In just two hours “Monkey Man” proves itself as both an incredibly exciting debut feature for director/star Dev Patel and not just another ripoff “John Wick.”
“Monkey Man” follows Patel as Kid, a young man who makes his living working in a fight club while donning a gorilla mask and seeks revenge against the elite who took his childhood away from him.
Almost immediately, Patel is able to imbue the film with its own distinct style full of frantic editing and fast cuts. Despite this quick, high-energy style of filmmaking, Patel is able to keep control over what’s happening on screen, never devolving into the headache-inducing fight scenes of the “Bourne” movies or the Russo Brothers’ MCU entries.
“Monkey Man” also shows itself formally very interesting, balancing its angry and brutal fights with stretches of spirituality and patience, taking inspiration from both Wick and Terrence Malick. For me, Patel is able to mostly balance these sides masterfully, with both feeling equally exciting and there were some moments of abstraction in the spiritual sections that really blew me away.
The biggest faults of the movie would be the villains, who were a bit thin and one-dimensional, and the flashbacks that give us Kid’s backstory. Early on, Patel plays with the character’s backstory in a very interesting way, using cross-cutting between various scenes and flashbacks to give viewers enough context without spoon-feeding it and simultaneously putting them into the character’s mindset. However, multiple sequences in the second act make way for full-fledged flashbacks which felt more generic and less effective than what came before.
None of these flaws affected the experience too much, and the second act builds up some nice weight going into the truly excellent finale. It’s raw and cathartic and brutal in a way I haven’t seen in an action film in a while and what, dare I say, elevates this beyond the later Wick films. What “Monkey Man” lacks in all the budget and elaborate stunts of those films it makes up for in emotional power.
“Monkey Man” is a great directorial debut for Patel, one that, while maybe a bit narratively thin, was a lot more formally exciting than I was expecting. Having shed some of the first-feature flaws, I cannot wait to see what Patel does next.
