Monkey Man – A Ferocious Debut With More Bark Than Bite

Seemingly out of nowhere, Dev Patel’s directorial debut has created quite the hype machine, with a great story behind it to boot! Initially produced for Netflix, Monkey Man sat on the shelf for over 2 years until Jordan Peele saw the film, felt it deserved a theatrical release, and acquired it from Netflix. Then over the past few months, we got an incredible first look trailer, a rousing SXSW premiere, and a press tour detailing the blood, sweat and tears that went into this film. From budgetary constraints, producers pulling out mid shoot threatening to cancel everything, COVID, a skeleton crew, and lots of broken bones for director-writer-star Dev Patel after performing many of his own stunts, everything that could go wrong…did, but it’s his passion that propelled it to where the film is now. To the filmmaking team’s credit, all of that passion and struggle shows up on screen, for better…and for worse.

Set in a semi-fictionalized modern day India, Monkey Man follows Kid/Bobby (Patel), a poverty stricken young man with scarred hands, working as an underground fighter. Donning a monkey mask, he assumed the role of the fall guy, taking the hits and letting himself be knocked out by more popular fighters for rigged fight money. Filled with a mysterious rage and drive, Bobby eventually finds himself working up the ladder into elite Indian society, from line cook, to waiter for the high end clubs where police chiefs, politicians, and foreign investors lurk. As his past trauma starts to bubble up to the surface, he set forth on a fiery quest of viscous revenge commences against those who wronged him and other oppressed peoples and one wrapped in mythic legend, and strong socio-political undercurrents inspired by current Indian political issues taking root in the country. Armed with only surface knowledge of said issues is surface level, how effectively the film’s themes are weaved into the overall narrative is complicated.

Not trying to handle the film with kiddie gloves, what Patel attempts here is respectable, creating a rally call against the co-opting of religion/nationalism to oppress others in service of greed and fascistic power grabs. It’s a powerful message and one that Patel is clearly very passionate about, but its lack of focus and all encompassing script juggles so many ideas and themes that they’re all underserved as a result. Monkey Man is a film that strives to be important but never feels important, resorting to stock news footage and a continuing escalation of oppression to make up for the lack of emotional investment. Intercut with flashbacks of Bobby as a kid, being read the legend of “Hanuman” the white monkey, and the unraveling of his past. Myth, history, and politics spanning hundreds of years and how that forms the present day story is quite intriguing but it all ends up muddled. Bobby as Monkey Man is set up as a parallel to Hanuman, both literally and thematically but his theoretical rise to mythic hero taking down evil forces as a beacon for the oppressed is barely developed. “Kill this nobody before he becomes a somebody” is a line uttered early in the film by its main villain, but this fear of influence and the wielding of violence for political protest ends up leading nowhere with an awkward late scene of Bobby receiving praise from an arena crowd that has no bearing on the actual core struggle he’s fighting for.

When dealing with flashbacks that explain the film’s backstory, one usually either opens the film on it and lets them play in full or intersperse the tidbits throughout for the first half, instead, Monkey Man decides to take both approaches. Repeating the same images and snippets for half the film, before giving audiences a lengthy revealing flashback, followed by more snippets for the rest of the film. This choice grows repetitive and dull quickly, particularly when the reveal is obvious to begin with as all that was withheld from the audience were merely the details. Holding its cards so close to its chest also undermines much of the first half set up and emotional investment into Bobby’s journey, leading to a lumpy middle act cool off period where the film essentially restarts, with even more characters and ideas to build off of the reveals. This structure does the film’s pacing no favours as anytime it starts to build momentum, it’s stopped dead to introduce the next thread, rinse and repeat for roughly 2-hours. With nowhere near enough action, the long lulls become a slog to get through and unfortunately, and surprisingly, the action doesn’t entirely deliver either.

Patel, who has a black belt in taekwondo is a terrific physical performer, performing most of his own stunts (sustaining many broken bones in the process). Paired with a small but talented stunt team, primarily based in Indonesia and India, what Patel and co. have pulled off, considering the budgetary and experiential constraints, is impressive. The fight choreography is terrific, very much inspired by the South East Asian action scene, but is consistently let down by the direction. With how much training and talent were involved, it’s a shame that so much of their work is obscured by stylistic tics and technical choices working against the action. From dim, flat lighting making it hard to make out everything in a room to the shaky shooting and editing. The worst offender is the first major action set piece, shot with a zoomed in and shaky handheld camera, rapidly edited together in a pale imitation of late style Tony Scott or Michael Bay’s level of chaotic expressionism. A dizzying headache of an action scene with no clear sense of spatial geography to guide audiences through the chaos.

While audiences don’t necessarily need to see everything taking place on screen, they need to at least be able to follow the ebb and flow of the fights, something that was nearly impossible here. The film’s third act finale is an improvement in this regard, with legible and brutal action but it felt too little too late. For the most part, Monkey Man never feels fully committed to being an action film, with so many extra threads stuffed in to pad the runtime out. Patel has a strong future in action and particularly excels in this role, but it’s unclear whether action is something he should be directing going forward. He shows some promising stylistic flair behind the camera, and his passion for the material is palpably felt, but his approach only underserves the action, and paired with a messy script, is sure to leave many feeling more bored than thrilled.

still courtesy of Universal Pictures

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Alex Josevski

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