Monkey Man: Dev Patel stuns in 'audacious' action-packed thriller
The film is the directorial debut of the actor who shot to fame in Slumdog Millionaire
"All hail Dev Patel," said Kevin Maher in The Times. The 33-year-old Slumdog Millionaire star has made his directorial debut "with an audacious action flick" set in contemporary India. In the fictional city of Yatana, "mobsters rule" and "venal politicians thrive", but there is hope to be found in the "murderously effective hands" of a mysterious bare-knuckle boxer, known as Kid, who fights wearing a monkey mask. Kid, played by Patel, is nursing a "primal hatred for the corrupt city cop" who murdered his mother.
Luckily for him, he gets a chance for revenge during a deeply "satisfying" hotel bathroom brawl, which segues into "an epic street chase, followed by a brutal brothel fight, followed by a near-death rooftop shooting" – all unfolding "at a hyperkinetic pace". If a film can be described as "close to narrative cardiac arrest", this is it.
"Scrape away the fake blood", however, and there are ideas here too. "Modi's India? Nationalistic rabble-rousing? The mobilisation of sectarian hatred? It's all on the table. Come, in short, for the roundhouse kicks. Stay for the politics."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Patel "brings the gonzo chaos" to this wildly OTT thriller, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. And he shows us "some pretty serious martial arts chops" too, thumping and kickboxing the living daylights out of the bad guys – while "periodically pausing, of course, attractively dropletted with sweat, to let us get an eyeful of those sculpted abs".
This "down-and-dirty" film "crams in a great deal", with somewhat "messy" results, said Manohla Dargis in The New York Times. It's also pretty obvious where it's going to end up. Still, Patel is "an appealing screen presence and you're rooting for him – both as a character and as a filmmaker – right from the start".
Monkey Man is out now in cinemas
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
6 well-crafted log homesFeature Featuring a floor-to-ceiling rock fireplace in Montana and a Tulikivi stove in New York
-
Film reviews: A House of Dynamite, After the Hunt, and It Was Just an AccidentFeature A nuclear missile bears down on a U.S. city, a sexual misconduct allegation rocks an elite university campus, and a victim of government terror pursues vengeance
-
Book reviews: ‘Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife’ and ‘Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong With Baseball and How to Fix It’Feature Gertrude Stein’s untold story and Jane Leavy’s playbook on how to save baseball
-
Rachel Ruysch: Nature Into ArtFeature Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through Dec. 7
-
Music reviews: Olivia Dean, Madi Diaz, and Hannah FrancesFeature “The Art of Loving,” “Fatal Optimist,” and “Nested in Tangles”
-
Gilbert King’s 6 favorite books about the search for justiceFeature The journalist recommends works by Bryan Stevenson, David Grann, and more
-
Ready for the apocalypseFeature As anxiety rises about the state of the world, the ranks of preppers are growing—and changing.
-
A little-visited Indian Ocean archipelagoThe Week Recommends The paradise of the Union of the Comoros features beautiful beaches, colourful coral reefs and lush forests


