Kinetic ‘Monkey Man’ announces a bold new action director, one you already know
Katie Walsh April 4, 2024
Dev Patels got something to say, but
its he’s
going to let his fists do the talking. With his directorial debut, the wild
action
revenge
movieflick
Monkey Man, the Oscar-nominated actor makes a bold statement with this one-two punch of a film that asserts himself as both an action star and
a
promising
new
genre
voicedirector
.
Having achieved his fame in more serious dramas like Slumdog Millionaire and Lion, Patels passion project
Monkey Man
is a big swing, and a big swerve for the actor. Luckily, it connects, landing with a satisfyingly bone-crunching intensity. And if
the movie this
is intended as Patels calling card, he leaves the whole damn deck on the table.
Monkey Man is a love letter to East Asian martial
arts movies
,
and to Indian folklore and culture. The monkey in question is both Hanuman, the Hindu
G g
od of wisdom
, strength
, courage
, and
devotion
and self-discipline
, and
it is also
the face of the dingy rubber mask that the
“
Kid
“
(Patel) dons for his
lopsided
underground boxing matches, which are announced by a delightfully slimy Sharlto Copley.
This is a revenge picture,
and
so the Kid, who sometimes goes by the alias
Bobby,
must get
hisrevenge payback
, driven by
his
fiery blood-soaked memories
,
and the sound of his mother whispering Hanumans legend in his ear. He wheedles his way into the kitchen of
Kings,
an upscale restaurant, and then
,
alongside the in-house drug dealer, Alphonso (
Bollywood star
Pitobash), upstairs in
to
the VIP club
,
where corrupt cops and powerful politicians party with a harem of international escorts.
The Kid wants to get close to Chief Rana (Sikander Kher), a cruel police officer
,
whose bloodied knuckles haunt his nightmares. But Rana is only part of the food chain of money and power in this
unnamed
city there are far bigger predators to fight if he does manage to send murderous greetings from his dead mother.
This Kids got potential but hes not quite finished yet
,
and Patel turns Monkey Man into his coming-of-age story, mapping the fight scenes
alongside in tandem with
his growth as a warrior. Thats part of what makes Patels direction of the film so fascinating the action sequences at the end of the movie are so much slicker than the hectic, chaotic brawls in the first half, because the Kid is so much more skilled and confident. The style of the film evolves
in tandem
with our hero.
Working with cinematographer Sharone Meir (who most recently
collaborated withworked with
the legendary John Woo on Silent Night), Patel favors
long lengthy
takes
where in which
the camera follows bodies in motion closely, looking up to catch a hit
,
and then down to see the result. These
long takes with concealed cut shot
s get smoother as the film progresses
,
and the climactic showdown in the VIP bar is a gorgeously fluid set piece, soundtracked to the churning guitars of Indian folk
–
metal band Bloodywood. Rhythm and musicality is a huge part of Patels action style, and he utilizes it for effect
s that are
both comedic and sublime, such as in a training montage featuring
thelegendary renowned
tabla
player virtuoso
Patel also
frequently
intersperses blink-and-youll-miss-them POV shots, further aligning us with the Kids experience
,
and adding to the dizzying
,
hallucinatory effect of some of these fights. Every frame is wild and colorful, with lots of needle drops and a
nhectic, chaotic
energy that is sometimes unwieldy. He dispenses with any restraint in Monkey Man, a film
stuffed and
saturated with
color,
texture, music, spirituality
,
and violence.
The screenplay, by Patel, Paul Angunawela
,
and John Collee
,(story by Patel)
is a bit formulaic and even hackneyed at times. The story is political but also politically muddled, imparting a vague warning about the hazards of worshiping false idols.
The story Patel’s plot
relies on sexual
aggression towardviolenceagainstwoman women
as a
good/evil moral
cheat sheet while also using the
very
same
sexual
exploitation as a cheeky visual backdrop a trope that can often be a trap.
Patel is “Monkey Man” is
far more successful at exploring sexuality in the genre via a group of transgender women who teach the Kid how to harness his pain into power, led by an incredibly compelling Vipin Sharma as the wise Alpha.
But formula also serves Patel
well
, allowing him to experiment
aesthetically
and present himself in a new way to audiences.
Its alsoeasy to forgive any messiness or missteps in the first half when he nails the third act with such style and vigor.
With Monkey Man, Patel manages to pull it off and then some, signaling
himself the arrivalas of
an
actor and authentic
filmmaker
,who should and will be seen differently,
effectively following a similar trajectory
to of
one of the films producers, Jordan Peele, who made a similar statement with Get Out. Patel did it his way, forged his own path
,
and well never look at him in the same light again and thats a good thing.
Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.
