Actions Speak Louder Than Words
This adventure in West Texas is brought to you by B. J. Novak, its writer/director/star. Mr. Novak is well known for his role as the temp Ryan Howard in the long running TV Show "The Office." The interesting thing about Novak's contribution to "The Office" is that he was also one of the writers. I once heard that he and Mindy Kaling (also a writer) were always in the office's backroom so that they would not have to spend an inordinate amount of time onscreen as they had other responsibilities. Also notable about Novak's contribution to the "The Office" is that his character was the most amoral on the show. He didn't mind how his writing affected how his character was presented to the world. I think it is fair to say he has a sense of humor.
This type of self-deprecation shows up right away in Vengeance. Novak plays Ben Manalowitz, a writer from New York, who receives a seemingly random phone call about a funeral is West Texas. The funeral belongs to Abilene Shaw, a girl he had hooked up with a couple of times in Manhattan. Apparently, she had told her family about him and made it seem like they were more serious than he ever considered them to be. She went back home to West Texas (perhaps because of a lack of making it in New York) and overdosed and died at a party. The family wants him to attend the funeral.
Ben attends the funeral seemingly to avoid breaking it to the family that he didn't care at all about Abilene. He puts on a good face the entire time. This fools Abilene's brother Ty Shaw (played by Boyd Holbrook) and he decides to let Ben in on a secret. Abilene's death was no accidental overdose. She was murdered and a lot of people were in on it. It's a conspiracy. Ben doesn't see a conspiracy afoot. He does see opportunity though: a story that he can turn into a podcast. A bunch of hicks in the middle of West Texas, slowly dying in their dead-ass towns, looking for bogey-man to blame for all their problems because they won't take responsibility for their lives. He pitches this idea to his producer Eloise (played by Issa Rae) who thinks he has something. They give the podcast a working title: "Dead White Girl." Ben Manalowitz decides to stay in Texas and "help out" by making this grieving family famous for being stupid. Ben is an awful person.
B.J. Novak understands where the satire lies. It is about time someone poked fun at the innumerable number of podcasts wherein people without any specialized knowledge riff on their views of the world. The prominent one that comes to mind is "Serial" by Sarah Keonig, which is the story of a clueless woman trying and failing to solve a murder that has already been solved. As a wise man in this movie aptly puts it, the truth is drowned out by everyone needing to give their own "take" on a story. Inaction and conspiracies prevail because the average person's urge to put themselves into the story makes it far more complicated than what it is in actuality.
There is plenty of red-state blue-state humor here and Novak does a fine job of spreading the jokes evenly. For the city slickers, the main problem is The Tyranny of Choice. This occurs whenever you go to the supermarket to buy cereal and are confronted with way more options than you require. (Aziz Ansari's "Master of None" TV series is perhaps the best exploration of this phenomenon.) The outcome is a character like Ben who won't engage in something meaningful because he is always afraid of missing out on something better. Was Abilene, that girl he hooked up with a couple of times, a special person? Ben didn't stay around long enough to find out. For the Texans, the problem is the opposite. They do not have any choices and fill in that emptiness with an absurd amount of pride. Why do they love Whataburger and will fight you about it? Because its there.
"Vengeance" starts getting interesting when it subverts its own premise by introducing certain evidence that Abilene may not have just overdosed at a party. It is revealed for instance that the scene of her death was in a hazy no-man's land of four separate legal jurisdictions: city, county, highway, and border patrol. If one wanted to murder Abilene, where she died would be a good place to do it.
"Vengeance" has a lot to say and a lot of thoughtful characters to articulate it. The conspiracy may not be corporate evil doers and/or crooked cops. The conspiracy may be a sort of cultural decay brought about by vague outside forces. If Abilene was using drugs, why was she doing that? Was she unhappy? She had a loving family and a small town's respect. Was that not enough?
Close by to this nowhere town in West Texas is a another town called Marfa. This is a well-known real place where well-to-do artists with lots of time go to work on their hobbies without distraction from the outside world. A recording studio run by a guy named Quentin Sellers once produced several songs written and performed by Abilene. Quentin Sellers is played by Ashton Kutcher in one of his best roles. (I think this is the first dramatic role I have seen him in). He is particularly good at coaxing performances out of clients. In one scene he compares the woman singing at the microphone with the creation of the universe. I was reminded of the great Will Durant quote, "Those who cater to human vanity, seldom starve."
Why does it matter whether art is recorded? So that it can be packaged and sold to strangers? So that one can become well known to people whom they have never met before? How did fame, in and of itself, become meaningful? "Vengeance" ends on an impulsive act performed in secret. It is shocking and fitting. This movie will be one of the best written of the year.
