Post by stephen on Apr 7, 2024 20:07:55 GMT
Rescued from the clutches of Netflix, Dev Patel's directorial debut is indeed a film worthy of the big screen . . . but it is not without its flaws. The first act does take a while to get going, and a lot of the low-res fight shakycam does feel like the worst tendencies of Soderbergh and Greengrass fused together. And for all of Patel's instincts as a director, he lets his characterization take a back seat here, because his nameless protagonist lacks any depth or personality. Patel is a great actor and has charisma for days, but here he's stripped to the bone in minimalist physicality. Few actors not named Ryan Gosling can get away with it, and while I think Patel is indeed an actor who can do more with less, I would've liked at least a glimmer of something to hook me with this character.
But once the movie gets going, it gets fucking going. The back half of the movie is strong and doesn't let up, and there is some great character work from the likes of Pitobash, Sikander Kher, Vipin Sharma, everyone's favourite maniac Sharlto Copley, Ashwini Kalsekar and Makarand Deshpande. If I had any real complaints on the narrative structure of the movie, it's that some of these characters lack a button to them. Take Pitobash's weaselly Joe Pesci-esque Alphonso; that guy was a great scene-stealer and there's enough meat to his character that we care about him and his arc, but the movie fails to really close out his storyline the way I think it should. An extra thirty seconds at the end for his character, with maybe just a look and a bag of cash, would've sufficed.
All that said, I do think that Monkey Man mostly sticks the landing as a concept, and shows that Patel does have some visionary instinct here. He just needs to hone it and whittle it down a bit.
But once the movie gets going, it gets fucking going. The back half of the movie is strong and doesn't let up, and there is some great character work from the likes of Pitobash, Sikander Kher, Vipin Sharma, everyone's favourite maniac Sharlto Copley, Ashwini Kalsekar and Makarand Deshpande. If I had any real complaints on the narrative structure of the movie, it's that some of these characters lack a button to them. Take Pitobash's weaselly Joe Pesci-esque Alphonso; that guy was a great scene-stealer and there's enough meat to his character that we care about him and his arc, but the movie fails to really close out his storyline the way I think it should. An extra thirty seconds at the end for his character, with maybe just a look and a bag of cash, would've sufficed.
All that said, I do think that Monkey Man mostly sticks the landing as a concept, and shows that Patel does have some visionary instinct here. He just needs to hone it and whittle it down a bit.
