Weekend Watch - April 2024 Recap

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week, we have come to the end of another month of movies and have a few to recap. As always this is a recap of the most universally acclaimed films of the month, categorized by their likelihood of making it onto this blog’s list of the Greatest Films of All Time. Those with the hardest road ahead of them will be classified as long shots, those with a strong chance will be classified as possible things, and those that are already instant classics will be classified as sure things (we don’t have any of those this month). April matches the Aprils of years past with a few possible contenders for end of the year awards that will most likely lose steam by the time we actually get there alongside a solid slate of creative B-movies that look like they’ll earn cult classic status for one reason or another. Let’s get into it.

Long Shots:

Monkey Man: Written, directed, edited, and acted by Dev Patel, the action thriller serves as one of the best “Long Shots” in a while. Offering action sequences inspired by other action greats and a story that is relatively topical, it won over audiences and critics, just not a high enough rate to turn it into an instant classic.

The First Omen: Horror films are always a tough sell, especially when they’re the sixth film in a franchise, but this one seems to have pleased audiences and critics in ways that so many horror films and sequels haven’t. It’s still not universally beloved, but the fact that it’s had anywhere close to positive reviews warrants a mention here.

Scoop: Netflix has been having success with dramas about the royal family, and though their dramatization of the BBC interview with Prince Andrew about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein might not reach the prestige and quality of The Crown, it’s still gained enough traction to be a slight improvement on some of their other biographical outings of late.

The Long Game: It’s a feel-good sports movie with Dennis Quaid about Mexican-American caddies making their own golf course in South Texas, of course it’ll do alright with critics and audiences. It won’t win awards, and it won’t change a whole lot in the grand scheme of cinema, but I bet your parents will watch this on-demand in a few months and ask you if you’ve seen it.

Sasquatch Sunset: The wordless adventure comedy about a family of sasquatches, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keogh seems to have a bit too much gross-out humor to have any kind of serious mainstream success, but it’s pleased enough audiences and critics that it’s status as a cult classic seems almost guaranteed at this point. It definitely won’t be the film that everyone loves, though, if its split audience ratings are any indication.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: Guy Ritchie’s latest foray into historical unsung heroes has seen a similar level of success to his film The Covenant from last year – audiences seem to really enjoy it, but critics don’t fully agree. It’s a solid action film, but as I said in my review, it lacks a bit of punch in the ending.

Abigail: The vampire/slasher/survival horror film about a group of criminals trapped in a house with a child vampire ballerina looks to have found its target audience despite giving the twist away in its trailers. Audiences have given this consistently positive reviews, and critics aren’t entirely down on it, so it’s got a shot at something close to cult status if it can stand the test of time.

Unsung Hero: I can’t tell if Christian cinema has finally figured out how to make better movies or all the Christian movies are getting reverse review bombed, but this film about the family that spawned the artists Rebecca St. James and For King & Country has been a hit with audiences so far. Critics still aren’t super high on it, but if you liked the Jeremy Camp film or the MercyMe film, you’ll probably like this one too.

Possible Things:

Civil War: Though Alex Garland’s latest is certainly no Ex Machina, it seems to be performing more consistently well with critics and audiences than Men or Annihilation, so we could be seeing a return to form from the acclaimed writer/director even as he’s announced his retirement from directing. The film about a group of journalists traveling across a war-torn America has received praise for the acting from lead Kirsten Dunst, for its sound design, and for its excellent use of tension throughout, making it a potential long-shot candidate for the awards it needs later on in the year to get fully over the hump.

Challengers: Luca Guadagnino continues to show with each film he puts out that he knows how to make people look hot in any situation and how to pull some phenomenal performances from them in the process. His tennis love triangle film looks to be his best mainstream success as well, and despite an early release date, it might have enough steam to make it through to some awards shows at the end of the year to bolster its already highly positive reviews.

Weekend Watch - Monkey Man

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week’s topic, as voted by the blog’s Instagram followers, is Dev Patel’s directorial debut Monkey Man that released in theaters this weekend. Patel took on multiple roles in this film, directing, starring, writing, and editing the revenge action thriller. He is joined in the cast by Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma, Sikandar Kher, Adithi Kalkunte, Sobhita Dhulipala, Ashwini Kalsekar, and Makrand Deshpande. After initially being slated to premier on Netflix, Jordan Peele screened it and jumped on-board as a producer to release the film in theaters because he thought it was so good. So far, audiences and critics seem to agree with him. Let’s get into it.

Letter Grade: B+, it’s a phenomenal debut film, but it still definitely has some of the rough edges of a debut film as well.

Should you Watch This Film? Yes! This is the kind of action thriller that we need more of – passion projects that involve underrepresented groups in Hollywood.

Why?

                What Patel has given us in Monkey Man is a thrilling blend of homage, passion project, and original film, and it works beautifully. His love of action films from around the globe and throughout film history comes to life in every action sequence (of which there are many); his decision to cast almost entirely South Asian actors and to tell a story set in that region that is steeped in its culture speaks to his desire to be true to himself, and what few missteps there are simply serve as a reminder that he is the one who basically singlehandedly made this film happen. It’s not a perfect film or even an entirely original film, but every inch of it is stamped with its filmmaker’s passion and his desire to make something epic and memorable.

                To start with a few nitpicks, the film does have a few places where scene continuity breaks down and where you can tell that different cameras were used probably out of necessity rather than choice. There’s one fight sequence in particular where the setup occurs in one location before the fight happens in another that he’s sent back to where the transition between locations feels just a bit clunky and doesn’t flow as smoothly as the chase that led up to it did or the fight that ensues after it does, which isn’t huge, but as someone who doesn’t always notice these things, I did this time, which I think speaks to the excellence with which most of the rest of the action sequences were cut more than it speaks to Patel’s shortcomings in making the film. It’s also been widely shared that multiple cameras broke during filming, which resulted in the use of Go-Pros and iPhones to capture some footage, and, while it’s not easily noticeable in any action sequences, there are a few of the film’s more dramatic moments that cut between two shots repeatedly where it feels like watching two separate definitions, most likely due to the cameras’ reception to light or something along those lines, but again, it’s one of those little things that could take you out of it if it wasn’t for the excellence going on around it.

                Story-wise, it’s a really well-executed revenge thriller. It never tells you more than it needs to, hinting at pasts so you know who’s important until it becomes time for them to receive their comeuppance. The supporting characters are fairly memorable, if occasionally underutilized. Pitobash plays a street-level drug dealer named Alphonso who acts as the Kid’s (Patel) gateway into the world of his enemies, and it’s arguably the film’s funniest role, but he gets sidelined for basically the entire back half of the film despite being integral to the Kid’s entrance and exit in this world of danger. Sobhita Dhulipala’s Sita makes for a beautiful and mysterious potential romantic partner for the Kid, but we never quite learn enough about her to make her a fully compelling secondary character. The villains, played skillfully by Sikandar Kher and Makrand Deshpande definitely have the most to do of the supporting cast, with Kher’s corrupt police chief Rana being the ideal heavy for Patel to face off against in the film’s final act and Deshpande’s overzealous spiritual leader Baba Shakti acting as the man behind it all who you do in fact love to hate. Together, they provide a compelling set of obstacles for Patel’s leading man to overcome and defeat on his way to making a mark on those who destroyed his home and killed his mother. The film’s most compelling subplot comes in the form of the transgender acolytes, led by Vipin Sharma’s Alpha, who save the Kid after his first run-in with Rana and his men. They comprise the focus of the film’s political and religious messaging, offering a look into modern political and religious issues in India for a Western audience with an issue that’s prevalent in this country as well. It’s a smart move by Patel, and Alpha and the other acolytes make for compelling supporting characters that keep the audience engaged in the slowdown that comes in the leadup to the film’s climax.

                Obviously, though, even with a perfect story, this film couldn’t succeed without excellent action sequences, and Patel delivers those in abundance. From the jump, we are given brutal hand-to-hand combat, starting with the underground fight ring run by Sharlto Copley’s Tiger where the Kid dons a monkey mask and faces down and loses to a slew of opponents. The action then takes off fully with a combination fight and chase sequence after the Kid’s first attempt on the police chief’s life goes sideways, giving us a glimpse at Patel’s skill in crafting action scenes that look original, feel brutal, and sound great with consistently well-timed and catchy background tracks for all of the action in this film. After a slowdown and training/healing montage that itself has some great musical cues, we are thrown into the film’s climactic series of action sequences, starting with a great underground fight with a classic massive opponent for the Kid to overcome before he sets out to disrupt the election night party where Rana and Baba Shakti will be. The sequence of fights that lead to the film’s conclusion are some of the best in the business, with a well-earned and even better choreographed kitchen fight, a brawl in a dining room, a showdown in a club, and a faceoff in a penthouse capping the film off. It’s one of the most intense and engaging climax sequences that I’ve seen in an action film in a while. I know it’s a bit reductive, but it really is right up there with the John Wick films in terms of its final act’s execution.

                With Monkey Man, Dev Patel has shown us his capabilities as a well-rounded filmmaker, offering a fresh take on the story of the revenge thriller while providing some excellent action sequences to top it all off. Some of the characters might fall short of their potential, and certain editing errors certainly exist, as should be expected from a rookie filmmaker, but overall, it’s a great time at the theater, and I really encourage you to go see it. We need to let producers know that these are the kinds of films that we want to see more of.