Rent Vengeance (2022)

Original and intriguing - Vengeance review by AB

This is a film written, directed and starring B J Novak. He has come up with a darkly comic, original and intriguing film. BJ stars as a writer called Ben desperately looking for a big story. He discovers that a woman called Abilene that he had a hook-up with has mysteriously died in Texas. He decides to investigate, travelling to her home and staying with her relatives who are convinced she was murdered. Ben the intellectual is a fish-out-of-water with the down to earth Texans and tends to make a fool of himself. Gradually the true, but hidden, motivations of Ben and the family and friends of Abilene are revealed. On the way the film looks at how in this age of instantaneous information, the lines between fact and fiction, innocence and blame get blurred. There is a shocking denouement at the end. Recommended.