TL;DR – An explosive and raw revenge film that leaves nothing in the tank as it explodes in a riot of action.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Monkey Man Review –

When it comes to the Revenge genre, they can be a bit hit-and-miss. You have to get the audience to sympathise with your protagonist because if they don’t, well then all that violence starts looking bad. The best example of this in the modern era, John Wick, a film which gets name-checked here, and is an excellent example of doing this right. Well, today, we might be able to add a new entry to that list.

So to set the scene, we open with a mother telling her son about the legend of Hanuman. But in the present, that boy does not have a name. He is Kid/Bobby/Monkey Man (Dev Patel) who spends a lot of time throwing cage matches for Tiger (Sharlto Copley) wearing a monkey mask. It is a brutal occupation, but it gets Kid the money to enact his plan, starting with getting into the ground floor of Queenie’s (Ashwini Kalsekar) very illegal but very popular entertainment business. Because Kid has a mission, and that is to bring pain to the people who cause his family harm.

The one thing Monkey Man is not is subtle. It wears its heart on its sleeve, and it needs to. However, it does mean that it presents a very unflattering depiction of some of the social and political issues happening in India at the moment. Indeed, the only thing that the film is slightly circumspect about is the name of the political party that it is critiquing. So we get this film exploring India made for an American studio by an English director/writer with Gujarati heritage, filmed on an island of Indonesia. This is such a wild combination, but you feel those influences throughout the film, as to the many cinematic works they were drawing from.

One of the film’s strengths is that it draws its supporting cast from across Indian Cinema, and every single one of them knows the assignment and hits every note perfectly. Sikandar Kher is the dirty cop, Ashwini Kalsekar is the local businesswoman who can get the rich anything or anyone they want, Pitobash is the fixer who does not know his place in the world, Makarand Deshpande is the holy man using his religion to shield investigation into his business practices, and Vipin Sharma as the priest of outcasts. Do you need someone to play the Tabla? No, like, really play it? Well, why not get the master Zakir Hussain? It is these choices that help ground the film. Also, I should add that I am glad that Sharlto Copley was in this film, playing a role that let him chew all the scenery and more so.     

Of course, there is our lead, as well as director/writer Dev Patel. When I first saw him in Skins back in the deep past, I knew he would triumph. Indeed, most of that first cast did. Here, we get to see his full creativity unleashed, which is brutal and intensely captivating. In many respects, this film would not work if you didn’t follow and care for “Bobby’s” story. He captivates in every scene he is in, and you feel that raw determination to complete his mission at every turn. One technique that I liked was the way the film used montages. A good montage is sometimes a lost art, and I am glad we found it here again.

As this film fits very much into the action genre, we then need to ask: How was the action? Well, my one-word answer to that would be Chaotic. Now, I would usually mean that in a negative way, but not so here. It is chaotic in the way that it will constantly shift styles, but most of those shifts work in the moment, and you can always follow the central narrative throughline through the fight. We might be looking at the fight through a reflection in one moment, diving into first-person perspective the next, and then swinging around the room as knives fly. There were some moments where the entire audience came together to vocalise a crunch that happened on screen. I will say that it takes a bit to get going, but when it starts, it races. Also, mad respect to the stunt team.       

In the end, do we recommend Monkey Man? Yes, we would. It is not an easy film to watch at times, and it is absolutely blunt with its message. However, it was a riot of action, and it was great to see Dev Patel shine in this deeply gritty role. If you liked Monkey Man, we would recommend to you RRR.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Monkey Man
Directed by – Dev Patel
Screenplay by – Dev Patel, Paul Angunawela & John Collee
Story by – Dev Patel
Music by – Jed Kurzel
Cinematography by – Sharone Meir
Edited by – Dávid Jancsó & Tim Murrell
Production/Distribution Companies – Bron Studios, Thunder Road Films, Monkeypaw Productions, Lost Winds Entertainment, Lucky Elephant Media, Minor Realm, S’Ya Concept, WME Independent, Creative Wealth Media Finance & Universal Studios
Starring – Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma, Ashwini Kalsekar, Makarand Deshpande, Adithi Kalkunte, Sikandar Kher, Sobhita Dhulipala, Zakir Hussain & Jatin Malik
Rating – Australia: MA15+; Canada: 14A; Germany: 18; New Zealand: R; United Kingdom: 18; United States: R