Monkey Man (2024)

Monkey Man is the first feature by director, cowriter, and star Dev Patel, better known as an actor for his performances in Slumdog Millionaire, The Green Knight, and many others. He also gets some help or maybe just inspiration from co-producer Jordan Peele. Monkey Man is standard action fare, with a story approximately as old as spaghetti westerns or the Bible. As a child, the Monkey Man (Patel, credited as “Kid”) witnessed the death of his mother at the hands of a corrupt police captain. It takes a while to find out, but he’s on a tortuous path for vengeance. Mother killed in front of his eyes, a lifelong quest for revenge. “My name is [Monkey Man]. You killed my [mother]. Prepare to die.” Stop me if you’ve heard this before. He’s poor, living on jobs waiting tables and as a fighter in no-holds-barred boxing ring matchups, where he wears a monkey mask. The Monkey Man is small but he’s fast. Bigger opponents often just miss him and can’t land any blows. But he is regularly humiliated, because he is the scripted loser in these bouts in the ring and always required to take a dive (getting a bonus if he bleeds). Monkey Man boasts lots of active and handheld camera work and any number of well-choreographed fistfights, with some gunplay but mostly the hand-to-hand combat. In the grand old kung fu tradition he is able to take on dozens at a time and rarely misses taking them down, though he does get his own many beatdowns. Attempting to escape the scene of one of his crimes he’s hit by a sniper, bangs off a roof, and lands in water. It looks like a puddle, but it’s quite deep. Finally he is rescued by a strange cult. A drug scene follows in which a wise old man (or shaman, perhaps) administers him something and guides him through a place that is mythical and legendary and full of personal memories of his mother and so on. He is soon ready to fulfill his destiny as ... Hanuman, the Monkey Man. This will involve lots of fighting. He trains for it coached by a tabla player. All the chicks where he’s staying, even the older women, dig that training the most—a ridiculous scene, but hold on, Monkey Man moves fast. You won’t be surprised by anything in this story (making me think Peele’s influence was minimal) but you might find some entertainment in the hypnotic fighting scenes. I know I did.