3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Monkey Man

2024, Dev Patel (feature debut, as director) -- download

I don't often say this about movies, but this directorial debut by Dev Patel, a revenge actioner set in India, could have done with a bit of cutting down. There was a literally a point in the story where I was thinking, "Yeah this is taking too long." And not for want of everything I constantly ask for from other revenge flicks -- compelling characters, interesting locales, decent acting and style, style in vast quantities. Even when Patel is lifting scenes from other actioners (like, who doesn't these days) you cannot deny he has quite the eye.

Kid (Dev Patel, The Green Knight), or the titular Monkey Man, is an underground boxer who makes his money taking falls. But no matter, he is only there to make enough money to get him closer enough to those who took his old life away. That life is told in flashbacks and recollections, memories of his mother and an idyllic existence in a farming village in the forest where she tells him about his connection to the land, to the gods, that life is love, a life replete with food and clean, clear running water. In the city, it is anything but -- crowded, corrupt, poverty is everywhere. Kid plans, cons and buys his way into a nightclub where his prey lounges -- the local police chief (Sikandar Kher, Sense8) who burned his mother alive in their house. But things don't go as planned.

His initial attempt failed, he ends up in a temple of the dispossessed: trans people, gay people, outcasts from society and victims of the real villain of the movie -- a spiritual leader named Baba Shakti (Makrand Deshpande, Jailer). Claiming to be a man of the people, he is actually responsible for removing people from their land, to build his own temple of wealth and decadence, he is responsible for supporting the extremist agendas and putting conservative political power mongers into place, he is who the Monkey Man really needs to bring down. The leader of the outcast temple trains Kid and together they raid the tower of Baba Shakti.

This movie is steeped in style. Patel knows what he wants us to see, to feel, to experience viscerally. This is not Bollywood, this is more akin to classic Hong Kong Kungfu, but owing visual sensibilities to John Wick, of course -- what movie doesn't want to be compared to that these days. Its a great looking movie full of colour and texture and substance, but ... yeah, a wee bit too long. It felt like Dev sat behind the editors, vetoing any attempt to pair the movie down, finding each and every scene too precious to be removed.

But still, this movie makes a statement, leaves a mark and sets up Patel for an impending career we didn't expect.