“Monkey Man” - Film Review
It’s difficult to write a review for a film that’s best seen without knowing anything at all about it. Monkey Man is the feature directorial debut of Dev Patel, who is best known for Slumdog Millionaire or, for millennials, as Anwar from Skins. Whenever an actor takes a seat in the director’s chair, there’s a sense of trepidation, especially when their first outing is as audacious as Monkey Man. The film, on the surface, is an all-out bloody revenge flick along the lines of the John Wick franchise (complete with the appearance of a cute dog), but bubbling beneath the surface is a call for the underdogs to fight back against systems of oppression.
courtesy of universal
Kid (Patel) is desperately trying to eke out a living as a masked participant in the world of underground fighting. He wears a monkey mask as an homage to a story his late mother (Adithi Kalkunte) would tell him about Hanuman, the Hindu God of wisdom, strength, courage, devotion, and self-discipline. Kid’s sole purpose is to find and destroy a group of corrupt political leaders who are responsible for the death of his mother and his community. Kid scams his way into working at the Kings Club, a popular locale for Mumbai’s most corrupt, and begins his bloody brawl for revenge.
Monkey Man is clearly born from a love of action movies that is embedded in Patel’s DNA. He has been studying taekwondo since 2000 and performed every fight stunt in Monkey Man, despite breaking his hand at the beginning of production. From his love for action movies, Patel has created something imbued with depth, culture, and purpose. Far too often, action films are held together by the flimsiest of plots. Even the more elevated action movies are barely-cobbled-together excuses for long, drawn-out (but impressive!) fight sequences. Monkey Man is brutal, but with purpose. It’s the pain of Kid and the pain of a nation that are on display here. Patel shows the reality of poverty and how easy it is to take advantage of someone when you feel you’re being exploited yourself. On the opposite side of that coin, Patel introduces a hidden temple of transgender individuals who nurse Kid, a stranger to them, back to health, despite the abuse they’ve endured. Action still takes precedence, but it’s not empty violence.
It may be a little hyperbolic to say that Monkey Man is a new kind of action movie, but sitting in the theater, heart rate elevated, hanging onto this roller coaster ride of a movie for dear life, it’s impossible to say that Patel hasn’t created something entirely new. The editing and sound design are out of this world, and can almost make the audience feel the full weight of every blow Kid endures. It’s grim, gritty, and utterly grandiose. As intense and brutal as the sequences are, the viewer is in awe of the artistry of it all. From the camera moves to the use of mirrors in the climax Monkey Man captures the essence of what action movies can and should be.
courtesy of universal
As is the case with many films in this genre, there’s a lull in the momentum as the hero must do some soul-searching to truly understand what he’s fighting for. It’s a mellow moment in an otherwise sensory overload of a movie, but Monkey Man never comes to a complete stop. Patel is such a thoughtful, earnest actor that these quiet moments pack a punch of their own, albeit an emotional one. This is unquestionably the weakest part of the film, but in a movie that reaches the heights Monkey Man does, it’s not as low as one might think.
In another life, Monkey Man was going to be dumped on Netflix, where it would have topped the charts for a weekend before disappearing into obscurity. Thank goodness that’s not the timeline we’re living in. Thanks to Jordan Peele and Universal, Monkey Man received a theatrical release. More wholly original works need to make their way into theaters to give people the ineffable feeling of seeing magic on the biggest, loudest screen possible. Monkey Man will not be forgotten.
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