Review: Kinetic ‘Monkey Man’ announces a bold new action director, one you already know

Dev Patel’s got something to say, but he’s going to let his fists do the talking. With his directorial debut, the wild revenge movie “Monkey Man,” the Oscar-nominated actor makes a bold statement with this one-two punch of a film that asserts himself as both an action star and a promising new genre voice. Dev Patel in the movie “Monkey Man.” The Kid wants to get close to Chief Rana, a cruel police officer whose bloodied knuckles haunt his nightmares. This Kid’s got potential but he’s not quite finished yet and Patel turns “Monkey Man” into his coming-of-age story, mapping the fight scenes in tandem with his growth as a warrior. With “Monkey Man,” Patel manages to pull it off and then some, signaling the arrival of an authentic filmmaker, effectively following a similar trajectory of one of the film’s producers, Jordan Peele, who made a similar statement with “Get Out.” Patel did it his way, forged his own path and we’ll never look at him in the same light again — and that’s a good thing.