, I laughed out loud several times in this movie. The humor is so deadpan and dry I think viewers not paying attention might not get it. I also cared about how the movie presented the cultural divide between Ben and Abby's family.
The opening scene is two guys talking about their sex lives, which consist of casual hook-ups with no commitment. Novak has said that much of it was improvised, and there is a 17 minute version he will release eventually. Novak's interlocutor is John Mayer, a musician known for having had lots of hook ups. I walked into the theater not knowing much about BJ Novak and knowing nothing about John Mayer and I was able to enjoy this scene.
Ashton Kutcher, as Quentin Sellers - note the last name - a music producer in Marfa, Texas, gives a performance I would sit through the entire movie again to watch. Kutcher is mesmerizing. He gives not one but two speeches I really need to hear again. One is about sound; the other is about ... well just go watch the movie.
Issa Rae, a very beautiful woman, plays the part of Ben's producer. Her role and her performance are weak spots in the movie. She doesn't come across as a hardnosed, demanding, producer/editor. She comes across as the sweet and bubbly, eager to please lead in a romantic comedy, which she may play someday. Ben phones her from Texas; she listens to his recordings. The Academy now requires movies to include a certain percentage of non-white performers to be considered for awards. It's possible Issa Rae is in the film for that reason. That's unfortunate. Her role could have been more sharply written, so that she wasn't just the token non-white woman in the film.
Terry Gross, host of the NPR show "Fresh Air," provides a cameo voice.
