Monkey Man is directed by Dev Patel which is his directorial debut.
Monkey Man is a film that was nearly flat out going to have it’s release cancelled by Netflix after feeling the film would be too gritty for Indian audiences and was concerned the reaction to the film’s political commentary. Luckily Jordan Peele and Universal stepped in and acquired it and we now have the film released…which is excellent because Monkey Man rules.
I already knew Dev Patel was one hell of an actor, he’s given some quite strong performances over the years. However his directing here is outstanding especially as the film goes on you really start to see a lot of Patel’s strengths as an actor be reflected in the director’s chair. Monkey Man is a revenge tale which obviously isn’t anything new, with that being said the way this film tells that tale and uses the revenge element is what makes this interesting.
Throughout the film you can feel Bobby’s (played by Dev Patel) anger it’s much more quiet in certain parts of the film but it’s always there. Even with the action scenes that get progressively more violent and gory as the film goes on you can feel the anger getting more and more heated as it goes on and the closer the film reaches Bobby’s goal. His anger at the beginning starts as grief and not really knowing where to start or even to really do, but once he figures it out and has a plan set hell breaks loose from there and it’s truly satisfying to see all of this go down especially in stylistic action scenes that truly thrilling.
The atmosphere combined with the action scenes are truly fantastic here, they really blend well with the whole revenge and anger elements I mentioned earlier. Which leaves them to be all the more satisfying to watch, I do think there are some writing issues mainly when it comes to the villains. There’s some sort of a switch of main antagonists during the film that doesn’t feel very fitting especially since this feels more of a personal revenge story of Bobby. Having that said that doesn’t stop the film in any very major ways.
The rest of the cast are quite fantastic as well, they fit the film in their own ways and help compliment the film’s world. Even if a lot of them don’t get the most character development they are at the very least important to the story. They help guide Bobby and create this building a hero type of story that’s incredibly engaging to watch. The topic of corruption and how it can get people to fall for corrupt leaders is truly fascinating, we are shown glimpses of Bobby’s past throughout the film and how he ended up where he is now. Those flashbacks do a fantastic job of really showing how much damage corruption has done and how throughout the years there’s been no change. Until it was time to create a hero to tackle corruption In any single way possible.
Monkey Man is truly a knockout directorial debut for Dev Patel, I truly hope we get to see more of his directing career because this was truly fantastic.
Monkey Man is playing in theaters
9/10 A
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