Vengeance

Vengeance is a 2022 American black comedy mystery film written and directed by B. J. Novak, in his directorial debut. It stars Novak, Boyd Holbrook, Dove Cameron, Issa Rae and Ashton Kutcher. Jason Blum is a producer under his Blumhouse Productions banner, and Greg Gilreath and Adam Hendricks are producers under their Divide/Conquer banner. Vengeance premiered at the Tribeca Festival on June 12, 2022, and was released in the United States on July 29, 2022 by Focus Features. It received generally favorable reviews from critics. Plot New York City journalist Ben Manalowitz is phoned by a stranger, Ty Shaw, that one of his many casual romantic relationships, Abilene "Abby" Shaw, has died of an apparent drug overdose. At Ty's insistence, Ben flies to West Texas to attend the funeral. He meets Abby's family, consisting of brother Ty, mother Sharon, sisters Paris and Kansas City, younger brother Mason (referred to as "El Stupido"), and Granny Carole. Ty then informs Ben that he suspects Abby was actually murdered, adamantly maintaining that she never took drugs, and asks Ben to accompany him to find the truth and avenge her. After conferring with his podcast producer Eloise, Ben elects to aid them as part of a story he will produce about grief and denial. Ben and Ty meet Ty's friend Crawl, who explains that parties often occur at the oil fields and tells Ben of an area nearby the fields dubbed "the Afterparty", an area between law enforcement jurisdictions where dead bodies have been reported over time. Crawl and Ty suspect Sancholo, a local drug dealer. Ben meets Quentin Sellers, an eccentric record producer and, like Ben, an outsider who is college-educated but has come to adopt Texas as his home. He gives Ben a memory stick with recordings of Abby performing. Ben confronts Sancholo to discuss Abby's death, and he reveals he was in Tulsa at the time. After watching a rodeo with the Shaw family at a rodeo, Ben walks to his car which then suddenly explodes. Ben receives a call from Eloise, telling him that the story is completeand his best everand expects him to now return to New York.