‘Monkey Man’ Review – Senselessly Awesome Revenge

Monkey Man tells the story of a young boy named Kid (Dev Patel) who loses everything after a corrupt police chief from Yatana named Rana Singh (Sikandar Kher) kills his mother and burns down his village — all under the direction of a spiritual guru named Baba Shakti (Makrand Deshpande).

As an adult, Kid travels to Yatana and makes a living as an illegal boxer. Rana frequents a restaurant club known as Queenie’s, so Kid gets a job there as a kitchen employee and begins his path of redemption.

Not your typical action thriller, Monkey Man is lead actor Dev Patel’s way of injecting “real soul, real trauma, and real pain” into the genre “with a little bit of culture” in his directorial debut.

The two-hour runtime divides the film into two parts. The first half is an emotional backstory for Kid and a failed attempt at revenge against Rana. Kid rises as a server at Queenie’s Club as his lust for revenge overpowers his logical thinking.

When he’s not working, Kid fights in illegal boxing clubs. He gets arrested after fighting Rana and Queenie’s and almost dies, but escapes to a transgender temple where he trains himself back to health.

The second half of the film is a raw and feral action film. Kid remembers who he is by using his past not only as motivation but also as a driving force. He battles everyone at Queenie’s, from the ground floor to the fingerprint-protected Queenie suite, where he faces off against Baba Shakti, the guru responsible for instructing Rana to burn down Kid’s village.

The cinematography of Monkey Man is both revitalizing and disorienting. There are moments when it’s incredibly creative; one notable instance being Kid running downstairs while the camera shoots the action from behind a pane of emergency glass.

But for every innovative shot, there are like a dozen infuriating ones that are both blurry and nauseating. It’s said that the film faced some budget cuts, which included utilizing GoPros and iPhones to shoot the film to save money.

The way the camera jerks around the audience, like being in a car crash without wearing a seat belt, is likely accurate. Director of Photography Sharone Meir — whose credits include The Last House on the Left, Whiplash, Rings, and Silent Night — is responsible for the film.

The actual car chase in the film features Alphonso’s (Pitobash) little vehicle dubbed Nicki Minaj (Big bumper. Nice headlights). It visually features bright lights and acceleration that aren’t easy to decipher. The sequence is filled with close-ups, camera shakes, and blindly whipping around. Patel chooses to focus on the panic and trauma rather than the chase itself. You are meant to feel what he feels.

The writing of the film is messier than the action. While Patel wrote the story, the screenplay is handled by Paul Angunawela and John Collee (the Happy Feet films, Hotel Mumbai). Kid’s vengeful story is excruciating.

Learning what Rana did to his mother, seeing how corrupt law enforcement is in this country, witnessing the decimation of everything he loves at such a young age, and discovering why his hands are forever scarred because of his past is heartbreaking.

With that said, the rest of the writing is trash. Kid essentially becomes a serial killer murdering people with his hands and facing little consequence. He almost goes to jail, but then authorities disappear after his re-emergence.

Kid hides at Alpha’s trans temple. The concept of this is cool because the transgender aspect of the film wasn’t hinted at in the trailers, and the film introduces it in a way that isn’t insulting or force-fed. But why more murderers aren’t just going on a killing spree and hiding out here is mind-boggling.

But after Kid heals and composes himself, he goes right back to the same place and starts killing people again. This results in some massively incredible action sequences (the knife sequence in the elevator), but Monkey Man is built around a revenge-first and logic-last approach.

The film is loaded with brutal, animalistic, bloody carnage. Sharlto Copley is the perfect money-hungry sleaze as Tiger, and Jed Kurzel’s score is surprisingly stellar. Monkey Man feels like what we all wanted Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives to be, or at least lead up to jarring visuals with dense undertones and a bone-crunching payoff.

Monkey Man delivers on the action and is a solid debut for Dev Patel as a director. Still, a sequel or future film in the genre would reach legendary status with a stronger story and more coherent cinematography.

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