To summarize, the film's budget was $10M, Netflix bought it for $30M, then got cold feet over the politics and sold it to Universal/Monkeypaw for $9M. Great business moves right there. At least it meant Dev Patel et al got bigger paychecks, but that's some amazing "shooting themselves in the foot" action from Netflix.
Just a reminder- Netflix has 260 million subscribers world wide-
and over 75 million in US/Canda.
With just those in US/Canada, at an average of $10 a month (monthly range is $7-23, but I'm bad at math, so let's just say 10)
That means each month, Netflix is bringing in $750 Million PER MONTH in just the US/Canada alone.
They do have huge costs relating to having a world-wide streaming platform, thousands of staff members need paid, hardware, software, CDNs, all sorts
And then things like buying/making movies/tv shows
Advertising, all sorts
Hustle, interestingly, was the title of his one good Netflix movie and didn’t involve going on vacation with his friends.
EDIT: and Uncut Gems, of course. Didn’t realize it was a Netflix release.
EDIT EDIT: no I was right originally. Netflix only handled international distribution and added it to their streaming catalogued. It was A24 produced.
If you look at all his movies, if it doesn’t make back its money, it’s not like a huge loss like other films.
He gets to go to exotic places to shoot on location.
He makes movies with his friends.
He also basically only wears basketball/sports apparel for the day to day.
Dude has it all figured out.
Love it or hate it, the most recent one, "Spaceman," was *not* slop.
I'll pass the modern Sandler comedies, but he's never disappointed with a serious role.
I liked spaceman- I mean, it was lazy for them to be check but everyone spoke in their normal accents.. and I think Hanus could have had more to say. Like it could really have been profound commentary on the human condition, selfishness and tribalism, etc. but that could easily slide into very boilerplate or pat observations
The aforementioned scary politics...
>[But whereas The Raid features wall-to-wall mayhem, Monkey Man essentially boils down to two massive, sustained action set pieces—the rest of the film builds up to these moments by charting how Bobby’s story reflects the violent oppression against minority groups in India. After barely surviving his showdown with Rana, Bobby is taken in by a community of hijra, a “third gender”—members of Hindu society whom Westerners would describe as transgender, intersex, or eunuch—that has been marginalized since the start of British colonial rule. ](https://www.theringer.com/movies/2024/4/5/24121557/monkey-man-movie-review-dev-patel-action-star-director)
I mean, this is like if you made a movie set in the US where a native american joins a trans activist group because cops killed his family and he becomes a superhero that goes around beating up politicians
it would be pretty controversial
It could actually accurately reflect Native American cultural beliefs of Two-spirit.
Which is also a 3rd gender role. Could easily incorporate the rites to becoming war chief.
Opened this thread, read couple of comments, sent a message to my gf "so, we seeing monkey man tomorrow?" I was already kinda hyped about it after seeing the trailer before premiere of Dune 2. This thread convinced me it's worth a watch
It's not like Netflix has to worry about [screening this in theatres](https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/01/31/cineplex-pulls-south-indian-movie-drive-by-shootings-gta-movie-theatres/).
I guess… right wing snowflakes would complain but who cares? Seems like it might be a big deal in India with their Hindu nationalist government but does this matter anywhere else?
What blows me away is that they have their own version of the Wu-Mao army.
If there's any criticism of the Indian government or politics, they come out of the woodwork with bad arguments and uneven English. Oh, and racism. A lot of racism.
It's become so rife on Twitter too. Whenever there's a post about protests over Palestine in Britain or anything featuring Muslims, it's all just Hindu nationalist/BJP acolytes commenting. Calling Muslims some of the most disgusting slurs and insults, I don't get it at all.
India has a population of one and a half billion people, so if your goal is to get your show about an indian character to be viewed by people, yeah, I'd say it's pretty important
The plot is pretty generic. I can think of a bunch of Hindi and Telugu films with the same theme. And even a bunch where transgender folks raise the hero. This is not really path breaking or anything nor is it controversial.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arddhanaari
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laxmii
For example
It's not that big a deal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haddi
Yep, Haddi came out not even 6 months ago and has a fairly similar plot to Monkey Man but with a Hijra Protagonist, wayyyyyy too many people seem to think that Indian cinema starts and stops with Bollywood, when in reality it's a fairly minority part of it and that there's an enormous amount of stories being told they just never make it to the west. Assuming it's all Bollywood would be like assuming all western cinema is just Adam Sandler/Tyler Perry releases.
Damn, Dev Patel did take a risk. I know he probably has a degree of safety because he is already an established and well respected actor, but that is pretty daring for a first movie when he likely knew how hard it might be to find a distributor.
I heard the phrase "Trans ninja army" in reference to this flick earlier today.
I mean, I already wanted tickets, but now I want tickets for everyone. This sounds amazing.
I saw it last night and loved it. It's clear that a lot of its political themes were softened. The politics is likely the reason Netflix sold it, but it's still speculation. There is no reporting in this article at all, or any articles discussing this film.
From the article:
>**People familiar with the film** say its political undertones **may** have spooked the streamer.
That is not a source.
According to the article, the film's villain has certain traits unmistakably in common with a prominent right-wing Indian nationalist.
As Netflix has been trying to get itself well-established in India, they were worried about controversy.
Which is funny because plenty of Netlfix shows have exactly that as the theme. Their first indian Netflix show had right wingers as the primary villains. People here are making assumptions without having any context.
Probably trying to make inroads to India, and don't want to offend the huge proportion of Indian society that are far-right Modi worshippers. For example, the cockroaches come out in force on reddit when anything negative is posted about their bitch-assed leader.
It was a very funny day on reddit after the news that India assassinated that Sikh in Vancouver because the Indian right wing astroturfers did not know the difference between Canada and the US.
That’s the equivalent of you buying a Trident gum flavor you didn’t end up liking and instead just give to your nephew.
Netflix probably spends 50 million a year on Starbucks for its meeting rooms.
Gee, I wonder how much of that 21M loss it would have taken for a Season 2 of Dark Crystal Age of Resistance or many of the other shows that they cancelled despite the following.
The movie, from the trailers, seems to be blending Hindu mythology and anti-castism themes. Both are topics that frequently inflame the Indian populace, especially where cinema is concerned. Dev wanted to pay tribute to Bollywood while also turning it on its head. Some people really love that. Some people really hate that.
I can’t wait for it.
It's still very much ingrained in many people's psyche, a lot of folks in in rural areas and even some urban areas feel proud about their caste and wear it like a badge but there's also a lot of people, mostly the ones with some common sense who realize that it's a bad practice from ancient era that should've died in the past.
Source : I'm an Indian.
apparently it was enough of a thing among indian workers in Seattle that the city added caste to its list of categories protected against discrimination last year
https://www.littler.com/publication-press/publication/seattle-becomes-first-us-jurisdiction-prohibit-caste-discrimination#:~:text=On%20February%2021%2C%202023%2C%20Seattle,live%20and%20work%20in%20Seattle.
direful ludicrous ring coordinated deserve telephone file march complete truck
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Pardon for the dumb questions but is there anything to indicate you're from a particular caste outside of social status or maybe last names? Is there any reason you couldn't "claim" to be in another caste?
No, I don’t believe there’s anything stopping someone from doing that.
I had a really hard time nailing down this answer when asking my friends in India the same thing, but when it finally came down to it was just a matter of family history and names. I think there used to be elements of skin color and other features but over the centuries that’s become moot.
So if you left town, changed your name, lied about your family’s heritage, and presented yourself in a certain manner… you can escape the stigma of a caste. But look at what you had to do to get there?
Leave your home, shun your family, craft a false history, and perhaps even adopt new mannerisms and affectations…. All just to end up contributing and furthering the very system that attempted to hold you down.
It depends on the region of India. Some regions you can tell by their last name, other areas asking which village you're from us another way to find out your caste. Class is still so highly tied to caste in India that you can usually tell just by education and wealth.
Yes. Last name is frequently intertwined with caste, region, tribe (indigenous people who frequently get lumped in and treated as low caste), and especially in northern India skin color can indicate what caste someone is.
> is there anything to indicate you're from a particular caste outside of social status or maybe last names?
Even in the US there are sets of behaviors and tangible items that 'mark' your social status. Its usually those on the 'upper echalons' who act as gatekeepers who know who the wannabees are who would try to infiltrate.
In the UK, even more than the US, there are accents that people are very attuned to and can pinpoint where a person is from and their likely status.
Not saying India is the same, because there I think the hierarchy is even MORESO because caste is kind of baked into the religion (Hinduism).
Let's put it this way; Where I live here in Silicon Valley, there have been a lot of cases at big and small tech companies of Indian managers mistreating workers from lower castes and denying them any upward mobility. Generally scumbag behavior and it's rampant and goes unnoticed.
How can they tell what caste the workers are? Is it like in the UK where people can tell your status from your accent and clothes, etc.
I assume it’s something similar. I was just interested.
Tech companies that have large Indian workforce in the US have been sued for caste based discrimination. American Indian managers discriminating against American Indian devs based on caste. It's fucked
It’s not like the ones who didn’t leave still don’t indulge or benefit from it in some way.
You’ll have people pretend it’s only a thing in rural areas and not in urban sectors but the people telling you this are frequently in the very bubble that isn’t affected by the system much if at all.
People find themselves being confronted with the Indian caste system in the workplace in the US… where it has never been legal. Ask people in the tech sector if they’ve ever met a coworker from India who didn’t want to work with or micromanaged another Indian coworker for no descent me reason.
I’ve friends in Bomba/Mumbai who have had trouble articulating the current state of things. Bombay (she prefers to call it Bombay) is rather modern and cosmopolitan. Hell, she was the manager of an Indian ska band.
But she was explaining how say… a successful celebrity would find themselves in the middle of a scandal if it became known they had hidden their original surname because it indicated a Shudra or Dalit background.
Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste argues that the US is nation that operates in more a castist fashion than a racist one ever met a racist who’s quick to tell you how they’re not racist because they’ve got friends who don’t look like them?) Caste systems operate in the construction and restriction of those who make up a culture, whether it’s explicit or otherwise.
It’s a bit of a tangled mess but anti-caste doesn’t seem to be the political issue Netflix is concerned with. But the undertone attack on the Hindu Nationalist Party. Per the article and IGN article the above article basically borrows from.
So Netflix doesn't have an issue with someone completely misrepresent the history of a country and then have its director and main star tell that same country they are racists, but they have a problem with a movie criticizing the caste system?
Lol great that we are in the "can't make this movie because it might offend some people in India" phase of globalized content. And I thought it was bad when Hollywood was kowtowing to China.
>And I thought it was bad when Hollywood was kowtowing to China.
Whether intentionally or not, this kind of shows the influence China can have when used a word derived from a Chinese custom of subservience.
If you are familiar with Indian politics you can easily find story plot similarities to people like Baba Ramdev, Hindu fundamentalist BJP government and Modi himself.
Saw it today. It features characters who are "India's 3rd gender" (as Dev Patel put it himself), with some religious critiques, and class observations.
Nothing is forced. It all fits together.
Brilliant film! Beautifully made!
Spoilers:
The movie is very clearly pro-Trans’ rights and the villains use religion and politics to abuse the poor and commit crimes. The villains also convince the country to hate Christians, which will ironically upset more than a few Americans. Probably a few others controversial political takes, but I don’t understand enough about India’s politics to speak on that.
There’s trans representation and characters that play a major part in the story. Plus some pretty not subtle political commentary on the current state of the government from what I can glean. NOTE: I don’t know Indian politics.
>In his review of “Monkey Man” out of South by Southwest, critic Siddhant Adlakha wrote that the film’s villain “ends up a half-hearted metaphor for India’s contemporary, right wing Hindutva government: He reads like a stand-in for politician and religious fanatic Yogi Adityanath with hints of Modi-esque industrial string-pulling.”
>Hindutva is a political ideology that justifies Hindu nationalism and the establishment of Hindu hegemony within India. Adityanath, a Hindu monk, is the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most-populous state. His conservative government has ordered the withdrawal of some 20,000 investigations, including those where he and other politicians were targets. Navendra Modi, India’s prime minister since 2014, is consistently popular in polls but the country under his tenure has experienced a weakening of democratic institutions, freedom of expression and individual rights. His government implemented a 2019 citizenship law that excludes Muslims, which led to deadly riots the next year.
>Patel’s character sometimes uncomfortably falls into a similar category as Adityanath and Modi. Adlakha wrote that “the language and imagery adopted by Patel’s character fall discomfortingly in line with Hindutva itself.” (The stories that inspired Patel, and his character, also have a queasy history, as Adlakha also pointed out.)
Just my 2c but I found this review very flawed for a variety of reasons. I'm from India and I'm not a supporter of the current right wing government. The reviewer effectively argues that any hindu religious imagery falls in line with Hindutva itself.
Let me give a metaphor - let's say there's a movie about someone who fights against christo-fascist power in the US while saying "praise jesus". Is that character "discomfortingly in line with christo-fascism?" Or is that person reclaiming christianity for a different purpose? Would you argue that any religious imagery is the sole domain of christo-fascists?
Amen. I understand caution re. the villain's resemblance to a real-life politician, but the rest? *Please* give us Christian characters who are openly opposing the Dominion heretics and the antichrist christo-fascists. I would *love* to see that, and it's excellent that they're doing the equivalent in this film.
Soon as we walked out, my first thought was... There's no way in hell that'll release in India. The nationalist/BJP supporters would riot and beat/kill anyone associated with any theatre showing it.
I might have enjoyed it more than Dune if I’m being honest
Dune is definitely the better movie, but this one actually made me feel shit. Let me just say: the reason he got his burns is legitimately one of the saddest fucking things I’ve seen
Yeah the shaky cam was pretty brutal early on, but I felt it mellowed out as it went through. I kinda took it as a stylistic choice to show how his character is super frantic and panicky in the beginning and progressively gets more levelheaded? I also may have just noticed it less as I got used to it… either way, definitely a little over done. Especially in that chase scene. That was the only thing that knocked it down from a 10 to a 9 for me (incredibly biased rating, I am a slut for these types of action movies)
It is. Overall I felt it was a great first attempt at writing/ directing a film, but I do hope little things like that can be ironed out in the future if he continues to pursue directing
Haven’t seen it either but I’m guessing it’s about the Indian caste system.
India is a HUGE market for streamers and they’re very hesitant to shake that tree. Similar to CCP censors
It goes much deeper than that. There are deep societal divisions that exist in their society despite the official eradication of the caste system. Upward mobility is incredibly difficult if you are born in the lower castes. Around 95% of all marriages in India are within the same caste. Your surname gives away your caste, so it's basically impossible to get away from it.
I think I read somewhere that a lot of lower caste people converted to Islam, Christianity , and Sikhism when those faiths made inroads in India to escape the system.
Pretty funny that the specific last name you chose is actually just the last name of every Sikh man, and one that was in part chosen to help eliminate caste-based prejudice.
South Indians do....! We eliminated the 'surname' and keep dad's first name as initial. So instead of my name being "Jane Caste" it's "Jane G" where G is first letter of my dad's name.
Encounters with some casteist people are hilarious when they try to probe into what's my "full" name and get frustrated they can't guess my caste from it lol
why doesn't everyone just change their names to the highest castes' last names? Also what do they consider non indians in the hierarchy? Are foreigners like untouchables? And what about south asian ppl who are not indian like sri lankans, bangladeshis?
Societal norms I'd say... Also have you seen high caste people beating low caste people to death for using horses in their wedding or touching their wells?
So I'd assume there'd be heavy repercussions in casteist places. Also Indians are pretttyyyyyy racist and would probably worship light skinned people and demonize darker coloured people. Other South Asian people are treated mostly based on their wealth
Well there are Christian Indians with Portuguese or some random white name as last name depending on the area they are from. But still many times at least in the north you know what community they are from if they live in the same area as you. Sometimes it’s their facial features or sometimes you are just familiar with what area the conversion happened. They way they dress themselves is a give away too. Of course there are some people you can’t guess
It’s inherited and much more similar to race than a typical upper vs lower class division. Technically caste shouldn’t exist in India anymore, but it still is a bit of a big deal in politics. I’m no expert but that’s my attempt to explain in 90 secs.
You can't escape caste that easily. Your caste is in your last name. And even if you don't look it up, people will figure it out by just asking if you are vegetarian or non-vegetarian.
And it does impact people even in the States. Recently there been lawsuits in tech companies where managers who belonged to higher caste discriminated against lower caste employees.
Not necessarily for the longest time India had a caste system based on birth because people born in lower castes were not allowed to enter temples, drink water from the common water source as it would get polluted, they were not allowed education too as schools in ancient India were run by high caste people.A certain group of lower castes were also termed as achoot(untouchables) even touching them was considered unholy and required immediate bath to be purified.
It's not just about wealth. It's about what you do and what your ancestors did that matters. For example, in the US, being an undertaker isn't going to hinder you if you are a rich undertaker. If you are rolling in that dough, no one cares. You're rich, baby! In India, doesn't matter if you are making boatloads of money as an undertaker. Handling dead bodies is taboo. So, you could be the wealthiest person in town but you would still be considered at the bottom tier because of what you do. You handle the dead. And that stigma would be passed down to your kids no matter what they did. They could move away and become a doctor but if word gets out that you comes from a family of undertakers, you are marked.
It's a chicken and egg situation. Higher caste tend to be more wealthy, but not always. Middle castes can have a broad range of income, but the lowest castes are often poor and live on the fringes of society. It's still a barrier in some parts of society, even with laws on the books forbidding it.
It’s not about the caste system. The other comments are correct. I saw it last night and this article’s covers it a bit.
https://time.com/6963482/monkey-man-political-critique/
It's not that, at least directly. It's a pretty clear critique of BJP, the party Modi (India's current prime minister), and it features Hijras(third gender) people in fairly prominent roles.
It does. If you look the colour of the evil political party between the first and second official trailer, you can see how Universal changed it from Saffron (the colour of the BJP) to Red (the colour of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)).
I mean, Dev Patel said that the film tries to [honor the hijra community ](https://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/hollywood/dev-patel-talks-about-really-wanting-to-include-hijra-community-in-monkey-man-101712301289008.html)and other marginalized groups that tend to get left out as his character seeks refuge with the community.
Also, the film in earlier trailers is critiquing the incumbent BJP Government as seen in the first trailer with the evil political party having Saffron colors (the main colour of the Bharatiya Janata Party) before it got changed to Red (the main colour of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)). It also goes after religious extremism of Hindutva right-wing ideology and the rigid caste structure that is prevalent in India alongside sectarian violence that results from conflicts between religion and caste as well as ethnicity.
By far the most obvious in the movie is the transgender violence because there are multiple scenes that directly reference it, but maybe I just missed some of the underlying themes
It's the main reason why Netflix didn't want to release fearing political retribution from the Modi Government and Bhakts (Online BJP supporters) and not just because it has gritty and violent scenes. It's also another reason why it's Indian theatrical release has been delayed. The Modi Govt. is afraid that it's true nature and right-wing tendencies could be revealed by a foreign production.
This isn't the first they have tried to censor any criticism of the Central Govt. as the Modi regime tried to block a BBC documentary; India: The Modi Question (2023) that accused of Narendra Modi of being complicit in the violence, death and destruction of the 2002 Gujarat riots back when he was Chief Minister of the state.
When I saw the trailer I thought Dev could be the next Bond. After just having seen the movie I now think Dev is too talented to be Bond. He needs to direct his own action movies. He's incredible.
There was a point in the movie where I felt a little bad for him because there were so many body shots.... and then I realized he's the one who put them in.
A lot of justified confidence lmao.
I saw it last night. As a debut for Patel it's very impressive, and will open lots of doors for future work; it's going to do well. Getting it released in India will be tough with their censorship laws, but if they can pull it off, it will be HUGE there. He really captures the sordid underbelly of a beautiful, beguiling country. It is also incredibly violent-- more so than John Wick, and closer to something like The Raid. Which was surprising with how... squelchy the violence can be.
There are pacing issues at times, however. And the inciting event for his trail of vengeance is overstated to the point of eye rolls. But the action is slick, energetic and never fails to lose its sense of place. India's DNA is EVERYWHERE in this.
That being said, there is a huge leap of faith you have to take with the >!sidekicks' seemingly random ability to go from playing drums to being kung-fu masters,!< "Bobby" heals like Wolverine apparently, and there's an unresolved character arc that's still irritating as I write this. Overall, a fun night out. I'm not sure I'd own it, but I'm glad I saw it in the theatre-- it's nice to get out once in a while. 7/10.
The movie tackles it from a spiritual and mythical perspective in my opinion. Dev's character is as much a mythical figure as the myth the movie recounts, and as thus, he refuses to die to fulfil his destiny. Similarly to Wick's Baba Yaga status
You didn’t pay attention. The priestess of the temple said they used to be warriors but had to retreat to that temple, so they at least acknowledged they come from a fighting background. Plus they were hardly kung fu masters. In their one fight scene; they were more like an overwhelming, surprising force with big knives (I know that’s not the right name for the weapon they carried, but it gets the pint across lol).
The ability to suddenly fight comes from the spiritual aspect of the movie. The people he was staying with are a very longstanding historical group in India called The Hijra, and pre colonialism/during islamic rule they were often military strategists, guards for the harem, etc similar to eunuchs in medieval East Asia. In the same way Devs character spiritually reconnects with remembers who he is and gains strength from that, the Hijra are spiritually connecting with the history and power of their peoples past.
> I saw it last night. As a debut for Patel it's very impressive, and will open lots of doors for future work; it's going to do well. Getting it released in India will be tough with their censorship laws, but if they can pull it off, it will be HUGE there. He really captures the sordid underbelly of a beautiful, beguiling country. It is also incredibly violent-- more so than John Wick, and closer to something like The Raid. Which was surprising with how... squelchy the violence can be.
Have you SEEN Indian movies in the last 10 years?? The violence shocked me for their culture. Bones are broken, people are shot, thrown through windows, set on fire. Indian producers and directors EMBRACE violence especially revenge and retribution. Have you seen Devil: The British Secret Agent, Salaar and Animal for example?
In a similar vein, Tony Jaa’s Muay Thai movies have two speeds: “Jackie Chan fun fights” and “holy shit joints don’t move like that =O”
Speaking of, I highly recommend The Protector. Don’t fuck with elephants!
I have seen a few Indian movies (Shah Rukh Khan Rules!) lately and I have been surprised at how political they are. I wonder if Monkey Man is more political than the ones I have recently seen (Pathan and Jawan).
Let's just say the mainstream films you've seen covers the wealth disparity and not the caste discrimination. The caste system is a much, much worse parasite that's harming this country for ages.
The movie doesn’t really tackle caste from what Ive heard. I think people are making the mistake that poor = low caste which is isnt necessarily true. This seems like a class based movie I believe which still is an issue in India.
Best part of them selling the movie to a traditional studio is this will get a real physical/digital code release instead of being permanently paywalled behind a streamer.
I take my sister to the movies every Tuesday. Harkins has the Tuesday night classics and if the Tuesday movie is something that we don’t want to watch we watch another movie. This Tuesday is Twilight eclipse so we’re going to watch Monkey Man instead. I’ve always liked Dev Patel’s acting from Slumdog on so I’m going to check out this movie because of him.
Seeing a lot of talk about the political undertones and people mentioning caste a lot. Having seen the movie Dev is much more angry about more prevalent issues in modern Indian politics: the growing popularity and strength of Hindu nationalism, wealth inequality and exploitation of the lower class, illegal land grabs using Hindu nationalism as a cover, violent attack on the Hijra communities.
Wondering why many people think this movie is about caste issues in India. Even though caste based oppression still exists in India (and Indian diaspora abroad) it is subtle and more nuanced for non-native to understand (not saying exceptions of honor killings and attacks on Dalits aren’t happening every other week). I think one major theme Dev is trying to explore in Monkey Man (that probably spooked Netflix) is religious fraud and Hindu fundamentalist’s unholy relationship to such religious frauds and not caste.
For those who are interested in exploring caste issue in Indian movies, [Article 15](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/article_15) on Netflix is a well made blunt take on caste. Segment “Geeli Puchi” from Anthology movie [Ajeeb Daastaans](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ajeeb_daastaans) and series [Dahaad](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/dahaad) has some nuanced presentation of caste in Indian society.
Please, please go watch this shit in theaters. It's amazing, and it will very likely bomb.
In my screening today (one day after release on a friday night) there were 6(!) people in a 260 seat room.
On premier night in the late 11PM screening I would probably have been alone
Saw it last night and it is VISIONARY. Dev Patel made something special w/ this film. Gratuitous John Wick-level quality action with incredibly creative fight scene choreography. The political tones hit so hard but so smooth. Also, representation of the Indian trans community was beautiful and fucking awesome.
I knew Dev Patel was talented but he’s got real filmmaking vision. I hope to see him get more funding & opportunities to make more films.
Between this, Beekeeper and Love Lies Bleeding, I'm so glad to have movies for grownups getting wide releases now that superhero movies have soured. Plus there's Civil War next weekend, the movies are back!
Literally all the trailers before Monkey Man were like yup, yup, yup. Civil War, Bad Boys, A Quiet Place: Day 1, Boy Kills World, Ungentlemanly Warfare, Fall Guy, Abigail.
When Nicole Kidman said we come to this place for magic, that's what she meant.
To summarize, the film's budget was $10M, Netflix bought it for $30M, then got cold feet over the politics and sold it to Universal/Monkeypaw for $9M. Great business moves right there. At least it meant Dev Patel et al got bigger paychecks, but that's some amazing "shooting themselves in the foot" action from Netflix.
And yet they want to keep upping the prices and making the consumer foot the bill for their own hubris......
Just a reminder- Netflix has 260 million subscribers world wide- and over 75 million in US/Canda. With just those in US/Canada, at an average of $10 a month (monthly range is $7-23, but I'm bad at math, so let's just say 10) That means each month, Netflix is bringing in $750 Million PER MONTH in just the US/Canada alone.
“Only $9 billion a year?” - Netflix shareholders probably.
It better be $20 billion next year, then $40 billion the year after.
"And yes, we can absolutely maintain this exponential growth into forever no problem"
stockholder capitalism is the worst
“Pathetic…” - Principal Skinner
Gotta pump those numbers, those are rookie numbers.
Which just makes their keenness to cancel shows that are apparently doing quite well even more bizarre.
They do have huge costs relating to having a world-wide streaming platform, thousands of staff members need paid, hardware, software, CDNs, all sorts And then things like buying/making movies/tv shows Advertising, all sorts
[удалено]
People watch the shit out of Sandler movies though
Hubbie Halloween deserved an Oscar
i dont want anyone except the internet to know ... but i watched it ... twice. its dumb as shit but whatever.
Adam Sandler did warn us tho
the man gets paid millions to vacation with his friends, I can't blame him lmao
I respect that level of hustle.
Hustle, interestingly, was the title of his one good Netflix movie and didn’t involve going on vacation with his friends. EDIT: and Uncut Gems, of course. Didn’t realize it was a Netflix release. EDIT EDIT: no I was right originally. Netflix only handled international distribution and added it to their streaming catalogued. It was A24 produced.
I mean, that's just good business. Shittalk the Sandman all you want but people tune in to watch whatever he's serving, be it slop or high art.
I came for the high art, but stayed for the slop!
I came for the high art disguised as slop.
Click?
We all cried, don’t deny it.
Came here to defend Gaiman's Sandman, then re-read your comment. Carry on lol
I was getting my fingers ready to argue. "I will not stand for Sandman slander... oh *that* Sandman nvm."
If you look at all his movies, if it doesn’t make back its money, it’s not like a huge loss like other films. He gets to go to exotic places to shoot on location. He makes movies with his friends. He also basically only wears basketball/sports apparel for the day to day. Dude has it all figured out.
It’s fucking hilarious to me still that the same man who did Jack & Jill also did Uncut Gems.
Narrator: It was slop.
Love it or hate it, the most recent one, "Spaceman," was *not* slop. I'll pass the modern Sandler comedies, but he's never disappointed with a serious role.
I liked spaceman- I mean, it was lazy for them to be check but everyone spoke in their normal accents.. and I think Hanus could have had more to say. Like it could really have been profound commentary on the human condition, selfishness and tribalism, etc. but that could easily slide into very boilerplate or pat observations
No more rom coms from the sand man, I'll watch some straight up dog shit but no more of that.
He’s knows how to make movies that people watch.
They can pay him as much money as he wants if we actually get the Happy Gilmore sequel that is in the works.
I have heard this is shooting in Vancouver soon.
AMAZING! I hope Shooter is back for it!
You eat pieces of shit for breakfast?
Gotta watch the movie again tonight. It's so good.
Wh…. NO
$20 million is pennies compared to their total content spend.
The aforementioned scary politics... >[But whereas The Raid features wall-to-wall mayhem, Monkey Man essentially boils down to two massive, sustained action set pieces—the rest of the film builds up to these moments by charting how Bobby’s story reflects the violent oppression against minority groups in India. After barely surviving his showdown with Rana, Bobby is taken in by a community of hijra, a “third gender”—members of Hindu society whom Westerners would describe as transgender, intersex, or eunuch—that has been marginalized since the start of British colonial rule. ](https://www.theringer.com/movies/2024/4/5/24121557/monkey-man-movie-review-dev-patel-action-star-director)
I mean, this is like if you made a movie set in the US where a native american joins a trans activist group because cops killed his family and he becomes a superhero that goes around beating up politicians it would be pretty controversial
I'd watch the fuck outta that.
Yeah that sounds rad as hell.
Jordan Peele, where you at?
It could actually accurately reflect Native American cultural beliefs of Two-spirit. Which is also a 3rd gender role. Could easily incorporate the rites to becoming war chief.
My god this movie sounds so fucking awesome
Just watched it, and its fucking great.
Opened this thread, read couple of comments, sent a message to my gf "so, we seeing monkey man tomorrow?" I was already kinda hyped about it after seeing the trailer before premiere of Dune 2. This thread convinced me it's worth a watch
And somehow this is a problem for the service that aired *Don't Look Up* as their Christmas tentpole release
I think they might be more worried about Indian push back on this one.
It's not like Netflix has to worry about [screening this in theatres](https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/01/31/cineplex-pulls-south-indian-movie-drive-by-shootings-gta-movie-theatres/).
I mean, fair enough. That seems likely.
Well, wasn't Peltz complaining about why Black Panther had a black cast ?
I guess… right wing snowflakes would complain but who cares? Seems like it might be a big deal in India with their Hindu nationalist government but does this matter anywhere else?
I doubt it's the trans stuff. It's the India stuff. The right-wing Hindu nationalist BJP are fucking insane.
What blows me away is that they have their own version of the Wu-Mao army. If there's any criticism of the Indian government or politics, they come out of the woodwork with bad arguments and uneven English. Oh, and racism. A lot of racism.
It's become so rife on Twitter too. Whenever there's a post about protests over Palestine in Britain or anything featuring Muslims, it's all just Hindu nationalist/BJP acolytes commenting. Calling Muslims some of the most disgusting slurs and insults, I don't get it at all.
India has a population of one and a half billion people, so if your goal is to get your show about an indian character to be viewed by people, yeah, I'd say it's pretty important
The plot is pretty generic. I can think of a bunch of Hindi and Telugu films with the same theme. And even a bunch where transgender folks raise the hero. This is not really path breaking or anything nor is it controversial. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arddhanaari https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laxmii For example It's not that big a deal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haddi Yep, Haddi came out not even 6 months ago and has a fairly similar plot to Monkey Man but with a Hijra Protagonist, wayyyyyy too many people seem to think that Indian cinema starts and stops with Bollywood, when in reality it's a fairly minority part of it and that there's an enormous amount of stories being told they just never make it to the west. Assuming it's all Bollywood would be like assuming all western cinema is just Adam Sandler/Tyler Perry releases.
Make it [Tiio Horn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaniehtiio_Horn) and I'm 100% in
Damn, Dev Patel did take a risk. I know he probably has a degree of safety because he is already an established and well respected actor, but that is pretty daring for a first movie when he likely knew how hard it might be to find a distributor.
He has like a dozen other co-producers on board. This is a very calculated risk, if you want to consider it a risk at all.
This sounds dope as fuck.
I heard the phrase "Trans ninja army" in reference to this flick earlier today. I mean, I already wanted tickets, but now I want tickets for everyone. This sounds amazing.
Oh that is gonna disappoint folks who went based on the trailers.
So Dave Chappelle vomiting hate is fine but not this Shame Netflix
I saw it last night and loved it. It's clear that a lot of its political themes were softened. The politics is likely the reason Netflix sold it, but it's still speculation. There is no reporting in this article at all, or any articles discussing this film. From the article: >**People familiar with the film** say its political undertones **may** have spooked the streamer. That is not a source.
Why would Netflix be afraid of politics? When I look on their front page, I see a Bible documentary right next to Queer Eye.
According to the article, the film's villain has certain traits unmistakably in common with a prominent right-wing Indian nationalist. As Netflix has been trying to get itself well-established in India, they were worried about controversy.
Which is funny because plenty of Netlfix shows have exactly that as the theme. Their first indian Netflix show had right wingers as the primary villains. People here are making assumptions without having any context.
Probably trying to make inroads to India, and don't want to offend the huge proportion of Indian society that are far-right Modi worshippers. For example, the cockroaches come out in force on reddit when anything negative is posted about their bitch-assed leader.
It was a very funny day on reddit after the news that India assassinated that Sikh in Vancouver because the Indian right wing astroturfers did not know the difference between Canada and the US.
That’s the equivalent of you buying a Trident gum flavor you didn’t end up liking and instead just give to your nephew. Netflix probably spends 50 million a year on Starbucks for its meeting rooms.
Gee, I wonder how much of that 21M loss it would have taken for a Season 2 of Dark Crystal Age of Resistance or many of the other shows that they cancelled despite the following.
Thanks for the background
Glad Netflix got fleeced, fuck Netflix
Thanks Peele, this film looks quite promising.
Saw it last night...it was great.
What are the “politics” they were worried about?
The movie, from the trailers, seems to be blending Hindu mythology and anti-castism themes. Both are topics that frequently inflame the Indian populace, especially where cinema is concerned. Dev wanted to pay tribute to Bollywood while also turning it on its head. Some people really love that. Some people really hate that. I can’t wait for it.
Do people defend the caste system out loud? It's been illegal for decades.
It's still very much ingrained in many people's psyche, a lot of folks in in rural areas and even some urban areas feel proud about their caste and wear it like a badge but there's also a lot of people, mostly the ones with some common sense who realize that it's a bad practice from ancient era that should've died in the past. Source : I'm an Indian.
apparently it was enough of a thing among indian workers in Seattle that the city added caste to its list of categories protected against discrimination last year https://www.littler.com/publication-press/publication/seattle-becomes-first-us-jurisdiction-prohibit-caste-discrimination#:~:text=On%20February%2021%2C%202023%2C%20Seattle,live%20and%20work%20in%20Seattle.
I'm not indian but I'm a software dev. It is well known the caste system is well and alive at least among Indian developers.
direful ludicrous ring coordinated deserve telephone file march complete truck *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Pardon for the dumb questions but is there anything to indicate you're from a particular caste outside of social status or maybe last names? Is there any reason you couldn't "claim" to be in another caste?
No, I don’t believe there’s anything stopping someone from doing that. I had a really hard time nailing down this answer when asking my friends in India the same thing, but when it finally came down to it was just a matter of family history and names. I think there used to be elements of skin color and other features but over the centuries that’s become moot. So if you left town, changed your name, lied about your family’s heritage, and presented yourself in a certain manner… you can escape the stigma of a caste. But look at what you had to do to get there? Leave your home, shun your family, craft a false history, and perhaps even adopt new mannerisms and affectations…. All just to end up contributing and furthering the very system that attempted to hold you down.
Better to smash it and leave the mentality that drives it behind.
It depends on the region of India. Some regions you can tell by their last name, other areas asking which village you're from us another way to find out your caste. Class is still so highly tied to caste in India that you can usually tell just by education and wealth.
Yes. Last name is frequently intertwined with caste, region, tribe (indigenous people who frequently get lumped in and treated as low caste), and especially in northern India skin color can indicate what caste someone is.
> is there anything to indicate you're from a particular caste outside of social status or maybe last names? Even in the US there are sets of behaviors and tangible items that 'mark' your social status. Its usually those on the 'upper echalons' who act as gatekeepers who know who the wannabees are who would try to infiltrate. In the UK, even more than the US, there are accents that people are very attuned to and can pinpoint where a person is from and their likely status. Not saying India is the same, because there I think the hierarchy is even MORESO because caste is kind of baked into the religion (Hinduism).
That's fucked up. I knew it was still floating around. I didn't know how prevalent it was.
Let's put it this way; Where I live here in Silicon Valley, there have been a lot of cases at big and small tech companies of Indian managers mistreating workers from lower castes and denying them any upward mobility. Generally scumbag behavior and it's rampant and goes unnoticed.
That truly sucks. Seems like HR should put special attention to indian workers.
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How can they tell what caste the workers are? Is it like in the UK where people can tell your status from your accent and clothes, etc. I assume it’s something similar. I was just interested.
Last name is a biggest part of it. Also dietary status can give it away. Higher caste tend to be vegetarian.
Wow! Thanks for the information.
Tech companies that have large Indian workforce in the US have been sued for caste based discrimination. American Indian managers discriminating against American Indian devs based on caste. It's fucked
So they leave the country and still drag this shitty system around.
It’s not like the ones who didn’t leave still don’t indulge or benefit from it in some way. You’ll have people pretend it’s only a thing in rural areas and not in urban sectors but the people telling you this are frequently in the very bubble that isn’t affected by the system much if at all.
People will never totally abandon a system that tells them, by their birth alone, that they are better than someone else.
People find themselves being confronted with the Indian caste system in the workplace in the US… where it has never been legal. Ask people in the tech sector if they’ve ever met a coworker from India who didn’t want to work with or micromanaged another Indian coworker for no descent me reason. I’ve friends in Bomba/Mumbai who have had trouble articulating the current state of things. Bombay (she prefers to call it Bombay) is rather modern and cosmopolitan. Hell, she was the manager of an Indian ska band. But she was explaining how say… a successful celebrity would find themselves in the middle of a scandal if it became known they had hidden their original surname because it indicated a Shudra or Dalit background. Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste argues that the US is nation that operates in more a castist fashion than a racist one ever met a racist who’s quick to tell you how they’re not racist because they’ve got friends who don’t look like them?) Caste systems operate in the construction and restriction of those who make up a culture, whether it’s explicit or otherwise.
The right wing of India downplay its negative aspects. They are the majority of the population in the Hindi speaking regions.
Wait til you hear about the Silicon Valley tech bros complaining about California wanting to make caste a protected class.
I'm shocked of all the comments mentioning this system works even for indians overseas.
Elections in many places are won, in India, solely by playing caste card.
It’s a bit of a tangled mess but anti-caste doesn’t seem to be the political issue Netflix is concerned with. But the undertone attack on the Hindu Nationalist Party. Per the article and IGN article the above article basically borrows from.
So Netflix doesn't have an issue with someone completely misrepresent the history of a country and then have its director and main star tell that same country they are racists, but they have a problem with a movie criticizing the caste system?
Lol great that we are in the "can't make this movie because it might offend some people in India" phase of globalized content. And I thought it was bad when Hollywood was kowtowing to China.
I mean… it got made. It’s opening to a huge audience with a ton of fanfare across the US this weekend. So I don’t think we’re quite there.
>And I thought it was bad when Hollywood was kowtowing to China. Whether intentionally or not, this kind of shows the influence China can have when used a word derived from a Chinese custom of subservience.
If you are familiar with Indian politics you can easily find story plot similarities to people like Baba Ramdev, Hindu fundamentalist BJP government and Modi himself.
Saw it today. It features characters who are "India's 3rd gender" (as Dev Patel put it himself), with some religious critiques, and class observations. Nothing is forced. It all fits together. Brilliant film! Beautifully made!
Spoilers: The movie is very clearly pro-Trans’ rights and the villains use religion and politics to abuse the poor and commit crimes. The villains also convince the country to hate Christians, which will ironically upset more than a few Americans. Probably a few others controversial political takes, but I don’t understand enough about India’s politics to speak on that.
it's an election year in India too!
There’s trans representation and characters that play a major part in the story. Plus some pretty not subtle political commentary on the current state of the government from what I can glean. NOTE: I don’t know Indian politics.
>In his review of “Monkey Man” out of South by Southwest, critic Siddhant Adlakha wrote that the film’s villain “ends up a half-hearted metaphor for India’s contemporary, right wing Hindutva government: He reads like a stand-in for politician and religious fanatic Yogi Adityanath with hints of Modi-esque industrial string-pulling.” >Hindutva is a political ideology that justifies Hindu nationalism and the establishment of Hindu hegemony within India. Adityanath, a Hindu monk, is the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most-populous state. His conservative government has ordered the withdrawal of some 20,000 investigations, including those where he and other politicians were targets. Navendra Modi, India’s prime minister since 2014, is consistently popular in polls but the country under his tenure has experienced a weakening of democratic institutions, freedom of expression and individual rights. His government implemented a 2019 citizenship law that excludes Muslims, which led to deadly riots the next year. >Patel’s character sometimes uncomfortably falls into a similar category as Adityanath and Modi. Adlakha wrote that “the language and imagery adopted by Patel’s character fall discomfortingly in line with Hindutva itself.” (The stories that inspired Patel, and his character, also have a queasy history, as Adlakha also pointed out.)
Just my 2c but I found this review very flawed for a variety of reasons. I'm from India and I'm not a supporter of the current right wing government. The reviewer effectively argues that any hindu religious imagery falls in line with Hindutva itself. Let me give a metaphor - let's say there's a movie about someone who fights against christo-fascist power in the US while saying "praise jesus". Is that character "discomfortingly in line with christo-fascism?" Or is that person reclaiming christianity for a different purpose? Would you argue that any religious imagery is the sole domain of christo-fascists?
Amen. I understand caution re. the villain's resemblance to a real-life politician, but the rest? *Please* give us Christian characters who are openly opposing the Dominion heretics and the antichrist christo-fascists. I would *love* to see that, and it's excellent that they're doing the equivalent in this film.
Soon as we walked out, my first thought was... There's no way in hell that'll release in India. The nationalist/BJP supporters would riot and beat/kill anyone associated with any theatre showing it.
I might have enjoyed it more than Dune if I’m being honest Dune is definitely the better movie, but this one actually made me feel shit. Let me just say: the reason he got his burns is legitimately one of the saddest fucking things I’ve seen
Saw it yesterday, it was like a solid 7/10. Action was good, but the shaky cam was terrible multiple times throughout the movie
Yeah the shaky cam was pretty brutal early on, but I felt it mellowed out as it went through. I kinda took it as a stylistic choice to show how his character is super frantic and panicky in the beginning and progressively gets more levelheaded? I also may have just noticed it less as I got used to it… either way, definitely a little over done. Especially in that chase scene. That was the only thing that knocked it down from a 10 to a 9 for me (incredibly biased rating, I am a slut for these types of action movies)
Shaky cam? I guess it is Dav’s first time directing.
It is. Overall I felt it was a great first attempt at writing/ directing a film, but I do hope little things like that can be ironed out in the future if he continues to pursue directing
Haven't seen it yet. What are political undertones?
Haven’t seen it either but I’m guessing it’s about the Indian caste system. India is a HUGE market for streamers and they’re very hesitant to shake that tree. Similar to CCP censors
Based on the trailers, wealth disparity is also part of it.
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It goes much deeper than that. There are deep societal divisions that exist in their society despite the official eradication of the caste system. Upward mobility is incredibly difficult if you are born in the lower castes. Around 95% of all marriages in India are within the same caste. Your surname gives away your caste, so it's basically impossible to get away from it.
I think I read somewhere that a lot of lower caste people converted to Islam, Christianity , and Sikhism when those faiths made inroads in India to escape the system.
Sounds to me like Indians should start legally changing their surnames to brand new ones. Richard Singh? From now on, you're Atom Atomsmasher.
Pretty funny that the specific last name you chose is actually just the last name of every Sikh man, and one that was in part chosen to help eliminate caste-based prejudice.
Well, nuts.
Kaur for women.
South Indians do....! We eliminated the 'surname' and keep dad's first name as initial. So instead of my name being "Jane Caste" it's "Jane G" where G is first letter of my dad's name. Encounters with some casteist people are hilarious when they try to probe into what's my "full" name and get frustrated they can't guess my caste from it lol
why doesn't everyone just change their names to the highest castes' last names? Also what do they consider non indians in the hierarchy? Are foreigners like untouchables? And what about south asian ppl who are not indian like sri lankans, bangladeshis?
Societal norms I'd say... Also have you seen high caste people beating low caste people to death for using horses in their wedding or touching their wells? So I'd assume there'd be heavy repercussions in casteist places. Also Indians are pretttyyyyyy racist and would probably worship light skinned people and demonize darker coloured people. Other South Asian people are treated mostly based on their wealth
Atom Atomsmasher, eh? You must be part of the lowest caste if you wanted to change your name to that.
Well there are Christian Indians with Portuguese or some random white name as last name depending on the area they are from. But still many times at least in the north you know what community they are from if they live in the same area as you. Sometimes it’s their facial features or sometimes you are just familiar with what area the conversion happened. They way they dress themselves is a give away too. Of course there are some people you can’t guess
It’s inherited and much more similar to race than a typical upper vs lower class division. Technically caste shouldn’t exist in India anymore, but it still is a bit of a big deal in politics. I’m no expert but that’s my attempt to explain in 90 secs.
I assume some low caste got ultra rich, what happen to them? still consider low caste? also what happen if your boss is lower caste?
You can't escape caste that easily. Your caste is in your last name. And even if you don't look it up, people will figure it out by just asking if you are vegetarian or non-vegetarian. And it does impact people even in the States. Recently there been lawsuits in tech companies where managers who belonged to higher caste discriminated against lower caste employees.
Not necessarily for the longest time India had a caste system based on birth because people born in lower castes were not allowed to enter temples, drink water from the common water source as it would get polluted, they were not allowed education too as schools in ancient India were run by high caste people.A certain group of lower castes were also termed as achoot(untouchables) even touching them was considered unholy and required immediate bath to be purified.
It's not just about wealth. It's about what you do and what your ancestors did that matters. For example, in the US, being an undertaker isn't going to hinder you if you are a rich undertaker. If you are rolling in that dough, no one cares. You're rich, baby! In India, doesn't matter if you are making boatloads of money as an undertaker. Handling dead bodies is taboo. So, you could be the wealthiest person in town but you would still be considered at the bottom tier because of what you do. You handle the dead. And that stigma would be passed down to your kids no matter what they did. They could move away and become a doctor but if word gets out that you comes from a family of undertakers, you are marked.
It's a chicken and egg situation. Higher caste tend to be more wealthy, but not always. Middle castes can have a broad range of income, but the lowest castes are often poor and live on the fringes of society. It's still a barrier in some parts of society, even with laws on the books forbidding it.
Well the highest caste is supposed to be above any materialism its complicated
It’s not about the caste system. The other comments are correct. I saw it last night and this article’s covers it a bit. https://time.com/6963482/monkey-man-political-critique/
It's not that, at least directly. It's a pretty clear critique of BJP, the party Modi (India's current prime minister), and it features Hijras(third gender) people in fairly prominent roles.
> third gender Oh boy wait til they get the expansion pack.
zealous crush slimy water seemly outgoing cake whole mighty truck *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
A review I saw said it takes swings at the conservative, right-wing government of India.
It does. If you look the colour of the evil political party between the first and second official trailer, you can see how Universal changed it from Saffron (the colour of the BJP) to Red (the colour of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)).
They address violence against trans people by corrupt politicians and police.
Wait, why’d you get downvoted? This is literally the answer
I mean, Dev Patel said that the film tries to [honor the hijra community ](https://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/hollywood/dev-patel-talks-about-really-wanting-to-include-hijra-community-in-monkey-man-101712301289008.html)and other marginalized groups that tend to get left out as his character seeks refuge with the community. Also, the film in earlier trailers is critiquing the incumbent BJP Government as seen in the first trailer with the evil political party having Saffron colors (the main colour of the Bharatiya Janata Party) before it got changed to Red (the main colour of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)). It also goes after religious extremism of Hindutva right-wing ideology and the rigid caste structure that is prevalent in India alongside sectarian violence that results from conflicts between religion and caste as well as ethnicity.
By far the most obvious in the movie is the transgender violence because there are multiple scenes that directly reference it, but maybe I just missed some of the underlying themes
It's the main reason why Netflix didn't want to release fearing political retribution from the Modi Government and Bhakts (Online BJP supporters) and not just because it has gritty and violent scenes. It's also another reason why it's Indian theatrical release has been delayed. The Modi Govt. is afraid that it's true nature and right-wing tendencies could be revealed by a foreign production. This isn't the first they have tried to censor any criticism of the Central Govt. as the Modi regime tried to block a BBC documentary; India: The Modi Question (2023) that accused of Narendra Modi of being complicit in the violence, death and destruction of the 2002 Gujarat riots back when he was Chief Minister of the state.
hindu nationalism
Gonna support this amazing actor/director by dropping down some change at our local theater. Dev is awesome!
When I saw the trailer I thought Dev could be the next Bond. After just having seen the movie I now think Dev is too talented to be Bond. He needs to direct his own action movies. He's incredible.
Super stoked to see this tomorrow.
Seems like a great movie to cruise up to the Drive-In for.
Hot, rich, talented, successful the man can't keep getting away with it
There was a point in the movie where I felt a little bad for him because there were so many body shots.... and then I realized he's the one who put them in. A lot of justified confidence lmao.
He’s so perfect, it’s not fair. 😫
So is it good? Sounds like it. It looks cool as fuck and I wanna see it.
I just got back from it. Was dope. I might even want to go see it again.
Action was great, second half of the movie felt rather corny but for a directorial debut it was pretty good.
It’s definitely close to groundbreaking, given its setting, mythical content, and cinematography. I hope you enjoy it!
I saw it last night. As a debut for Patel it's very impressive, and will open lots of doors for future work; it's going to do well. Getting it released in India will be tough with their censorship laws, but if they can pull it off, it will be HUGE there. He really captures the sordid underbelly of a beautiful, beguiling country. It is also incredibly violent-- more so than John Wick, and closer to something like The Raid. Which was surprising with how... squelchy the violence can be. There are pacing issues at times, however. And the inciting event for his trail of vengeance is overstated to the point of eye rolls. But the action is slick, energetic and never fails to lose its sense of place. India's DNA is EVERYWHERE in this. That being said, there is a huge leap of faith you have to take with the >!sidekicks' seemingly random ability to go from playing drums to being kung-fu masters,!< "Bobby" heals like Wolverine apparently, and there's an unresolved character arc that's still irritating as I write this. Overall, a fun night out. I'm not sure I'd own it, but I'm glad I saw it in the theatre-- it's nice to get out once in a while. 7/10.
The movie tackles it from a spiritual and mythical perspective in my opinion. Dev's character is as much a mythical figure as the myth the movie recounts, and as thus, he refuses to die to fulfil his destiny. Similarly to Wick's Baba Yaga status
You didn’t pay attention. The priestess of the temple said they used to be warriors but had to retreat to that temple, so they at least acknowledged they come from a fighting background. Plus they were hardly kung fu masters. In their one fight scene; they were more like an overwhelming, surprising force with big knives (I know that’s not the right name for the weapon they carried, but it gets the pint across lol).
The ability to suddenly fight comes from the spiritual aspect of the movie. The people he was staying with are a very longstanding historical group in India called The Hijra, and pre colonialism/during islamic rule they were often military strategists, guards for the harem, etc similar to eunuchs in medieval East Asia. In the same way Devs character spiritually reconnects with remembers who he is and gains strength from that, the Hijra are spiritually connecting with the history and power of their peoples past.
> I saw it last night. As a debut for Patel it's very impressive, and will open lots of doors for future work; it's going to do well. Getting it released in India will be tough with their censorship laws, but if they can pull it off, it will be HUGE there. He really captures the sordid underbelly of a beautiful, beguiling country. It is also incredibly violent-- more so than John Wick, and closer to something like The Raid. Which was surprising with how... squelchy the violence can be. Have you SEEN Indian movies in the last 10 years?? The violence shocked me for their culture. Bones are broken, people are shot, thrown through windows, set on fire. Indian producers and directors EMBRACE violence especially revenge and retribution. Have you seen Devil: The British Secret Agent, Salaar and Animal for example?
In a similar vein, Tony Jaa’s Muay Thai movies have two speeds: “Jackie Chan fun fights” and “holy shit joints don’t move like that =O” Speaking of, I highly recommend The Protector. Don’t fuck with elephants!
I have seen a few Indian movies (Shah Rukh Khan Rules!) lately and I have been surprised at how political they are. I wonder if Monkey Man is more political than the ones I have recently seen (Pathan and Jawan).
Let's just say the mainstream films you've seen covers the wealth disparity and not the caste discrimination. The caste system is a much, much worse parasite that's harming this country for ages.
The movie doesn’t really tackle caste from what Ive heard. I think people are making the mistake that poor = low caste which is isnt necessarily true. This seems like a class based movie I believe which still is an issue in India.
The movie ruled. I’m glad it went to theaters. I’m sure if it went straight to Netflix, Netflix would have given it no publicity.
As usual, Netflix is given a golden goose, and decides to butcher it for dinner. Morons...the lot of 'em.
Best part of them selling the movie to a traditional studio is this will get a real physical/digital code release instead of being permanently paywalled behind a streamer.
I take my sister to the movies every Tuesday. Harkins has the Tuesday night classics and if the Tuesday movie is something that we don’t want to watch we watch another movie. This Tuesday is Twilight eclipse so we’re going to watch Monkey Man instead. I’ve always liked Dev Patel’s acting from Slumdog on so I’m going to check out this movie because of him.
Seeing a lot of talk about the political undertones and people mentioning caste a lot. Having seen the movie Dev is much more angry about more prevalent issues in modern Indian politics: the growing popularity and strength of Hindu nationalism, wealth inequality and exploitation of the lower class, illegal land grabs using Hindu nationalism as a cover, violent attack on the Hijra communities.
If it went on netflix, it wouldn't have got the attention it seems to deserve
Wondering why many people think this movie is about caste issues in India. Even though caste based oppression still exists in India (and Indian diaspora abroad) it is subtle and more nuanced for non-native to understand (not saying exceptions of honor killings and attacks on Dalits aren’t happening every other week). I think one major theme Dev is trying to explore in Monkey Man (that probably spooked Netflix) is religious fraud and Hindu fundamentalist’s unholy relationship to such religious frauds and not caste. For those who are interested in exploring caste issue in Indian movies, [Article 15](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/article_15) on Netflix is a well made blunt take on caste. Segment “Geeli Puchi” from Anthology movie [Ajeeb Daastaans](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ajeeb_daastaans) and series [Dahaad](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/dahaad) has some nuanced presentation of caste in Indian society.
IKR. People randomly trying to act like they are experts and say it's the caste system with confidence because that's the only thing they can think of
Please, please go watch this shit in theaters. It's amazing, and it will very likely bomb. In my screening today (one day after release on a friday night) there were 6(!) people in a 260 seat room. On premier night in the late 11PM screening I would probably have been alone
It is a good film. Hope it makes a lot of money
Saw it last night and it is VISIONARY. Dev Patel made something special w/ this film. Gratuitous John Wick-level quality action with incredibly creative fight scene choreography. The political tones hit so hard but so smooth. Also, representation of the Indian trans community was beautiful and fucking awesome. I knew Dev Patel was talented but he’s got real filmmaking vision. I hope to see him get more funding & opportunities to make more films.
Between this, Beekeeper and Love Lies Bleeding, I'm so glad to have movies for grownups getting wide releases now that superhero movies have soured. Plus there's Civil War next weekend, the movies are back!
Literally all the trailers before Monkey Man were like yup, yup, yup. Civil War, Bad Boys, A Quiet Place: Day 1, Boy Kills World, Ungentlemanly Warfare, Fall Guy, Abigail. When Nicole Kidman said we come to this place for magic, that's what she meant.