Monkey Man (2024)
Director: Dev Patel
Stars: Dev Patel, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma, Sikandar Kher
Short Review, no spoilers
Top marks for the style and spirit of Dev Patel’s action
movie directorial debut. And for none-streamers, gratitude that Netflix apparently
bottled the opportunity to buy up a movie with perhaps controversial themes,
allowing Jordan Peele to scoop it up and send it to its rightful place at
cinemas. Exhilarating, well shot, frenetic and well performed with a neat
balance of violence and humour that is overlaid with a passionately colourful
palate of cultural personality that dances with cheekily fighting spirit over
the dried-up husk of the relentless John Wick franchise that inspires it.
Full Review (spoilers)
Until now, Dev Patel has floated wide-eyed around the arena
of endearing, harmless dorkiness. With Monkey Man however, he arrives as a different
kind of physical presence, not wholly alienated from his former image, but
still demanding fresh attention to an approach that now utilises his facial
innocence and gangliness to more aggressive effect. In applying what can be a
wonderful source of inspiration – simply making what you want to see and isn’t
there – Patel is fuelled by action movie fandom that takes in the influences of
Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and the aforementioned John Wick. The besuited revenge
ultraviolence of the latter is clearly in effect, along with a sweet dog homage
that seems to be going down exactly the same road before cleverly twisting in a
way that supports this particular narrative. However, the political underdog
spirit, cultural character and wit of both Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan is more
entertainingly at play.
Kid – aka Monkey Man, his underground ring fighter persona –
couldn’t be more underdog throughout the entire first half of the film. True to
his alter ego, he is smart and cheeky in his infiltration of the genuinely
intimidating realm of powerful wealth and politics that harbour the killers of
his family, but he’s lacking in ultimate impact when his carefully laid plan
drastically unravels. There is witty camerawork such as the subtle pan that
takes in a bottle of bleach hinting at how Kid comes up with his alias, and the
highlighting of everyday social injustices in the midst of a zany car chase
when the mats of street sleepers are stirred by friend Alphonso’s tuk-tuk
whizzing by, likewise the afterburners of the flashed-up vehicle fuelling a
street food stove. And when the purse of Queenie – brutal madam of high-class
prostitutes and potty-mouthed wife of the man who killed Kid’s beloved mother -
is swiped by a rotund, phoney beggar before it is passed cannily through the
hands of various ordinary street folk with swift, unassuming accuracy, there is
a wry and admiring authenticity to Patel’s celebration of true slumdogs.
Unafraid to include moments of humour in the midst of
serious action antics, Patel demonstrates Kid’s sub-superhero capabilities when
he launches himself at a window during an escape but bounces off it in decent
slapstick style. Impressively however, these moments are not out of place in
what is predominantly a serious revenge thriller that takes in broad strokes of
social injustice. Kid embodies the image of a young but haunted man and one
obsessed by childhood trauma and a relentless drive to put right the suffering
of him and his. After carefully inserting himself in to the world of his
targets, things go well wrong however and he ends up most wanted by the police
and lucky to be alive after a tumble underwater following numerous beatings.
Waking up in a secret refuge of transgender outcasts however, Kid embarks on
the next part of both his physical and spiritual rebirth.
Although perhaps sadly misidentified by some critics as
another clumsy box ticker, the introduction of the transgender group (hijra) actually
seems entirely in keeping with both the outsider element of the story and contemporary
cultural injustices. Channelled through symbols that, although ancient, can be
interpreted as diversity-embracing (perhaps to the surprise of some who believe
that such ideas could only have occurred yesterday), and aligning Kid with a
maligned community, Kid’s recovery and rebuilding sits alongside former warrior
outcasts in a temple sanctuary that celebrates Ardhanarishvara, a deity that
celebrates masculine and feminine energies working simultaneously in harmony. Alpha
- the leader of the community as her name suggests, but without the traditional
associations the word usually ascribes solely to masculinity – assists Kid to
address the trauma of witnessing his mother’s murder, kickstarting real
progress before opportunity for a playful break in proceedings. Legendary tabla
drummer Zakir Hussain performs a male/female arrangement during a relaxed
evening, but also goes on to form an integral part of Kid’s training when the
young avenger embarks on the gradual destruction of a large sack of rice.
Things are kicked in to proper action again when a member of
the community is beaten trying to take down a threatening notice from the door
of the temple. Kid returns to the baying arena as Monkey Man, only this time he
has confronted his demons and is ready to fight like Hanuman, the monkey deity
that inspires his persona and the hero of the story his mother told him as a
child. It’s an excellently wrought comeback with Monkey Man putting out his
first rival instantaneously to the bewilderment of both audience and the sleazy
organiser, Tiger, who all expect him to bomb as usual. Opponents then continue
to roll out but we have a new unexpected hero. Further embodying the spirit of
the simian, Monkey Man stalks loose-armed between bouts, his ape mask pointed unreadably
at his opponent. This before he bursts in to the crouches and hops of a maddeningly
agile animal, even banging his chest when victorious.
It might be considered unusual for action stars - especially
one filming himself – that there should be as much humility as Patel
demonstrates in Monkey Man. But by not allowing the novelty of himself
overshadow the film as a whole there is no sense of showboating, and Patel
shows us enough to entertain without descending in to any kind of ego trip. If
anything, we are perhaps left wanting more but only in the best possible way. In
combining the apparently opposite tendencies of intensity and looseness, Patel draws
upon the taught physicality but flowing movements of Bruce Lee without
attempting to reach that legend’s technical heights. This humility comes across
cinematically also when a masked Kid merely glances over his shoulder at his
stricken opponent and is filmed in murky blur - stoic ambivalence as opposed to
macho fist-pumping.
As well as an emphatic dress rehearsal for Kid’s big-time
revenge finale, his victories help finance both the beleaguered hijra and
provide a valuable tip-off for old friend, Alphonso. On to the serious business
now though and Kid isn’t messing around anymore. Fighting his way to the top of
a building The Raid -style, the levels of gratuitous violence increase
with each floor. There are some elegant fighting skills on display – at one
point atop a bar and back-lit by the warm glow of alcohol display aesthetics –
but gratefully nothing flashily phony. Patel doesn’t try to super-hero himself
or irritate too much with wild camera/editing antics and adds more wry references
(with a twist), such as when Kid is confronted by hordes of enemies from every
doorway like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. However, here the cartoon aspect is
lessened when the resolution to this dilemma appears in the form of his old
hijra pals turning up armed and ready to assist rather than Kid having to take
them all on himself.
Moving further up the echelons of classic combat homages as
he continues upstairs, we see Kid initially distracted by disorientating
reflections from dangling decorations in a reference to Bruce Lee in Enter the
Dragon. And again in classic fashion, after the dispatching of many minions and
an intimidating top henchman, it’s time to take on the corrupt bastard that has
been dwelling hidden at the top all along, in this case an apparent guru and
modern saviour who is actually behind all the corruption and murder that has
ruined the city in question as well as the lives of forest dwellers like Kid’s
family. Interestingly in this case, Kid appears to die with his adversary …?
Like Bruce Lee’s hero characters, they don’t always survive the end of the
movie. Sure if there is anything decent for Patel et al to add from here on in then
fine, but there would be something quite fresh if Patel left it here.
