Monkey Man

“There’s so much culture and it’s vibrant and it’s violent.”-Dev Patel What the fuck. There’s so much to say about this movie. I don’t normally put quotes in reviews, I’ve done it like one or two times before this but that’s it. But this quote resonated with me so much, and describes the movie so well that I decided to include it. Everything about this film is violent, incredibly violent. But it’s also so vibrant. The colors, the reflections, all of it was so eye catching. This movie was beautiful to look at. Even the fighting, in its own way, was beautiful. Each punch, each kick, felt so real and it was so well choreographed that it was hard to look away even at some of the more gruesome scenes.  The cinematography was insanely good. At the beginning I noticed the shots felt a lot more scrappy, for lack of a better word. The camera jerked around seemingly uncontrollably during a lot of the fight scenes, especially the hectic ones with the police and Officer Singh. I thought it worked really well and added to the tension, it really made me feel like I was watching a real fight and that Kid was the underdog. It wasn’t until later, after Kid had trained to follow the drum beats with his punches and fully mastered his technique that I noticed the camerawork had changed with him. The camera felt a lot more in control now, and while it was still moving around really quickly I now felt like it moved with Kid, following his attacks in a much more precise way than it had before. That was so cool, and I’ve never really experienced cinematography like that before. The plot was amazing as well. I cried multiple times and Kid as a character is just so fucking cool and interesting. I teared up a bit seeing the Hijra community, I’d heard about the representation before watching the film but didn’t realize just how positive of a portrayal it was. This is the first time to my knowledge that I have encountered a genderqueer south asian character in media and this movie will always be a little special to me just for that. The other characters were great too though. I was obsessed with the villains, they were such awful people and it was so cathartic to see them get brutally killed by the end. There’s so many movies where the hero spares the villains because “the hero would be just as bad as the villain if they resorted to killing” and I’m really happy that wasn’t the case in this movie. These people are truly evil and they deserved their fates, I’m glad the movie doesn’t shy away from that. I’m also so glad this wasn’t Hindutva propaganda, it definitely could’ve been but I quickly realized that it was not that type of movie but instead a celebration of hinduism without bashing other religions and cultures. I’m glad this focused on solidarity with Indian Muslims rather than other films (looking at you RRR) that uphold the belief that Hindus are superior.  I also can’t not have a section entirely devoted to the fight choreography. It was amazing, I loved watching all of it. I cringed a bit at the mom’s death, that was definitely the most gruesome it got for me at least, but most of it was so cool to watch. Seeing the way Kid moves while he fought, especially in the second act, literally changed my brain chemistry. The improvised weapons were so interesting too, like the metal tray and the fireworks. It felt a lot like other action movies where the violence is so eye-catching, however unlike those movies this wasn’t purely violence. Like Dev Patel said, it was just as much about liberation, about the soul and culture, as it was about the violence. I feel like that unique blend really added to my love of the movie and its choreography, with it all feeling so musical in an interesting way and really connecting to the soul. I love Dev Patel. He’s been one of my favorite actors since I saw The Green Knight and I’m so glad he made this movie. Probably one of the most ambitious directorial debuts and he really pulled it off. I loved this movie so much and if you still haven’t seen it after reading through my spoiler-filled rants I highly recommend it. It isn’t just “John Wick in Mumbai,” it’s something so much more complex than that and it comes together so well. My favorite film of the year so far, and I genuinely can’t see it changing.