Story
Monkey Man follows Kidd on a journey of revenge, retribution and self-discovery.
What I like about this story is that it is almost like a blank slate. And it allows the more nuanced elements of corruption and discrimination to shine through. This story could take place anywhere because the themes mentioned above are universal, however, the cultural elements make this movie unlike anything you have seen before.
Acting
This is Dev Patel's movie (literally) and the writing in this movie revolves around his own performance. We know Dev Patel is a good actor, but I have never seen a performance like this one from him before. It's emotional, gritty, heartbreaking and a little funny at times. When I think of well-rounded performance, this is it.
And a leading man is nothing without the supporting cast who all did a phenomenal job. They all bring a specific flair to each character, allowing the viewer to be carried through the story. Are they a little one-dimensional? Yes. However, there really isn't a need for a deep dive into each character's psyche. We are following one main story. and truthfully, if we spent time on each character, it would slow down the pacing of an already 2-hour movie.
Writing/Direction
During a BBC Radio 1 interview, Ali Plumb and Dev Patel spoke about the production and how everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. From losing their location because of the pandemic to Dev breaking his hand in the middle of shooting. This movie is the definition of the statement "necessity is the mother of invention." Taking all of those setbacks into account doesn't take away from how good this movie is. In fact, knowing those setbacks when I went into the movie made me appreciate it more
 |
| Source: Monkey Man Official Website |
The commentary on corruption and discrimination is very well balanced with the absolute insanity that is some of the fight scenes. Both work in tandem to bring you into the world that has been created.
I say a lot that I like to be shown information not told and this movie does that really well. at one point my friend made a comment and I playfully smacked him on the arm and said "Pay attention." That being said Monkey Man isn't teaching you trigonometry, the movie isn't super difficult to understand.
When the film was first released there were a lot of comparisons to John Wick and while I do see that, there is more to it than "an Indian John Wick." Even without Dev saying it, you can see influences from other places. There is the spectacle of Bollywood (especially at the end) as well as the grit of Asian action movies, Oldboy and the Raid movie came to mind.
CGI /Set Design
Sharone Meir did a great job as cinematographer. Monkey Man is colourful and vibrant, while also setting a dark tone. Some scenes call back to the myth of Hanuman and having visual cues ground the viewer to what is going on.
Interestingly enough, there is a scene where Kid is running down a flight of stairs and the camera switches from third person POV to first person POV and that scene like many others in the movie was born out of necessity. The crew could not build a stairway and could not film in one big enough to fit the camera so they decided to strap the camera to Dev and film the scene that way, What I like about the scene is that it adds a sense of frenzy and claustrophobia. Much like another scene in the elevator where the camera operator is a stuntman and is involved with the fight choreography. (No joke go and watch this interview)
 |
| Source: Monkey Man Official Website |
Score/Soundtrack
As a self-professed lover of film scores, I was obsessed while watching the movie. When you think of "an Indian movie", you think of specific instruments like the sitar. and while the typical instruments you would expect are in used in the movie, Jed Kurzel the composer did a really good job of incorporating other musical elements which made the film more interesting from a sonic standpoint.
Overall Thoughts
This is a simple movie through and through but simple in the best way. possible It does not try to overwhelm you with how clever the writing or over-the-top action set-pieces (even though) they're really good.
I usually don't have funny anecdotes in my reviews but my viewing experience was definitely out of the ordinary. I went to see Monkey Man on Saturday with a friend of mine and up until I sat down to write this review on Tuesday, I had no idea how the movie ended. Why you ask? The power in the cinema went out in the last 30 minutes of the movie.
Interestingly enough it happened during a scene change, so none of us in the cinema actually knew what was going on until the screen was black for longer than what would be a creative decision. So someone went to check outside and lo and behold, the entire cinema was dark, and they were told by the staff that they had to leave the building.
I said all of that to say that this movie was worth me finding out what happened. And honesty, if not for the distraction toward the end, I would have been locked in from the beginning to the end. Dev Patel created a movie that is not only interesting from a storytelling perspective while being visually arresting but shares a part of his culture that makes me the viewer want to learn more about Hanuman as well as the Hijra people. And I love it when a movie makes me want to learn.
Comments
Post a Comment