Monkey Man

Dev Patel is the Lisan Al Gaib for brown filmmakers tbh, would follow him anywhere.I watched this yesterday and needed 24 hours to come down from the high to properly reflect on it. No but Im gonna be very serious here- what it means to see a movie Western audiences will watch, about India but made actually for Desis. With our culture and nuances without some dumbed-down version for white version people to grasp.... it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing. To see Dev playing an action hero is a similar game changer. It's not a brown John Wick, to me it's entirely its own entity. It's natural. The fact that this is his directing debut- boggles the mind. I expected to love it- I did not expect it to be as intelligent and thoughtful as it was. The bravery and risk he took to go after the Hindu nationalists and Modi can't be overstated. To bring to light the eternally ignored or minimized violence towards trans-South Asians. To touch on caste. To touch on masculinity and police brutality. All is taboo and all is risky. To do all that and still achieve a love letter to India that shows it in its beauty as well It's a remarkable feat and brilliantly done. The movie is a reclaiming of Hinduism. That to me- is its core. Yes the style was great, the violence is fantastic, the visuals are stunning and the acting is perfect... but what won me the most is the multitude of clever nuances. The uses of Diwali fireworks at the party, using bobby bleach to make the mask white- Hanuman, the use of the silver tray to defeat the wife- with a keen eye you can the movie is so damn smart. I just fucking loved it man. I hope all audiences are able to see its greatness, to give it the time of day, but Im glad it exists for us regardless. When a film becomes more than just a film, you cant help but remember why this stuff matters. And god bless Jordan Peele for giving this the run it deserves.