*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.
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