‘Monkey Man’ Delivers Thrilling Action and Stirring Emotion
Watch the quick review on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, and follow me on Letterboxd to see what I’m watching.
If you look at the center of the Venn diagram of things I really like in movies, you will find Monkey Man.
Dev Patel writes, directs, and stars in this revenge story of an underground fighter who works his way into a seedy secret club to get revenge for a life-defining childhood trauma.
You’ve probably heard this movie described as “Indian John Wick” because it’s a revenge story with fast-paced, well-choreographed fight scenes. We have the secret society element, the saturated colors and creative lighting, and a guy who kicks ass while wearing a suit, but there is so much more to Monkey Man than amazing, visceral action and a revenge plot.
This story is about faith, about class, about the most marginalized people in a society refusing to be stepped on, and Patel does an outstanding job of maintaining that emotional core while still delivering us some of the best fight scenes on screen in years.
It’s mind-blowing that this is Patel’s directorial debut. If you told me this was his 10th film, I would be impressed, but for this to be his first feature shows tremendous talent. There is a mastery of visual style, tight close-ups to highlight emotion, and the use of both non-diegetic and diegetic music that showcases skill far beyond a first-time effort.
One of my favorite directors, S. S. Rajamouli, has spoken a lot about the importance of infusing emotion with action because we need to be invested and care about the characters. An action sequence hits so much harder when we have an emotional connection to the story.
And we can really feel that emotional connection in Monkey Man.
The second half of the story is where we learn a lot more about our main character and get some backstory and it just hooks you in emotionally.
So I know it’s only April, but I think it’s fair to say that Monkey Man is going to land somewhere on my top 10 list this year. It’s a fantastic film—and with amazing action like this, it’s definitely worth checking out on the big screen.
