Monkey Man (Film Review)

What an absolutely fascinating career Dev Patel has had. After honing his craft with the ridiculously fertile talent pool that was Skins, the man has been on quite a ride.

It’s not every day you make your big screen debut with an Oscar winner, and even less so with something as outrageously successful as Slumdog Millionaire at the age of just seventeen. Given such unexpected pressures, it’s perhaps understandable that his career, while undoubtedly successful in its own right, has never quite hit those heights since, seeing him tantalisingly close to superstardom without ever truly attaining it.

Whether by his own design or through wider industry neglect, Dev Patel has continually kept Hollywood at arm’s length, a move that, while holding him back from prominence, has led to the actor carving out an infinitely more interesting filmography for himself. Yet, however much he, or the industry, may want to fight it, the man is absolutely tailor-made for mainstream greatness – and, quite frankly, if Hollywood won’t open that door for you, you’ve just got to batter the thing down yourself.

And if any film is going to batter down that door for Dev, it’s Monkey Man.

Eking out a meagre living getting beaten to a pulp in an underground fight club, an unnamed young man (Dev Patel) is caught in a cycle of barely suppressed rage. Hellbent on revenge for a tragic incident in his past, he discovers a way to infiltrate the city’s sinister elite, and as his childhood trauma gradually boils over, the man’s mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution on those that took everything from him.

Coming out swinging, what Dev Patel has managed to achieve with Monkey Man is nothing short of remarkable. Rough and gnarled though it may be, Monkey Man really is a perfectly pitched statement and an astute, all guns blazing calling card that will undoubtedly put Hollywood on notice.

With blood, sweat, and bucketloads of personality seeping out of every one of its pours, any doubt that Dev Patel would sacrifice soul and vision in a mission to be heard by the masses can be put to bed. Make no mistake, Monkey Man is Dev’s film through and through, as he turns what could’ve been a cookie-cutter action pot-boiler into something far more impactful.

As one might expect given Monkey Man’s subject matter, the similarities to John Wick are undeniable, and at many points the film actively goads you into making them, however, moving beyond mere surface level similarities, this offers so much more than that. Yes, it’s a pulpy, blood-spattered revenge thriller and yes, it leans in heavily on a highly stylised brand of combat, yet it doesn’t take much digging beneath the film’s raggedy surface to see just how much more Dev Patel has to offer here.

Visually and aesthetically, Monkey Man shares a lot of the same DNA as the John Wick franchise, with energy, style, and a specific brand of kinetic action that would make Keanu proud, yet look a little closer and this is a different beast altogether. Stripped almost entirely of gloss, Monkey Man’s coarse, surprisingly fragile interior is brutally exposed, making it far rawer and far more visceral than John Wick has ever been.

Crucially, it’s also a film that offers an intense sense of identity that you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else in modern blockbuster cinema. Deeply and irrevocably rooted, both in India, and specifically Mumbai itself, Monkey Man utilises its sprawling yet claustrophobic urban location in a truly organic, lived-in manner, deploying it as far more than mere action window dressing.

Deeply entrenched in the culture, politics, and people of India, Monkey Man thoroughly immerses us in its location, throwing us headfirst into Mumbai’s writhing, tumultuous sea of humanity. From the dark, decaying alleys to the dank back street fight pits to the decadence of the elite’s deplorable play dens, you can feel the city clinging like sweat to the film’s skin and flowing like the Mithi river through its veins.

Easily pulling free of any John Wick rip-off allegations, Monkey Man makes it known from the get-go that it’s entirely its own thing, yet never takes its eye off the need to entertain. Brutally personal yet never afraid to play to the crowd, the film strikes a remarkable and surprisingly deft balance between intimate and something far broader.

The result is a pulverising yet thoroughly exhilarating experience that will cling to you like dried blood. From beginning to end, Monkey Man is a ruthless and brutal bulldozer of a film, one that certainly has its contemplative moments, but is otherwise a relentless, unflinchingly intimate story that forces you to feel every single hit.

Acutely immediate in a way so few modern action movies are, Monkey Man grabs you by the neck and barely loosens its grip throughout. For any filmmaker to have you in the palm of their hand like Dev Patel does here is no mean feat, and while the film does have a habit of pulling you in a little too close on occasion (the nausea-inducing shaky cam is way too much at times) the effect is a thoroughly exhilarating one that drags you kicking and screaming into its world, whether you like it or not.

Despite this over-reliance on jittery handheld camerawork, the action and combat on offer is smooth, dynamic, and smartly choreographed, yet as rough, ragged, violent, and vicious as you’re ever likely to see from a big studio release. It also speaks to just how remarkably self-assured Dev Patel is as a talent, both in front of, and behind, the camera.

Full-blooded and brimming with confidence, Patel’s vision is an unerring one that pulls no punches and makes no excuses. Wearing his (bloody) heart on his sleeve, Patel’s direction showcases a filmmaking bravura way beyond his relatively tender years, as he infuses a range of combat styles, needle drops, and wild editing swings with a refreshing degree of personality, emotion, and culture.

In front of the camera, the story is much the same, as Dev pours absolutely everything into the role, showcasing just what an astonishing talent he is and why Hollywood will rue not making him a superstar sooner. Putting his taekwondo black belt to the best use possible, Dev’s unnamed protagonist may not go straight into the story as a readymade John Wick-level assassin, yet his slow build to get to that point is an intense and satisfying one that feels all the more impactful because of the gruelling mountain he must climb to get there.

Swept along by a banging soundtrack and Jed Kurzel’s muscular score, Dev Patel pushes himself to his very limits for something that’s clearly deeply personal to him, and the results speak for themselves. While the film industry doesn’t always offer the deserving the Hollywood happy ending that it so often promises, if the level of heart, soul, and skill that Dev Patel showcases here doesn’t shoot him to the moon, there really is no justice in the world.

Around him, the film’s swirling cacophony of characters, themes, and story threads are a lot to take in at times, often causing the plot’s pacing to drift at points. What starts as a scaled down, straight-shooting revenge flick soon morphs into something far bigger and far denser, touching on everything from politics to gender to religion to India’s caste system, as Monkey Man loads itself with an awful lot of thematic baggage, but while the narrative often finds itself wobbling under the weight of it all, it always manages to bludgeon its way through.

Combined with the relentless onslaught of bruising, visceral action, this attempt to hit on so many complex and deep-rooted topics sees Monkey Man chuck a lot out there. Over its two-hour run time, the film throws an awful lot of punches, and while there are certainly a few wild misses in the mix, these are far, far outweighed by the hits.

An audacious, remarkably astute directorial debut, Monkey Man is a bold, brave, and bruising calling card from Dev Patel. A bloody, grungy, visceral bulldozer of a film, Monkey Man is far more than the John Wick copycat it threatens, delivering just as much thematic punch as actual ones. An ultra-violent delight positively dripping with culture, heart, and soul, if this doesn’t dropkick Dev into the level of superstardom he deserves, nothing will.