Monkey Man (2024, R)

*Premise spoilers.*

Okay, I have been looking forward to this movie sooooo much. The trailer was absolutely bonkers—the day it came out, I watched it like five times in a row. Writer/director/action hero Dev Patel? Inject it into my veins! It killed me that I couldn’t see the film the second it was released, but I was finally able to rectify that last weekend.

Our unnamed protagonist—who tells people his name is Bobby but is credited only as “Kid”—is on a mission. He’s finally earned enough from an underground fight ring to buy the access and hardware he needs to get revenge on the people who tore his life in half as a child. He’s haunted by his past, and while he’s never taken a life before, he knows how to take a hit and doesn’t plan to stop until he’s found his vengeance.

I have to start with the action, which is positively sick. The trailers let us know how wild this film was going to be, and it does not disappoint. Kid is scrappy and raw, and over the course of the film, we see how he levels up as fighter, going from scrambling resilience to lethal, brutal proficiency. The hits keep coming, the training montage is spectacular, and the bloody climactic set piece is so viscerally satisfying.

What I really love about the film, though, is how its story delves deeper than a boilerplate revenge thriller. I like that Kid is clearly so messed up by his past, that he’s deeply damaged but determined to see this through no matter what. I like the way his past is revealed gradually—we learn very quickly that something incredibly bad went down, but the details are reeled out slowly and deliberately. And I love that, by the end, Kid is fighting for more than just his own grievances. This is a story about class, marginalization, politics, nationalism, faith, and gender, and it’s powerful to watch.

As a directing and co-writing feature debut, Dev Patel turns in some impressive work. More than anything, I’m wowed by the ambition of this project. It can’t be easy to make an intense action thriller loaded with complicated fight choreography for your first time behind the camera, but Patel turns in a gritty, stylish film. There are scenes, sequences, and shots that had me hand-flapping with excitement in the theater. The first big action sequence is shot kind of frenetically, which is good for capturing Kid’s state of mind but compromises visual clarity somewhat. However, the intense action sequence of the third act, where Kid has trained more intensely and has much stronger moves, is able to capture that frenzy while still letting us see everything clearly. I love how the flashbacks are woven into the story, and I really love the recurring motif of tableaus from the book about Hanuman that Kid’s mother read to him as a child. When it comes to the plot, there’s a lot going on here, and I don’t think everything holds together, but I really respect the big swings Patel takes. I love that this is an action movie that really has something to say—shades of Mad Max: Fury Road, maybe—and that Patel is so unafraid in saying it.

While this is Patel’s first directing and co-writing rodeo, I of course already knew I loved him as an actor. When it comes to both the fight choreography and the emotional content, he tears it up, really embodying this young man who’s giving everything he has to this mission. Other than Patel, the only actor I’m familiar with is Sharlto Copley (best known for District 9)—he plays Tiger, who runs the fighting ring. But the rest of the cast is strong. I especially like Sobhita Dhulipala as Sita, Adithi Kalkunte as Kid’s mother, and Pitobash as Alphonso, Kid’s quasi-sidekick with underworld connections. The film also features a number of performers from India’s third gender hijra community, which is really cool.

Warnings

Strong violence (including rape,) sexual content, drinking/smoking/drug use, language, and strong thematic elements.

The Book of Rannells: Invincible: Season 2, Episode 6 – “It’s Not That Simple” (2024)

*Spoilers from episode 5.*

I’ll be honest, this one had a little trouble holding my attention. Much like episode 5, it doesn’t seem to fulfill the potential of its preceding cliffhanger. As a result, it’s fine but feels kind of anti-climactic.

Mark, Shapesmith, and a handful of other Guardians have flown to intercept a Martian ship taken over by Sequids, a parasitic hive mind race looking to hijack humanity. They fight to stop the invasion and then deal with intervening fallout back on Earth. As Debbie considers logistics for raising Nolan’s son, who she’s christened Oliver, she’s determined to keep Cecil and the Global Defense Agency out of it.

Toward the tail end of episode 5, the characters learned about the Sequid invasion force, and the episode ended with them on the ropes, fighting for their lives. As such, it surprised me that this part of the story wraps up fairly quickly, and even a personal crisis in the middle of the fight is addressed without too much fuss. Maybe it’s me, being supremely creeped out by the Sequids, but I thought more time would be spent on this.

There’s quite a bit of heaviness here. While Mark and co. were dealing with the Sequids, major stuff was going down with the rest of the Guardians on Earth. No one’s really in a good place mentally right now, and they’re all dealing with a lot.

As I said last week, it’s hard for Debbie to wrap her head around the idea of raising Nolan’s alien baby, but once she decides to take in Oliver, she’s serious about it. She’s already concerned about Cecil’s influence over Mark, and she doesn’t want him getting anywhere near the baby. There’s a guest star in this plotline, a nanny applicant named April, who’s played by Calista Flockhart, so that’s cool!

We get a little more of William than we have in previous episodes this season, although Andrew Rannells still doesn’t really have anything of substance to do. There’s an intriguing loose thread brought back today in the form of Rick, William’s crush from season 1 who was brutalized in a supervillain attack. When he returns in this episode looking pretty much unscathed, Mark’s spidey senses start tingling, but William is too thrilled to suspect anything could be amiss.

Other than that, I smiled at this line, in which Mark gets his signals crossed while seeking privacy in the dorms. After an intense discussion with Allen the Alien, we hear knocking at the door and William calling, “Hey Mark, are you and Amber done yet? That sock’s been on the door for hours, and I really need to go to bed!” Hee!

Relationship Spotlight: Monica Rambeau & Kamala Khan (The Marvels)

It’s been a little while since I last talked about The Marvels, but I wanted to swing back around and look at the Kamala-Monica relationship. While not as intense as Carol-Kamala or Monica-Carol, this third major relationship within the central trio is important as well.

Carol looms large in the film, for obvious reasons. On a meta level, this film is a team sequel of her initial solo movie. Undoubtedly, she’s the most powerful of the three, the most experienced (with both superheroing and space travel,) and she’s the one who fought against Thanos. And on a personal level, she has an important, painful history with Monica and is voraciously hero-worshipped by Kamala. She takes up a lot of space in the movie, and that includes her relationships with the other two.

For better or worse, both Monica and Kamala are kind of orbiting Carol, and with the baggage that they bring, they both spend a good chunk of the movie not getting everything they want out of their interactions with her. You have Monica, who straight-up doesn’t want to deal with Carol at all, meanwhile Kamala’s sky-high fangirl expectations could never be met by an actual person, no matter how great they are. And when Carol doesn’t or can’t live up to what they want her to be, that’s where they have each other.

If Monica views Carol as a family member who let her down, and Kamala views Carol as an unattainable hero, they’re able to view one another in a more measured light. They aren’t bringing the same expectations, and so they’re better able to relate to one another as people. Their relationship has a bit more of an older/younger sister flavor. Monica sees how passionate Kamala is and how badly she wants to help, and she gives the younger hero space to do that while also looking out for her. And Kamala sees Monica for the kickass hero she is, but without the same starry-eyed adoration she has for Carol, she doesn’t get as giddy and tongue-tied. Their relationship is born, at least in part, out of needing someone to turn to when they have difficult moments with Carol.

It’s always interesting like this, when you have relationships between three characters and one of them is the bigger focal point. In these cases, the interactions between the other two will always be somewhat in reaction to their feelings about the first character, but even though the presence of that first character will inevitably inform their relationship, the other two characters still ultimately decide what to make of it.

And as the movie goes on, Monica and Kamala become friends and allies. Monica digs deep to use her powers in a brand-new way to save Kamala when an untimely switch puts her in grave danger. They learn to work and fight together in cool, inventive ways. They take in the wildness around them together—especially on Aladna, where Monica teases Kamala about writing Captain Marvel fanfic. And through their growing bond with each other, they’re both able to get to a place where they’re able to connect with Carol without all the baggage that was getting in the way before.