Why does Ty leap to the idea that there was some Deep State conspiracy against his sister? Why is our culture awash in conspiracy theories and misinformation? Ultimately, though, he’s trying to figure out what is wrong with America. Like many podcasters, Ben initially casts around for a theme. But what he thought would be a story about hicks and conspiracy theories quickly becomes a chronicle of his own failings.

There, brother Ty (Boyd Holbrook) tells Ben he believes his sister was murdered.īen agrees to help investigate, mostly because it’s an opportunity for him to break into podcasting. They convince him to fly in for the funeral. Her family calls Ben under the impression the two were closer than they actually were. One of these brief encounters, Abilene Shaw (Lio Tipton), dies suddenly of an opiate overdose back home in Texas. He uses dating apps to hook up with scads of women he barely knows. It’s not an analysis or a solution to our current mess, it’s part of the cause.īen, a writer for the New Yorker, is obsessed with shallow careerism and the pursuit of transient cosmopolitan pleasure.

The image of a rural heartland threatened by often non-white outsiders seizing illegitimate power is a staple of political discourse, and of Hollywood. At a time when growing authoritarianism and bigotry in the US is built on the disproportionate power of white rural voters, Vengeance positions those voters as the soul, heart, and conscience of America. Rural people are good, honest, and American cosmopolitans like Ben are clueless and adrift. It’s a familiar story, and its lessons are familiar, too: More unites us than divides us, don’t be a condescending jerk, don’t treat people as stereotypes.Īnd yet, the film still treats its characters-especially Ben himself-as stereotypes. Novak’s Vengeance is a fish-out-of-water comedy in which jaded New York podcaster Ben Manalowitz (Novak) travels to Texas to learn about himself and America. The film’s exploration of regional tensions effectively erase actual class dynamics-race, gender, religion, and most other major political fault-linesī.J.

The act of vengeance true story