B.J. Novak's dark comedy-thriller 'Vengeance' asks a lot of uncomfortable questions

B.J. Novak, who is best known for playing Ryan on “The Office,” writes, directs and stars in “Vengeance,” a dark comedy thriller that could be a “Black Mirror” episode and leaves you with the same existential turmoil as Bo Burham’s “Inside.”

Novak plays Ben Manalowitz, who writes for The New Yorker but wants to carve out a brand for himself through his own podcast; if only he could come up with an idea that podcast editor Eloise (Issa Rae) thinks is worth producing.

Out of the blue, Ben gets a call in the middle of the night that his girlfriend Abilene Shaw (Lio Tipton) has died. This confuses him, because they only slept together a couple of times and he barely remembers her. Her family in Texas is apparently under the impression that they were much more serious than they really were.

'Find the story before it finds you'

Not wanting to disappoint them, he flies to Texas for the funeral with the plan to turn around and go home when it’s over.

But he stumbles upon the perfect story when Abilene’s brother Ty Shaw (Boyd Holbrook) asks him to help avenge what he believes to be her murder, despite all the evidence pointing to an accidental drug overdose.

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He calls Eloise to pitch the story to her: that there is no story. His theory is that America’s obsession with conspiracy theories has led us to ignore the simplest and most likely solution in exchange for something more complex and meaningful because the truth can be too difficult to accept.

It’s also a story about how different realities exist in America based on where you live. The same rules do not apply across the country, or even across the same state.

New Yorker Ben doesn’t exactly fit into this town’s reality – a place hours away from a town that's hours away from Dallas, where guns and Whataburger are essential parts of the culture. But he manages to find family, a voice, an eccentric record producer (played by Ashton Kutcher) and, eventually, the truth.

Who's up for an existential crisis?

“Vengeance” asks a lot of complex questions: Is vigilante justice ever justified? Is true crime inherently exploitive? In the long run, do we really exist beyond the record of ourselves that we leave behind?

The movie also is a critic of the media. How could a reporter who lives in New York, has no sense of family values and no idea what happened at the Alamo understand, let alone tell the story of, a small town in Texas?

It’s a fair critique, but it would be remiss not to point out two things: One, no legitimate media organization would let a reporter go undercover to deceive a family unless there was a compelling public interest. And two, there are a lot of really talented local journalists doing the important work to tell the stories of their communities. But that's not what "Vengeance" is about.

It's about the varying realities that exist throughout the U.S., and how maybe that’s OK. Or maybe it’s none of our business. Or maybe some questions are more important than the answers themselves. But there’s no question this isn’t the last we’ve seen from B.J. Novak.

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"Vengeance" 4 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Director: B.J. Novak.

Cast: B.J. Novak, Issa Rae, Ashton Kutcher, Boyd Holbrook, J. Smith-Cameron and Dove Cameron.

Rating: R for "language and brief violence."

Note: In theaters starting July 29.

Contact the reporter at alexis.potter@azcentral.com or follow the reporter on Twitter @alexispotter_.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: B.J. Novak's 'Vengeance' movie: Who determines reality?