Taking place largely in rural Texas, the Blumhouse-produced Vengeance can at times seem like a mystery-thriller that never quite loses touch with its humanistic tone. Adding a layer of comedy to the proceeding is the film's main character, Ben. A writer from New York City who is very out of his element in the Lone Star State, Ben -- played by B.J. Novak, who's the primary creative voice behind the film -- finds a tricky balance between funny, sympathetic, and even a little annoying when he needs to be for the film's themes to work.
In the town to nominally solve the death of a woman he'd hooked up with (and, in reality, record everything for an eventual podcast release), Ben's journey ends up exploring a lot of the human condition in memorable order. During an interview with CBR ahead of the film's July 29 debut in theaters, Vengeance star/writer/director B.J. Novak discussed what aspect of the film excited him the most as a filmmaker, finding the right comedic and character balance for Ben, and what he hopes audiences take away from the film.
CBR: This is such a fun dichotomy for Ben as a character. I've been describing the film to friends as if a Curb Your Enthusiasm character had ended up in a Taylor Sheridan film. What excited you about putting a character like Ben into a setting like rural Texas?
B.J. Novak: It felt like a very modern-day story that I hadn't heard before. We judge each other. Online, we are disconnected from the people we're dating or are our friends on our phones. [I was interested in] what happens then, both emotionally and dramatically, when you throw people from different worlds together. So even though in your great example, it's kind of like a Curb Your Enthusiasm character in a Taylor Sheridan movie, that is the world today. We're all in this weird hodgepodge thing. I thought, let's not shy away from that. Let's make some entertainment out of that and try to find the depth of it too.
Ben is an interesting character in the sense that he's at times sympathetic, relatable, pitiable, even pathetic and laughable. There are a lot of layers that are peeled back from the character over the course of the film. As both the performer bringing Ben to life and the screenwriter of the film, what was it like to find that balance to him as a character?
Thank you. That performance was... Something that mattered to me a lot was to do something that was honest and funny, but not to be one of those directors who's like, "I'm going to show everyone what a great guy I am." On the other hand, you can't just make a movie where it's like, "Look what a douchebag this is," right? You have to root for that character.
So, I really had to dig deep and think, what do I hate about myself? What do I hope is deep down in my heart and that other characters could find? The character is different than me, but I did kind of dig deep and have to be really careful not to be shy about showing good sides or bad sides of the main character.
You directed this film, wrote this film, and starred in this film -- as someone so vested in this production and so many levels of it, what are you hoping audiences take away from the film?
I hope people will take away that the feeling of [the film] is the message. You know, there's a lot of ideas in it because the characters have a lot of thoughts, but even though it's a comedy, even though it's a thriller, even though it's like an idea movie, it's about the feeling and how unusual things go together and how people, when they actually are in the same room or working on the same unlikely project -- in this case an act of vengeance -- how we are in real life and how that feels. I think that that is the most unique thing about how [the film] turned out, and the thing that I hope resonates with audiences.
Vengeance hits theaters July 29.