To see at the cinema: Monkey Man is not India’s John Wick… but the best action movie of recent years

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A young man was released from prison in India. He finds himself in a world where the greed of business leaders reigns and, conversely, the erosion of spiritual values.

5 good reasons to see Monkey Man

if the card “Thriller” Not enough for you, here are some arguments that might convince you to witness Revenge of the Monkey on the big screen.

1 – Dev Patel, a promising director

Discovered in Skins, Dev Patel made the big leap to the same-sized screen with Slumdog Millionaire, which won eight Oscars including Best Picture. Then the adventure was less happy when he went to the side of the Avatar – the last pilot with M. Night Shymalan, and his career was varied and unexpected, in the cinema (Chappie, Lion, The Green Knight) or on television. (Newsroom).

And that unexpected side continues with this first production. Based on a project that took him twelve years to complete, inspired by the gamut of genre cinema (from Bruce Lee films to The Raid Saga, including Korean productions, he tells us) and Indian mythology, his parents’ country of origin. .

A story of action and revenge with a political twist, in which he plays the lead role and demonstrates to the general public his talent in martial arts (black belt in taekwondo), as well as his skills as a director. Proof that Neill Blomkamp, ​​who Dev Patel once considered offering to direct the film, did well to get him to do it himself.

2 – The film should not have been released in the cinema

Isn’t that the best argument for going to the cinema to see a movie, knowing it shouldn’t be there? Monkey Man was originally slated for Netflix, which no doubt saw it as the new Tyler Rake. “But it didn’t work, for various reasons”Dev Patel tells us when we meet him in London.

“So I was ready to say goodbye to my film. I was very sad because I thought it was going to sit on the shelf for a long time. Then my agent called me and said, ‘Have you heard of this guy? Jordan Peele ? Obviously, yes! We talked on the phone for three hours, it was almost like therapy. He said, I hope you don’t blame me, but I showed the movie to Universal and they’re going to buy it. I almost fell out of my chair.”

I was ready to say goodbye to my film. I was very sad because I thought it would stay on the shelf for a long time.

Associated with Universal, which distributed his first three feature films as a director (Get Out, Us and Nope), Jordan Peele helped save Ape Man. And he opened the doors of the cinema wide for him, where he completely has his place. As in the catalog of Monkeypaw, the company of his savior.

3 – Jordan Peele’s paw

“Jordan really understood what I wanted to do with the film, that I wanted to make a genre film that said a lot more.” We really don’t know why Netflix didn’t want Monkey Man anymore. But it is probably related to his expressed political side. Because we’re dealing with an angry movie that falls flat on every level.

The hero’s revenge is also the oppressed against the oppressors. The anonymous people who rule India have left it to the powerful corrupt people. That his main antagonists are in power is no accident, and the feature film is fully in line with Monkeypaw’s editorial line.

Monkey Man is a film that, in many ways, should not exist in today’s Hollywood

“I fell in love with the movie when I saw the rough cut”Jordan Peele confirms. “It was only 90% complete, but I could see right away what a special project it was. A film that’s unlike most of what we make today. It takes us back to those really good films of the 70s. 80s and 90s.”

“Monkey Man is a film that, in many ways, shouldn’t exist in today’s Hollywood. Despite Dave’s reputation as an actor, studios don’t risk investing in films that tell the story from the perspective of little people, and that’s where the ambition lies. With Monkeypaw, we made sure to work with up-and-coming directors and The more we do, the more I realize that these are the people I can give as much advice as they can teach me.

“Finally, there’s something ironic about a movie called Monkey Man produced by Monkeypaw, there’s a strange primal energy to it all.”, Dev Patel concludes, noting the fact that by its very nature and content, his feature film was destined to land in Jordan Peele’s lap. With this play on words that we had come up with, without daring to do it, which is even better.

4 – painful scenes

Monkey Man is not a deluge of action that lasts more than two hours, and you have to wait a bit before watching the first scene. But if Dev Patel takes the time to establish the situation and draw the main character, it will have more impact in Rain. Because it doesn’t hold them back, especially during the nice finale.

A restaurant kitchen, a bar in an elegant building, an elevator or even a boxing ring. The actor and director offers some bravura work in which he displays a certain virtuosity, preferring a more raw and visceral approach to scenes that risk appearing overly choreographed.

A sequence that is painful, in every sense of the word, after Dev Patel explained how he broke his hand on the first set… and if he had to go on, Monkey Man didn’t have enough budget to shoot or remove the actor in post-production. “I can’t play the piano anymore.”answers when we ask if he has fully recovered from this injury, one of the many he has suffered.

5 – This is not an Indian John Wick

It’s really important to see the film as a successor to another entity or franchise, rather than turning it into a standalone as a quest. “New Zidane” Did it only lead to a series of fiascos in the French football team? As soon as the first images of Ape Man were released, comparisons to John Wick came out faster than the hero needed time to kick in.

But Dev Patel expected it. Because his movie line (which he will introduce himself) clearly tells us that he doesn’t want to be portrayed as a simple Indian John Wick, but as a movie. “Intelligent and effective”. “I put that sentence in because as soon as they saw someone hitting it in a suit, people were going to say, ‘Oh, yeah, like John Wick.'”The director smiles as he remembers this evil wink.

I use action as a Trojan horse to talk about things that fascinate me deeply

“I love John Wick, let me be clear, I love directing him Chad Stahelski, who is a good friend. But this is a different style. I use action as a Trojan horse to talk about things I’m deeply passionate about. As an Anglo-Asian man, as an artist who spent a lot of time in India. I hope this will allow people to talk about the mythological aspect of it and its different tones. “

If it has a mixture of revenge and action in common, Ape Man is much more than a simple John Wick, from which he stands out with a more pronounced political and angry aspect. And this line fits well with the hero’s search for identity as he tries to make a name for himself and escape anonymity. Hoping for Dev Patel’s success, which means a new film will be unveiled one day “The New Monkey Man”.

Commentary collected by Maximilien Pierret in London on March 26, 2024