Monkey Man

Hey everyone and welcome, today we will be talking about the film Monkey Man. Fun Fact, After not getting offered action roles like this, Dev Patel decided to write and direct his own and while filming he broke his hand, and his toes, tore his shoulder, and got an eye infection. This film came out in 2024 and stars Dev Patel, Vipin Sharma, and Ashwini Kalsekar and was directed by Dev Patel. So without further ado let’s get right into it.

Monkey Man follows Kid aka Bobby aka Monkey Man as he seeks revenge on the people who destroyed his village and killed his mom.

Monkey Man is an action revenge story that’s Rated R which I mention just so you aren’t shocked to see lots of blood and violence. It has similar vibes to John Wick, Oldboy, or The Man from Nowhere.

When I saw the press starting for this film it caught my attention because I saw something saying Jordan Peele’s production company bought the film so it could have a theatrical release instead of a streaming release and I’ve seen all of Jordan’s movies and enjoyed them so this put the movie on my radar and made me curious to what Jordan saw when he watched it. After watching the trailer I was even more interested because it looked like a film that did not have an outrageous budget but found what worked within their budget and I was very interested to see it and also because it was going to have action. While I was looking into the movie, Dev talked about how it was low-budget and how with some scenes they had to use an iPhone to film because other cameras broke which made me more interested because I loved his dedication to get this project out to the world. Dev’s excitement about this movie made me even more interested in watching this movie and to be honest I had a blast.

Dev Patel is great in this movie and it’s amazing to see him wearing so many hats, Actor, Director, Producer, and Writer which shows me that he had an idea and bet on himself to get it done which I love to see. He plays the title character and one thing that made me love the character is that the character always got back up to fight whether that be in the ring or against these corrupt leaders.  He was an underdog and in the film he didn’t always win but he would just try harder the next time. His mom was his guiding light and he did everything he could to enact his revenge, as he should after they killed her so brutally. The ending is ambiguous and I do think he may have died but you never know.

I loved how through Monkey Man we could see the inequality and how it affected the different citizens in India. The government was constantly going after minorities whether that be Indian Muslims, Farmers, or the Hijra community. With him going after these rich people while being so broke we see how there is economic inequality and only the rich are benefitting and doing shady things to keep their power.

One thing I enjoy about movies like these where there is something from the main character’s past that is missing, is to see how they will show the viewer the part of the story we are missing. I thought this movie did a great job with pacing in that regard by slowly giving us glimpses of what happened to his mother then finally giving us the full story maybe when we were 2/3rds of the way through the film while Monkey Man is under the influence of the tree root. It was sad to see how violently his mom died and even worse how he watched it happen and the burns on his hand were from him trying to save her.

They show how his mom told him the story about Hanuman and I will say I was a bit confused on how that tied into his story. I know the story says that he may be living amongst humans so I was wondering if the idea was that he was Hanuman but I’m not sure.

It was cool to see the inclusion of the Hijra community which is the Trans community in India or what they call the third gender. It was cool how they had a statue of Ardhanarishvara who is half Shiva and half Parvathi, both female and male and also neither. The Hijra saved Monkey Man and put him in a unique position to be able to hide within this group due to the police’s reluctance to be near them because they viewed them as odd. I love how in this group we meet Alpha who tells him that he needs to finish this mission so he can get rid of all the hate inside him and make room for other emotions. I loved how in the end they ended up helping and how with Diwali happening it was the perfect opportunity for them to sneak in.

The ending scene was great and had me on the edge of my seat and it was lovely to see how his training paid off. Throughout the film, there was great music but the music in this scene just elevated it more. The scene further showed how much Monkey Man learned and how he went from being a punching bag to using others as a punching bag. This was also a good scene to reinforce the idea that he is not invincible and that while he is a good fighter, he needs some help.

My favorite part of this film was the training section of the movie. I think it was a great visualization to make us realize that he is working hard toward this goal. I loved to see the support he had and I loved how they used music to show more of his fighting style while he was training. This scene showed he was not magically strong and after the failed attempt he needed to get stronger so that next time he wouldn’t fail.

Monkey Man is the directorial debut of Dev Patel and I had a blast watching it. The story drew me in and the performances and the action kept me on the edge of my seat.