★★★★-A dark Blumhouse comedy written, directed, and starring B. J. Novak, sign me up. An impressive directorial debut. He's come a long way from his intern days. In addition to Novak, it stars Dove Cameron whom I don't recognize, Boyd Holbrook (the blonde guy in Narcos) as the bro, Ashton Kutcher, and Issa Rae (from The Lovebirds and Insecure).
Gist is Ben Manalowitz, a journalist and podcaster from New York City, gets a call in the middle of the night from the brother of a girl he was casually hooking up with. She has died from a opioid overdose which the family finds suspicious. Convinced his sister was in love with this Ben fellow, the brother more or less demands he come down to Bumfuck, Texas to attend the funeral. While there, he begins to investigate circumstances of her death, discovering a compelling story along the way... This has me written all over it.
Underneath all this stuff going on, the film has some interesting things to say about modern society, storytelling, biases, journalistic ethics, addiction, the rural poor, and casual internet sex. Deep down it is a story about a storyteller who is creating a story about how stories are created. Don't see that too often, but that is obviously my brand. It is a clever take on a kind of morality play. Also, I'll never drive past a Whataburger without thinking of this film. Supplanting Infinite Jeston that front.
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