Monkey Man (2024) is an action thriller film from debut writer-director Dev Patel. He also stars in the film as an underground cage fighter who infiltrates a sinister crime underworld to seek revenge against the men who destroyed his childhood. Originally slated for Netflix release, the film was championed by Jordan Peele and sold to Universal for theatrical release. Was it worth the big screen treatment?
I’ve long been an admirer of Dev Patel as an actor. Ever since his breakout role in 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire, he has been struggling against Hollywood type-casting and trying to forge his own path as a leading man without the stigma of the generic “Indian guy” label. That has led him to a number of strong projects like Lion and The Green Knight, where he has been able to prove his range as an actor. With Monkey Man, he seeks to further challenge the typical American view of Indians in cinema, proving that they too can be bad-ass action heroes and carry a mainstream film on their own. He certainly achieves that goal, with a directorial debut that is at times uneven and unwieldy but nevertheless a pulpy and entertaining good time at the cinema.
Any good action-thriller requires a lovable protagonist at its center, and Monkey Man certainly provides that with its hero, a down-on-his-luck fighter with a tragic backstory. It spends much of the first act endearing us to Kid, his money struggles, and the unjust treatment his villagers received at the hands of a corrupt police officer as a kid. It even follows in the John Wick tradition of giving him a cute dog to take care of! I do think the film could have done well to shorten this section of the film and get to the action sooner. We get it, he’s a really nice guy who has been treated badly; we don’t need to spend a full half-hour-plus harping on how hard his life is. We’re here for the action; just get to it quicker!
Once the action does start, however, it is everything I was hoping for and more. The fights are absolutely BRUTAL, with more blood and pulpy guts than I ever thought possible for a simple hand-to-hand combat flick. Dev Patel apparently injured himself multiple times throughout the shooting of the film: dislocated limbs, broken digits, cracked ribs, and more. And you can tell why after viewing the film: he is getting absolutely thrown around in the film, breaking through windows, smashing through sinks and toilets, and more outrageous practical stunts. It’s the kind of dedicated stunt work that is often considered dangerous and discouraged from performing, but Patel simply doesn’t care, throwing himself into every scene without a care for his own physical well-being, and that takes serious balls!
Aside from the fight choreography, the visual style of the film is also spectacular, with gorgeous cinematography and some clever camera work to make the film fun to watch at every turn. The city night life looks vibrant and alive, as Kid delves deeper into the seedy underworld drenched in neon. Some of the shot sequences are also clever and unique, like a chase scene filmed in first-person and a hallucinogenic drug sequence that is both mesmerizing and thrilling (while building character development in the process!). The film also succeeds at showing me things I’ve never seen in a fight flick before, such as one memorable fight involving fireworks and a tuk-tuk chase that puts many modern car chases to shame. You can feel Patel’s passion for visual imagery shining through at every step, and that kind of passion can only improve the viewing experience for the audience because you just know he will never phone it in.
The film supposedly drew criticism in its native India for its political commentary about right-wing nationalism and the suppression of transgender voices by the police force. I personally didn’t find the film to be that incendiary in that regard, and felt it served the narrative of the film well. It strengthens the rooting factor for Kid as he rails against the ruling class seeking to extinguish minorities along with the poor, making this a story of genuine class warfare. It isn’t the specifics of gender identity or political leanings that matter so much as the usurping of established power structures, which are rock-solid in India in particular and in dire need of addressing. I don’t claim to be an expert in local Indian politics, but I love to see someone with the worldwide cache of Dev Patel using his platform to make a bold statement about the state of the world and attempt to enact positive social change through his art.
The film builds to an exciting and satisfying finale that pays off all of the meticulous setup leading up to it. After spending so much time watching Kid get chewed up and spit out by society, we finally get to see him evolve into a total badass, destroying everyone in his path and stopping at nothing to accomplish his goal and enact revenge. You gotta love a film that is willing to show that its protagonist is not infallible, that they can fail, because it makes their victories taste that much sweeter when they come! I still think they could have arrived at this stage much sooner in the runtime, but you can’t deny that it is effective when the payoff arrives. The final 15-20 minutes are so jam-packed with heart-stopping action that it pays for the ticket itself, and I only wish we could’ve gotten even more of that kinetic, non-stop action earlier in the film for maximum badassery!
Conclusion
You can feel Dev Patel’s passion for the medium and genre oozing off of the screen, and that serves Monkey Man well even through its rough patches. He delivers a capable debut that doesn’t quite reach the heights of its major influence in John Wick, but still has plenty of thrills and visual style to make it worth the watch. Patel continues to be an actor worth keeping an eye on and also demonstrates his chops behind the camera, and I hope it opens many more doors for him in Hollywood in the near future. A flawed but entertaining good time at the movies!
VERDICT: B+
All image rights belong to Universal Pictures.
-Austin Daniel
Scriptophile 