The Office U. temp and a noted writer and actor ever since, B. Novak has now made a stellar directorial debut with his latest film, Vengeance. Given that some of his seminal texts, “The Book Without a Picture” or “One More Thing”, have already been successful, it goes without saying that his directing would not lack brain-twisting humor and an eloquent script.

“Revenge” is a perfect example of an author’s introspection through his journey from finding a “story” to finding a story. While that understanding will come eventually, there is a mountain of rigid mindsets to overcome, limited by the culture of sex and the fear of attachment.

But in this case, Ben Manalowitz (B.Novak) is taken from the colored world of overripe culture to a sudden bend in the road where he must either make a story or erase it.

Who Is Abilene?

The story begins with an injured girl crawling through a dusty Texas desert field, lifting her broken phone into the sky and generating exciting energy from the start, but at one point the moving body freezes. With the soulful tune of “Red Solo Cup” playing in the background, the scene slowly shifts to quirky New York City, where Ben Manalowitz and his friend, played by John Mayer, are locked in a strange conversation about how “love” works. It works. for her. Just

Just as we realize that Ben has fallen into the casual dating culture, he points out in a sincere tone that what if he finds a deeper connection with someone? His boyfriend distracts him with his 6-7 casual dating ideology (simultaneously), which Ben prefers to pretend to understand.

Image Credit: Focus Features, Blumhouse Productions

While the crazy duo alludes to their boyfriend’s reckless love affairs, it also hints at Ben’s innermost turmoil. He denies his fear of commitment and insults her with numerous names, but somewhere he wants to feel a deep connection that connects him. to a specific person, just as he needs to find the story of his dreams. As an artist or writer, your hunger never stops.

The hunger to find a story, with the unrelenting theories racing through his mind. His rampage is to write a piece of history to represent America, his hometown, but this time he just wants to do it in a podcast. I live that a thousand people will pay attention to. But what could his story be? We see him getting close to Eloise (Issa Rae), a famous New York radio station podcast producer who happens to be his girlfriend. Ben outlines an intriguing conspiracy theory about how the United States in is  divided by time rather than cities or names, which is revealing enough, but because it’s a fragment rather than a complete story, Eloise doesn’t think it’s progress.

But the story itself comes from a surprise phone call from far away Texas. Ben gets an insomniac call from Ty (Boyd Halbrook), a total stranger from Texas. When asked about his identity, he reveals that he is the brother of Ben’s former casual date “Abilene”. When Ben frowns and doesn’t recognize Abilene, his brother calls him in the middle of the night with the bad news that Abilene has passed away. Ben could only comfort him, but Ty demanded more. Now Ben has to get to the house in Abilene, which is almost five hours from his town.

But being understanding and kind, he can’t reject Ty even because of his relationship with Abilene. Ben arrives in Texas without a second thought,  but it seems a bigger surprise awaits him. comes to Abilene’s funeral, her family seems like an unusual type. While Ben initially had trouble recognizing the dead Abilene, his family now treats him like a relative, a son-in-law.

Ben realizes that Abilene may not have gone out as casually as he did; maybe she was emotionally involved in some way, which gave her family the wrong impression. But things don’t end there. electrifying stunt while Abilene’s brother Ty provides a distraction on the way back. Ty discovers that his sister didn’t die from a normal overdose of Advil, but was murdered.

With that in mind, Ty clarifies that his sister had never taken so many pills. Ben wants to know why they didn’t seek legal help when suspicions mounted, which Ty’s ridiculous logic suggests they don’t have in Texas. Call 911. According to Ty, Ben finds the strange mythical culture of Texas funny and charming. He clicks on his head, the idea of ​​his possible story.

Then, without wasting a second, an opportunistic Ben calls Eloise, who is equally impressed with his plan. Ben wants to air a podcast focused on the mystery or “fictional” mystery surrounding Abilene’s death, for which he agrees to record the conversations of Abilene Shaw’s family. Ben records more information on his phone talking about Texas culture, restaurants, music, and history. While gathering information, he meets Ty’s friend, Abilene’s two famous wannabe sisters and a cute brother nicknamed “The-stupid”.

” During an uneasy meeting with Ty’s eccentric boyfriend, Ben realizes how insane they are and their bigotry convinces Ben that a Mexican drug dealer, Sancholo (Jach Villa), killed Abilene, which  Ben is left to believe. But Ben wants to find out who Sancholo is.

Who Is Quentin Sellers? Has Abilene Never Taken any Drugs?

After receiving many reviews of Abilene’s music, Ben goes to  Quentin Sellers Music Factory in Art Town, Arfa, where Abilene recorded some demos of his songs. When he gets there, however, Ben is intrigued by Quentin. Seller himself. Quentin isn’t just a record label owner; he is a philosopher. Disgusted with the conventional way of listening to the music of the dawning era, he resents it more than it embraces the senseless display of knowledge.

It’s a small town in Texas with the ideology of a person larger than life. Quentin fascinates Ben in every way because Ben is also something of a theorist. But on the way back, in addition to this enigmatic conversation, he also brings a CD with Abilene’s songs. However, to continue the investigation, Ben comes with Ty to the Holliston Rodeo, where wild Texans roam like racehorses,  among whom Ben is very incongruous. But his goal is to face Sancholo.

Image Credit: Focus Features, Blumhouse Productions

When he finally meets Sancholo, Ben is eager to interact with him. Ben must surrender his tape recorder to enter Sancholo’s secret room, but the secret itself is revealed right there. Sancholo says Abilene liked him even though he was a drug dealer. But he reveals the concern we  heard from Ty earlier that Abilene’s overdose is a false claim because she’s never taken pills. not so natural.

Right now, Ben believes that this case can be solved with legal help, so he manages to take legal action to no avail because the entire Texas legal system treats this case as a DRT, i. i.e., Dead Right, declared.

Ben’s podcast has received enough recognition; so Eloise introduces him to a bigger producer, Robin from American Moment, but just then her car explodes, only minimally injuring Ben’s body. But in the hospital, he opens his eyes to the power of the Shaw family, which Ben has now brought even closer. Ben also feels affection for them, so he takes it upon himself to get to the bottom of this story. Finish the story because the scary things the local Texans could have done to Ben, like blowing up the car, could endanger his life.

But he vows to end his story by finding the person responsible for Abilene’s death, at this point defying his friend’s orders. However, the end is not saved when Abilene’s grandmother lets the cat out of her bag. While praising Abilene’s precious heart, she loosens her tongue about her excessive pill-taking habit that creates a happy atmosphere, and becomes embarrassing in a second. Now this is starting to cause quite a stir between them.

Ben, suddenly impertinent, yells at the family, forgetting the affection he felt a minute ago. Hiding this truth shakes their ideology. However, yelling at Ty’s goofy belief system, Ben makes it clear that Abilene’s death is not murder but the tragic result of his overdose. But Ty hints that he kept the matter a secret so Ben could spend time with them to find out why his sister was overloaded with pills.

Abilene’s mom tells Ben that you don’t just want to do drugs, you want to be pain-free, whatever the cause of that pain. Ben calms down and returns to spend the night in Abilene’s room, where Mason, Abilene’s younger brother, is sleeping on the floor.

How Would Ben Conclude the Story?

Ben, lacking a conclusion to his unfinished story, turns on the tape recorder to give it a happy ending. He says he has no more history at this point; rather, he’s become the story himself, the story that doesn’t exist, the story that’s not even good, so he breaks it, he’s about to go home. But if he remembers Abilene’s belief in lucky numbers, he can access the password of Abilene’s broken phone via a numeric code that Abilene keeps in his room. Finally, Ben performs vital tests.

Image Credit: Focus Features, Blumhouse Productions

Abilene’s broken phone,  shown to us at the beginning of the film, strongly suggests that the injured girl is none other than Abilene. By accessing that broken phone, Ben actually has access to Abilene’s secret conversation. with Quentin Sellers. It’s still not clear to Ben, however, as Abilene only used Ben’s name to conduct conversations with this unknown person so his family wouldn’t arouse suspicion about his secret drug stash.

Without a second’s delay, Ben, dressed in Ty’s outfit and cowboy hat, walks to the oil field where Abilene breathed his last at the after-party. Ben arrives at Mason’s ATV  and is interrupted by Ty and his friend. But when he sees Ben is on a mission, Ty doesn’t stand in his way. Even two  Texas locals admit to Ben blowing up his car. But Ben,  motivated by revenge, refuses to be distracted.

Finally, he meets the culprit. Quentin Sellers greets him at his store, where a girl almost passed out from being addicted to drugs. Quentin’s philosophical talk reveals that Quentin stopped her from calling the night of Abilene’s death after she overdosed. 911 because no one calls 911 in Texas as they record all calls. However, it turns out that after Abilene overdosed that night, Quentin single-handedly dragged her to the after-party, where there was no cellphone signal, only to cause her death. in the list of other accidents

Statistics. Quentin admits everything but tries again to manipulate Ben with his philosophies. He even hints that he got a call from a “ghost”, which definitely meant Ben’s call from Abilene’s phone. Apparently, Quentin was Abilene’s drug dealer who just let her die because if she called 911 she would take Quentin’s secret deal  with her. Since everything is recorded for Ben, he shares this podcast with Ben, which eventually airs.

America will allow everyone to have their voice. There would definitely be questions in the audience about Ben and his relationship with Abilene. So what answer would he give, since he also found an opportunity to use the grieving family to further his own goal? Ben eventually turns off his recording, pulls a gun from another pocket, and unexpectedly shoots Quentin dead. It may come as a surprise to see Ben in a different form because he erases all records from history.

For which he has been fighting for weeks. At the end of the day, this story made him a different person who no longer needs the podcast. The Shaw family, who have supported him for so long in hopes of getting justice for Abilene Ben, dedicate this story to them and say goodbye to Texas with no regrets.

Why Ben Doesn’t Need The Podcast Anymore?

Ben’s quest for history ends in a quest for revenge. He was so taken aback by Ty’s gibberish that he was drawn to revenge to find out about it, but ultimately it was Ben who avenged Abilene’s death since he had no connection to her. As is their connection to humanity, the pain of the Shaw family, and their innocent existence in this corrupted world. The family, eating together, and living with not-so-smart WiFi at home is definitely rare to find.

All the love and unity they possess are far more precious than the way Ben lives his life in fear of commitment and isolation. So in the end, Ben just didn’t learn what revenge was, but he did learn to love. and overcoming fear, making Ben a story in his own right. Without having to podcast a great show, he becomes a great human who deletes all the recordings to end his past.

Read More: Mr. Harrigan’s Phone 2: Will there be a sequel at Netflix?