Vengeance

I will always appreciate and admire a film that is very clearly the singular creative vision of one person.

BJ Novak clearly had some things he wanted to say, and this film often feels like it was his outlet for venting his thoughts about humanity.

There's a lot of philosophical dialogue where characters disclose their feelings about relationships, regret, isolation, morality, etc. It's a film that covers so much thematic ground that I have to praise it for how far it reaches.

The film succeeds in being thought-provoking on so many occasions and the story is surprisingly heartwarming. I think the central idea upon which everything else hinges is that connection is what breeds caring. If you don't care about someone it's because you don't feel connected to them-not necessarily because you're different.

Unfortunately, with ambition also comes a scatterbrained tone in this case. There are so many jarring tonal shifts between comedy, dark drama, and ponderous dialogue. This also makes for a plot that feels all over the place and often directionless.

So many times throughout this story I didn't even really know what the movie was about because the characters' goals kept changing so often.

This is a strange piece of work, but it's a creative and original one. Please go check this out in a theater if you can.