B. J. Novak (known for his work on TV’s The Office) works fairly well in branching out to the silver screen about the suspicious death of a former girlfriend.
Novak employs some self-serving spunk into his writer/podcaster Ben heading from Brooklyn to the rustic enclaves of West Teas.
The film’s strands might be dangling a bit too much at times when all is said and done. But the combination of the peculiar and the clandestine in the form of what could be construed as a character study can be enjoyable and often funny.
Vengeance is a notable debut fro Novak who embraces the premise with a certain dutifulness. And, he has a cast who is into who has a caustic allure that includes the likes of Boyd Holbrook, Its Issa Rae, Eli Bichel, Louanne Stephens, Lio Tipton (Crazy, Stupid, Love), as well as Ashton Kutcher in philosophical form and John Mayer. Of course some of the humor has the red/blue state implications denoted through law enforcement discretion.