Though mostly known for his role as Ryan Howard on The Office, B.J. Novak made a solid directorial debut with the 2022 movie Vengeance. Blending elements of comedy and thriller, Vengeance stars Novak as a struggling writer from the city who discovers that a girl he had a casual fling with was murdered. Presenting himself as a much closer romantic partner, he travels to her hometown, meets her family, and seeks to solve her murder all for a podcast.
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Though it is a truly original vision, Vengeance follows in a long line of great films that also mix genres and explore the dark underbelly of America. It deals with different perspectives and backgrounds intertwining, satirizes the media, and adds in some gripping crime elements. From recognized masterpieces like Fargo, to unsung classics like Hardcore, plenty of films exist in the same oeuvre as Vengeance. Though a wealth of films have tried to capture the same spirit, only the best are worth a watch after enjoying Novak’s directorial debut.
You are watching: 15 Best Movies Like Vengeance
15
Ace In The Hole (1951)
Directed By Billy Wider
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Ace In The Hole
Approved
Drama
Release Date
June 14, 1951
Runtime
111 Minutes
Director
Billy Wilder
Writers
Walter Newman, Lesser Samuels, Billy Wilder
Cast
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Kirk Douglas
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Jan Sterling
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Robert Arthur
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Porter Hall
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While Kirk Douglas has been known for some of his iconic heroic roles in the past, Ace in the Hole is a spectacular look at him playing a much seedier character. Douglas plays Chuck Tatum, a former journalist now working for a local newspaper in a small rural community. However, when a local man becomes trapped in a nearby cave and is in need of rescue, Chuck sees it as an opportunity to get his career back on track by turning the incident into a media circus.
Like Vengeance, Ace in the Hole is a critique on certain sensational media coverage and the way opportunistic media figures can exploit real world situations for their own benefit. Chuck is a much more openly selfish character than Ben in Vengeance, but both have a change of heart and find remorse about the damage they have done.
14
Knives Out (2019)
Directed By Rian Johnson
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Knives Out
PG-13
Drama
Crime
Mystery
9/10
14
9.5/10
Release Date
November 27, 2019
Runtime
130 minutes
Director
Rian Johnson
Writers
Rian Johnson
Sequel(s)
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Cast
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Chris Evans
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LaKeith Stanfield
Franchise(s)
Knives Out
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Daniel Craig first stepped into the role of famed private investigator Benoit Blanc in the Oscar-nominated crime-comedy Knives Out. Blanc takes on a case following the death of a famed crime novelist. As he puts the pieces of the case together while exploring the many secrets of the dead man’s wealthy family members, the man’s dedicated nurse provides an unexpected piece of the puzzle.
Like Vengeance, it uses the murder-mystery format to also be a satire on class divide and privilege.
Knives Out is a more traditional murder-mystery, albeit with a great comedic energy to it. However, like Vengeance, it uses the murder-mystery format to also be a satire on class divide and privilege. In the case of Vengeance, this perspective is served through Ben being arrogant about the community that welcomes him. In Knives Out, the wealthy Thrombley family are the rich and entitled characters.
13
The Wicker Man (1973)
Directed By Robin Hardy
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The Wicker Man
R
Horror
Mystery
Thriller
10/10
Release Date
December 6, 1973
Runtime
88 minutes
Director
Robin Hardy
Writers
Anthony Shaffer
Cast
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Diane Cilento
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Britt Ekland
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While the notorious Nicolas Cage remake might have tainted the title of The Wicker Man somewhat, the original thriller remains a brilliant movie with one of the best twist endings of all time. The story follows a Scotland Yard detective who comes to a remote island where a girl who is part of the community has been reported missing. As she digs deeper, he begins to suspect the community’s strange cult religion has something to do with her disappearance.
Both Vengeance and The Wicker Man are about an outsider coming into a community to investigate a crime and finding something much deeper. While the polite community in Vengeance is much less threatening than the community in The Wicker Man, both movies feature protagonists who come in with their own preconceptions and judgements only to pay for their arrogance.
12
Tusk (2014)
Directed By Kevin Smith
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Tusk
R
Horror
Comedy
4.3/10
Release Date
September 6, 2014
Runtime
101minutes
Director
Kevin Smith
Writers
Kevin Smith
Sequel(s)
Yoga Hosers
Cast
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Michael Parks
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Justin Long
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Filmmaker Kevin Smith stepped into the realm of horror with the twisted Tusk. Justin Long stars as a self-centered and opportunistic podcaster who travels to Canada where he hears about a man with an interesting story to tell. The recluse and eccentric old man (played by Michael Parks) begins to tell the podcaster his strange life story, only to reveal that he has lured him into a trap to become part of that story.
Like Vengeance, Tusk is another movie about a somewhat vain podcaster who seeks out a path to success only to stumble onto something much darker and dangerous than he expected. Smith still infuses a lot of humor into the movie, including a cartoonish French-Canadian detective played by Johnny Depp. However, fans should be warned that the movie goes in some truly bizarre and disturbing directions.
11
The Kid Detective (2020)
Directed By Evan Morgan
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The Kid Detective
R
Comedy
Drama
7/10
Release Date
October 16, 2020
Runtime
97 minutes
Director
Evan Morgan
Writers
Evan Morgan
Cast
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Adam Brody
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Wendy Crewson
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While The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew found popularity in showing the fun of young sleuths taking on cases, The Kid Detective is a darkly funny look at the reality of what happens when one of these youngsters grows up. Adam Brody plays a man who has been chasing the early promise of his life when he established himself as a skilled amateur sleuth. Now an adult detective, the cases he takes on are meaningless until he finds a possible path of redemption with a murder case.
Like Vengeance, The Kid Detective is a comedic take on the noir genre with a less than heroic protagonist leading the investigation. In both movies, the lead characters start out less interested in finding the truth and more interested in knowing how they will benefit from solving the case. Of course, they both get drawn into a more complex and dark mystery than what it initially seemed like.
10
Presumed Innocent (1990)
Directed By Alan J. Pakula
Harrison Ford had already proven himself to be a bankable star by the early ’90s, and throughout the decade he began to settle into meatier roles. Presumed Innocent sees Ford star as a lawyer who gets tangled in a web of deceit while investigating the mysterious death of a colleague.
The movie led to the television remake starring Jake Gyllenhaal on Apple TV+, but the original film is worth seeking out.
Unlike Vengeance, which takes place in the expanse of the Southwest, Presumed Innocent spends most of its time in the cramped halls of justice. Even so, the films have a similar theme of investigation in the face of obstacles. Ford battles against mysterious forces that want to stop him, and Novak’s character in Vengeance faces rural malaise. The movie led to the television remake starring Jake Gyllenhaal on Apple TV+, but the original film is worth seeking out.
9
The Trouble With Harry (1955)
Directed By Alfred Hitchcock
Many of Alfred Hitchcock’s best films used humor in one way or another, but The Trouble with Harry was the first to go all out in the black humor department. When Harry’s body finds its way into a small town, the denizens all have reasons to believe they killed him, and they each try to dispose of his body.
Unbelievably dark for a 1950s comedy, The Trouble with Harry is funnier now than it was back then, latching onto a cynical point of view in a comedic way similar to what Vengeance accomplishes. Though on the surface the two films seem diametrically opposed, they both share similar themes of guilt and passing the blame. They also deal with small-town tradition, the colorful characters of a small community like this, and the stoic politeness that can interfere with what needs to be done.
8
Hardcore (1979)
Directed By Paul Schrader
Director and writer Paul Schrader had his finger on the pulse of America in the 1970s, and he delivered a hard-hitting thriller with Hardcore. After his daughter goes missing while on a trip to Los Angeles, a conservative Midwestern businessman plunges into the seedy world of L.A.’s sex work community to find her.
Generally considered one of George C. Scott’s best movies, Hardcore pulls no punches when showing the grit and grime of the big city. It is essentially the opposite of Vengeance, where instead of the big city coming to the small town, it is the other way around. Both movies also lean into the deeply flawed protagonist whose very mission seems to be ill-intentioned from the beginning. While not nearly as humorous as the latter film, Hardcore is still about the clash of two worlds with an innocent victim in the middle.
7
Klute (1971)
Directed By Alan J. Pakula
The 1970s was the golden age of gritty thrillers, and Klute stands out as one of the best. When a small-town detective goes to New York to investigate a missing person, he gets wrapped up with a sex worker who is the only one to know anything about the case. Brilliantly acted by Donald Sutherland and Jane Fonda (who won an Oscar for her performance), Klute is a warts-and-all look at big city life, as filtered through the eyes of a judgmental detective.
While Vengeance casts its gaze on small-town America, Klute takes aim at the crumbling big cities of the 1970s.
The singular focus of the main character of Vengeance is mirrored by Sutherland’s in Klute, and he thinks of nothing but cracking the case. It is an examination of how the obsessive detective character in such movies can lose themselves in the investigation. While Vengeance casts its gaze on small-town America, Klute takes aim at the crumbling big cities of the 1970s.
6
In The Heat Of The Night (1967)
Directed By Norman Jewison
Always a popular subject for films, the culture clashes between regions of the country usually make for great stories. In the Heat of the Night is the story of a Black Philadelphia police officer who is nabbed for a killing in Mississippi and decides to prove his innocence by solving the case himself. The brilliant detective faces his own instances of discrimination while looking into the central crime.
The 1960s was a turbulent time for the world, and stirrings of change had brought racism to the forefront of the American conscience. On its surface, In the Heat of the Night is a great murder mystery, but under the surface is a brilliant commentary about the state of the Deep South in the ’60s. Vengeance may not be as deep as the former film, but it still tackles the problems of crime in rural towns.
5
Out Of The Past (1947)
Directed By Jacques Tourneur
Ranking highly among the best noir films of all time, Out of the Past told a shockingly complicated story for a film from the 1940s. Happy with his life as a mundane gas station attendant in a small town, former criminal Jeff Bailly has his idyllic life snapped away when a person from his past tries to pull him back into a life of crime.
Vengeance and Out of the Past are two very different types of movies, but they approach a similar story concept from different angles. The hero of Vengeance attempts to resurrect his past to solve a crime, while the hero of Out of the Past attempts to bury his past and forget crime altogether. In both instances, moral ambiguity clouds both characters, leading them towards the conclusion. Weaving through both films is a sinister and corrupting influence from the outside world.
4
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Directed By Martin McDonagh
Frances McDormand is no stranger to dramatic comedies, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri allowed her to flex that muscle once again while also winning her the second of her three Academy Awards. After months have passed without an arrest in her daughter’s murder, a woman puts up a series of billboards that call out the incompetent law enforcement of her small town.
Police inaction is the name of the game when it comes to Three Billboards and it shares quite a few themes with Vengeance as well. Both films are funny in a dark way, and both point the finger at institutions that fail at protecting and serving the communities they swore to. However, they also offer protagonists whose actions are questionable at best. Though they go about it in different ways, the heroes of the two films have very similar motives.
3
Fargo (1996)
Directed By Joel & Ethan Coen
Frances McDormand ended up winning her first Oscar for her lead performance in the dark comedy masterpiece, Fargo. Undoubtedly one of the Coen brothers’ best films, Fargo is a comedy thriller that exists in a class of its own. The movie follows a struggling businessman who hires two thugs to kidnap his own wife so he can split the ransom money. McDormand plays the pregnant and kind-hearted local police officer who finds herself caught up in the bloody aftermath.
Unabashedly hilarious and pitch-black in its humor, the film is a thrill ride from start to finish. Like Vengeance, it has an unlikely protagonist, and both films seek to subvert the usual cliches of their genres. Both movies also explore the idea of the polite small-town environment that is shaken by violence. The people in Fargo, especially McDormand’s Marge, are friendly and optimistic but exposed to the brutal reality of the world.
2
Paris, Texas (1984)
Stream On HBO Max
Paris, Texas is unique in that it captures the beauty of its location, while also capturing its bleakness. After wandering out of the desert with no memory, Travis Henderson (Harry Dean Stanton) is helped to recapture who he was in the days before he disappeared. A mystery in the untraditional sense, Paris, Texas is nevertheless just as powerful as any whodunnit. It shares its setting with Vengeance, and both do an excellent job of capturing the conflicting existence of its landscape.
Though lacking any humor, Paris, Texas and Vengeance represent polar opposite approaches to a similar idea. There is a sense of aimlessness to both protagonists, and the similarities in this sense are made more interesting by the different generations the two characters represent respectively. Travis’ reintroduction to society is as alarming as Ben’s clash with a new side of America in Vengeance.
1
No Country For Old Men (2007)
Directed By Joel & Ethan Coen
Though the Coens are known for their black humor, No Country for Old Men is an entirely unflinching drama. After witnessing a drug deal gone bad, a hapless man steals a briefcase full of money from the crime scene and is pursued by a ruthless assassin as a dedicated lawman follows the bloody trail they both leave behind.
In the world of No Country for Old Men, death is inevitable and unavoidable, like the slow crawl of time. Its bleakness is matched by its Southwestern landscapes, and it shares that with Vengeance. Though it is not as overtly comedic as Vegeance, the Coen Brothers do manage to insert some of their unique sense of humor into this bleak tale. No Country shares a similar dark inevitability with Vengeance as well, and the latter is just as dark behind its comedy facade.
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Category: Entertainment