Monkey Man: More Primal Than Primate

Being a Repo Monkey Man is always intense…

Monkey Man (Dev Patel) 2024

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Monkey Man is a movie you experience, rather than watch. It’s a revenge-drama action-thriller and, on paper at least, not much more than that, despite a couple of unique selling points, the most obvious being that it’s the directorial debut of Dev Patel. There’s little in Patel’s filmography to suggest this was coming, though look closely and you will see echoes of his previous work subtly exerting influence. It’s too simplistic to try to strip this back to its constituent parts and analyse its success or failure as a first feature based solely on these though. Doing so removes the key element at play here - how this feels.

At times this is like mainlining adrenaline. There is an intensity here that it is hard to encapsulate in a review, and trying to do so risks diluting what is there. Where this movie works, everything is concentrated to the max. Focus. Colour. Violence. There is a propensity for tight, closeup camera-work, with only rare examples of medium shots and judicious use of wider vistas for context. Colour is heavily saturated, deep and rich, but darkness lurks within the warm tones. The wrestling scenes have earthy hues, the world of vice and indulgence that exists above is drenched in deep red and decadent purple. Violence is physical and immediate and often unflinching, though it never drifts into the sadistic. It serves a purpose in the moment but is never for enjoyment, only catharsis and closure. 

It’s hard to overstate the challenge of creating an action-heavy movie for your first venture behind the camera. So much is instinct - that innate feel for tempo and movement, for the choreography of a scene. In modern cinema there exist a greater number of technical tricks that can be utilised to compensate for shortcomings in technique, though these can only ever partially mitigate flaws. Depending on how effectively they are employed, they may still jar but, applied well, they may also be used to enhance elements. It’s about balance, and it’s fair to say that Patel and his creative team strike it well. 

Patel understands how to place the viewer in the action. The camera constantly moves. Swivels. Spins. Rolls. The choreography isn’t sharp or clean but is imbued with momentum. Edits are harsh but effective. Cranking the speed, the laziest of techniques to add drama to action scenes is, for the most part, avoided. Visual effects are employed to create seams between shots, but are never glaring or enough to take the viewer out of the action. They allow for some tremendous point-of-view shots during a desperate getaway. The physics work and match the characters’ abilities. Everyone takes a beating. Sometimes that includes the viewer. This is concussive cinema.

But to focus solely on those moments of violence is to miss the fact that Patel uses similar techniques to convey the emotion and pent-up rage felt by his character. A pressure-cooker scene sees him barely able to contain the anger within. Things become increasingly claustrophobic and we feel the effort not to explode in that moment. There’s a feverishness to the scene. Choppy, fidgety edits. Closeups of face and hands. Sweat. Back to that look behind the eyes. And just when it feels like too much, when we can feel the pulse of the character pounding in our ears and chest, there is, finally, a release and the handheld camera shakes, as it does following the fight sequences, as though drawing breath. 

It’s these scenes that will decide whether you love Monkey Man or not. Outside of them is a mixed bag. The story is as stripped back as it gets and characters are barely fleshed out. What interest there is comes from the other of those unique selling points, the spiritual element that permeates the movie - the story of the Hanuman and of the deity Ardhanārīśvara - but look closely and we’ve seen this story of the underdog seeking revenge many - too many - times before. The wrestling matches that first introduce us to the protagonist seem like the perfect metaphor for the story, though maybe boxing is more apt. There are shades of Rocky here. There’s even the clichéd training montage, even as it tries to fool us with its different beat.

That sequence, of recovery following a beating, strikes an odd note due to  notable lack of exposition in the movie. It feels more significant than in actuality it is, given the lack of true insight into the characters found within it that we as spectators are offered. Sadly, it also feels like it drops the beat too much from the standout fight and escape sequence -  the highlight of the movie - that preceded it, particularly as the movie never reaches those heights again.

The inclusion of two bad guys - one personal and the direct target of revenge, one existential and representative of a malign force in the country - helps less than you might think too. The issue is glaring when the bigger picture of that wider threat, both political and religious, is so vague, beyond land grabs and tangential references to targeting of minorities. We have no true sense of his motives or reasons for actions. While one showdown offers a sense of closure, the other feels less satisfying, even if it involves the figure behind the curtain who is orchestrating affairs.

The final act as a whole, feels less satisfying than it might otherwise, given what precedes it. There’s still plenty there, but it never quite delivers on the promise shown earlier and, where focus shifts from solely Patel to others as part of the act of revenge and resistance, it loses some of that energy and intensity. To be fair to Patel, it was always going to be hard to maintain both throughout the picture and, as if it needs repeating, this was an ambitious movie to take on as a first feature.  

It’s notable that his acting breakthrough in Slumdog Millionaire has had a more-than-passing influence on the look and feel of his directing calling card, but there are other influences too. There are hints of Jonas Åkerlund’s infamous video for The Prodigy’s ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ and their later ‘Need Some1’ (directed by Paco Raterta). Certainly those videos offer a clue to what’s on display here - moments of dirty, primal intensity coupled with perfectly matched music - here from Jed Kurzel whose score enhances the movie considerably - and beats. Not necessarily something to build a movie career around, but a stepping stone. Not everyone can make the leap that’s required next but I hope Patel does because there’s so much promise there. 

See, no, experience,  this on the big screen with a great sound system. You’ll be glad you stepped in the ring.