Tense, occasionally exhausting but always engaging revenge drama envisaged and realised by the ever-excellent Dev Patel, here making his auspcious directorial debut. If you enjoy the films he references, in particular the John Wick quadrilogy, you'll love this.
Patel the director pushes Patel the actor, always a sympatthetic presence on screen, into finding hidden reserves of rage. I remember watching him reaching for anger in a scene in Armando Ianucci's adaption of DAVID COPPERFIELD, and feeling that it didn't sit easily with Patel, that fire was not his element. I no lnoger have those doubts. Here in MONKEY MAN he explodes, burns, blazes, smoulders. One helluva performance.
The supporting cast are terrific, a wonderful collection of larger-than-life character actors. The villiany is split between Sikandar Kher's vicious, corrupt cop and. Makarand. Deshpande's serpentine baba, both very hissable.
Maybe it's over-edited, maybe the mystic elements won't be to everyone's taste, but the photography (Sharone Meir) is full of invention and the score (Jed Kurzel) is superb.
Patel the director pushes Patel the actor, always a sympatthetic presence on screen, into finding hidden reserves of rage. I remember watching him reaching for anger in a scene in Armando Ianucci's adaption of DAVID COPPERFIELD, and feeling that it didn't sit easily with Patel, that fire was not his element. I no lnoger have those doubts. Here in MONKEY MAN he explodes, burns, blazes, smoulders. One helluva performance.
The supporting cast are terrific, a wonderful collection of larger-than-life character actors. The villiany is split between Sikandar Kher's vicious, corrupt cop and. Makarand. Deshpande's serpentine baba, both very hissable.
Maybe it's over-edited, maybe the mystic elements won't be to everyone's taste, but the photography (Sharone Meir) is full of invention and the score (Jed Kurzel) is superb.