April 18 in cinemas premiered The action movie «Monkey Man», which was the directorial debut of the famous actor Dev Patel. He also played the main role in the movie. In the review below, we will tell you why the project is worth the attention of fans of the genre and how the local star feels about playing an action hero.
Pluses:
Dev Patel tries not only to make a quality action movie, but also adds social commentary backed by a dramatic line, and all together it looks very good; expressive brutality and uncompromising action scenes; good fight choreography; the movie definitely has its own style and its own face, despite comparisons with prominent predecessors; good acting from Dev Patel
Minuses:
the twitchy style of filming with dynamic editing and continuous close-ups will not appeal to everyone; the overall secondary nature of the plot; several episodes that are questionable in terms of logic; like any action hero, the local hero is able to withstand too many beatings and serious injuries
«Monkey Man»
Genre action movie, thriller
Director Dev Patel
Starring Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Sobhita Dhulipala, Sikandar Kher
Premiere movie theaters
Year of issue 2024
Website IMDb
In an Indian metropolis drowned in corruption and the arbitrariness of the powerful, a skinny guy wearing a monkey mask dances in the dirty ring of an underground fight club to get another defeat. When he was a child, his mother used to tell him the legends of Hanuman, which he remembered for the rest of his life (hence the monkey image), and then a corrupt police chief brutally murdered a woman in front of her frightened son. Today, the hero is hatching a revenge plan to make every villain responsible for this heavy loss.
Indian-born Briton and «Oscar» nominee Dev Patel was hardly ever associated with a courageous action hero, as he never really encroached on the territory of your «John Wick» or Jason Statham. So his choice for his directorial debut looks extremely unexpected. But after watching it, we can say exactly that this world would at least have lost an interesting action hero if the stars had aligned differently.
«Monkey Man» is compared to the aforementioned «Wick» by everyone who is not too lazy (one of the English-language reviews described it as «John Wick-in-Mumbai slugfest»), not to mention a direct mention in one of the dialogues, but these comparisons are not always appropriate. Yes, here we have an unshaven, shaggy-haired hero in a strict business suit also throwing bulls in different directions, there is a lot of blood in the frame, and even a cute dog found a place. But from a purely formalist point of view, the movie is made in a slightly different manner.
Where the filmmakers of the Keanu Reeves hit deliberately avoided editing splices and preferred to film the outstanding fight choreography with the camera effectively circling the characters, «Monkey Man» opts for twitchy shooting, maximum close-ups and chopped-up editing.
Almost the entire movie is based on this principle: something is constantly flickering on the screen, everyone is running around, fussing, to quote a classic. The image is sometimes blurred, and bright neon light fills sweaty, bloody faces all over the screen, and it seems as if you can see every droplet separately. All this produces the necessary effect; it appears that a little more, and you will feel the taste of blood personally when another villain’s face is shattered.
In addition, Keanu Reeves’s charismatic steadfastness and poise are completely offset here by Dev Patel’s frankly furious gaze, in whose eyes all the anger of this unjust world has gathered.
We shouldn’t forget that «John Wick» relied more on its surreal and slightly comic book mythology (bizarre rituals and traditions of the killer universe, multiplied by the rules of the luxury hotel «Continental»), flirting with the aesthetics of samurai cinema or even the western. The narrative of «Monkey Man» is based on Hindu mythology and does not shy away from criticizing the blatant social inequality and corruption in India, and no one gives a damn about any codes of honor. Because of this, as well as the dramatic line, you can’t find any irony behind the bloody mess by daylight.
Despite the fact that this is a completely secondary and old revenge movie, visually it is an exciting and very dynamic action ride with a bright style and a naked eye-witness commitment to the material on the part of the filmmakers.
In fact, all their efforts deserve respect and recognition given the difficult production of the movie. At first, it was almost canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic and the creators also faced financial difficulties. When the ubiquitous Netflix bought the rights to the show, it turned out that the streaming service was not ready to release the new product because of the political and social commentary in the plot.
Jordan Peele became the saving grace, thanks to whom the film was not only released, but also received a full-fledged theatrical release. And then came a slew of positive reviews from film critics (88% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing).
In general, Dev Patel is really a great guy, and for a debut, he performed very well. He and the writing team understood there was no point in trying to deconstruct the genre by producing another copycat of their great predecessors without their face. For example, there is an episode where the authors seem to hint that there will be a scene in the spirit of the cult «Oldboy», but it doesn’t happen.
And even though not everything in the film is perfect, «Monkey Man» looks original enough, and most importantly, it’s interesting enough to make you want to talk about enriching the genre with a new bright representative instead of mentioning any inequalities. Beat them with all your might, Dev!