MONKEY MAN, Dev Patel’s debut as a director (Patel is also the co-writer and main actor) was recently celebrated at the SXSW Festival. Patel’s film was meant to go directly to streaming on Netflix before Jordan Peele (GET OUT, NOPE) jumped in and brought the film to cinemas through his production company “Monkey Paw“ and his deal with Universal. The film belongs there, if only because Dev Patel (SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, THE GREEN KNIGHT) is exactly the action hero that the world needs now. MONKEY MAN has fantastic images too, of course.

Patel, even in his younger, lankier days, always had a dancer’s elegance and is a convincing action hero. As “Kid” he starts out getting beaten up in underground boxing matches with a monkey mask over his face. His goal is the corrupt policeman Rana, who once burned down his mother’s Muslim village and murdered here. In order to do so, he sneaks into a brothel for the upper class as a dishwasher. But Kid still has a lot to learn before he can enact his revenge, and before he understands that the policeman is only the executive arm of a horrible Yoga fascist. Like many debut directors, Dev Patel wants to do everything at once: an epic revenge action thriller, a political fable about the caste system and the racist land seizures of Hindu nationalists; a mythical superstructure with the legend of monkey God Hanuman, siding with the Hijra caste – trans and non-gender conforming women who appear here as warriors. MONKEY MAN isn’t very even, but Patel shows that he could play an important role in action cinema for years to come.

Tom Dorow

Translation: Elinor Lewy