As divided as we are across the country for the past 6 years, it is surprising that no filmmakers have approached the subject matter directly. Maybe it feels too obvious or there is some concern that is just too hard to attack the subject matter without falling hopelessly into stereotypes. 1st time director, and former co-star and writer from “the office”, BJ Novak, gives us a truly funny yet smart and respectful journey of a New York liberal snob who finds himself embedded deeply with a family in the in the heart of a desolate conservative Texas town.
BJ Novak also plays the lead character, Ben. Ben is a self-absorbed writer for the New Yorker who is looking to create a podcast with an uber podcast producer played by Isas Rae. The film opens with a humorous interchange between Novak and a friend trading one-line justifications at a New York dinner about the many relationships and how much they love the world of casual hookups. They are the definition of self-love and elitism. That night, while he is enjoying one of those casual relationships, he gets a mysterious phone call from a brother of a casual affair that he struggles to remember named Abeline. The brother is sobbing explaines to Ben that she has died, and thinks that his sister and Ben were engaged. He insists that Ben fly out to her small Texas town to attend the funeral.
Smelling the possibility of a story, he follows up and ends up staying with Abilene’s family who treat him like the future son in law they think he is. The family is given the standard small town, gun-toting, conspiracy-theory stereotypes who generate a lot of laughs but they are also completely self-aware and sympathetic and the grief they feel for the loss of Abeline is real.
Ben only planned on staying for the night until Ty, Abeline’s Brother, played with energy and naïve enthusiasm by Boyd Holbrook, brings up the crazy idea to find and kill her murderer. While all signs point to a drug overdose, Ben can’t help but feeling this is a great opportunity to record a hit podcast about crazy small-town conspiracy driven culture seen through his eyes. His producer agrees and he starts off investigating with the brother. From there he explores the people in the city, and slowly he starts to look at his own self-righteousness as he starts to understand more about Abiline and her eccentric family. To say anymore about the interactions would be to give away a lot of the fun of the journey other than the grandma really understands what kind of firearms to bring to any situation.
The performances are uniformly comfortable and confident in their own skin. Out of no where, Ashton Kutcher shows up with a strong, career best, performance as a suspicious local music producer who understands Ben’s motivations and is 3 moves ahead of him in confidence and manipulation. Novak’s script stays tight until the conclusion where Ben makes decisions he would never make and drops the overall quality of the film. Novak must have been struggling with how to end the film, but the choice he makes is not practical or believable with the character he has created.
However, for 90 percent of the time this is a much needed humanistic look at the people behind both sides of our gigantic cultural divide that has led to so much destruction and hate. It is a great first film by Novak. Guiding all the performances through open minded exploration and heart, with a script that is tight, funny and smart. Ben goes on a journey of self-discovery he didn’t know he was on, and while his character does things at the end that don’t connect with anything we know about him, both sides of the cultural divide have learned to see each other, and recognize their differences and respect there humanity.