“Monkey Man” Review: Dev Patel Goes Apeshit in Stylish Revenge Flick

​The Friendly Film Fan Reviews the Actor’s Directorial Debut.

​Dev Patel has always been one of the most interesting people to follow in Hollywood. While following his breakout film performance in Danny Boyle’s Best Picture-winning Slumdog Millionaire to his latest work alongside Benedict Cumberbatch in the Wes Anderson short films Poison and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar has not always yielded perfect results, there has always been something about him that draws the viewer in regardless of each film’s varying qualities. Don’t get me wrong, no one escaped The Last Airbender unscathed, but beyond that, there’s almost nothing Patel has done that I haven’t either watched or at least wanted to watch. He's come a significantly long way since starring in Skins back in 2007, and there’s been a lot to celebrate in that time: Lion, The Personal History of David Copperfield (a grossly underrated movie, in my opinion), and The Green Knight all speak to Patel’s immense talent in front of the camera. But acting and directing are two very different beasts. Now, Patel finds himself behind the lens for his feature directorial debut, which he also co-wrote and stars in.
 
Originally intended as a Netflix release before producer Jordan Peele bought it from the company to put it in theaters with Monkeypaw Productions (a bit on the nose there, eh Mr. Peele?), Monkey Man follows Kid (Dev Patel) as he seeks revenge on those who killed his mother and burned his childhood village to the ground. Along the way he encounters friends, foes, and a whole host of bodies to hit the floor with as he works his way toward completing his mission. What he doesn’t know is just how many corrupt people are involved in some of India’s political circles…or just how high up those circles go.
 
One of the greatest compliments anyone can give a debut filmmaker is that they want to see what this person does next, and after seeing this movie, I’m more than ready for whatever Dev Patel wants to do next. While the story itself is rather plain and the film’s structure does little to lift it out of that plainness, Monkey Man still pulses with energy and passion in every step. Setting Kid’s journey as both parallel and homage to the tales of Hanuman may seem like an obvious choice at first glance, but it’s in how the film forges its own path outside of that parallel that makes it stand apart from other action fare like it. That said, the first half of the film does feel as though it’s unsure of just how to forge ahead, which one can feel when watching how often the editing jumps around from beat to beat without much of a breath or even a bridge between plot points. Long stretches go by without much in the way of action, and when the action does happen – again, first half only – the shaky-cam effect only serves to obscure the talent and work put into those sequences. Extreme close-ups in action sequences can be big moments, but only if used sparingly. Perhaps the point of the film being made in this way is to reflect the character’s initial mental state – fractured, on edge, etc. – whereas later he becomes more confident in his ability, so the film eases up on the viewer; that said, there are other methods of demonstrating that sort of blind rage that don’t involve shaking the camera that much or that often. Where the film truly excels is in its second half, which I won’t spoil except to say that the camerawork sees a significant improvement in establishing and wide shots, and the editing doesn’t feel so scattered as it did in the film’s early stages.
 
If there’s one thing Monkey Man has going for it that few other directorial debuts – especially in the action space – could match, it’s style and personality. While comparisons to other films like John Wick are simply inevitable now whenever a new, highly-choreographed action film is set to be released (and this one drops that franchise by name), there’s no denying that this movie is still very much its own thing. From the costumes to the narrative to the filmmaking itself, this film has an identity it doesn’t share with almost anything else, and one can tell that real blood, sweat, and tears (plus a few broken bones, to boot) were put into making this thing the best it could be with what they had to work with. You can feel the passion for this film just oozing off the screen with every scene. The very notion that the film almost lost funding at one point makes even the existence of this film an outright miracle, but Patel’s hard work to haul it over the finish line himself is up there in every frame (especially in the film’s occasionally frantic but always impressively-designed action sequences), and that in itself is a beautiful thing to witness.
 
What I hope for this film, and films like it, is that audiences will buy into and take a chance on them the way Jordan Peele took a chance on Dev Patel as a filmmaker. Mid-budget flicks like this are all too rare already, and while Monkey Man may be a simple tale of revenge without much in the way of narrative innovation, what it lacks in structural originality, it more than makes up for in sheer verve. Dev Patel’s efforts to get this movie made are all right up there on screen, and that effort was clearly a concentrated one given how the film’s identity is able to (mostly) spring free of comparisons to others that inspired it. The performances are fun (who doesn’t love a good Sharlto Copley appearance), the action is kinetic and occasionally brutal, the comedy mostly hits despite how little of it there actually is, and it’s very clear Dev Patel has as much of a future behind the camera as he’s had a past in front of it. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

I’m giving “Monkey Man” a 7.8/10
 
- The Friendly Film Fan