#film dev

[qweenofurheart]

when you're making films without a deadline, it's so easy to get off track. especially if the films are about your ocs, you will be eager to keep drawing them in cute silly poses rather than any actual serious visual development... 😭

[abarroteraflores]

Sending out a small fortune’s worth of film to the lab tomorrow. Pray that these aren’t all duds. And actually I’m not sending out the 110s…. yet.

[pocfiction]

MONKEY MAN 2024, dir. Dev Patel

[shesnake]

Dev Patel on shooting Monkey Man:

[deadringers2023]

THE GREEN KNIGHT (2021) dir. David Lowery

[lousolversons]

Dev Patel in MONKEY MAN (2024)

[gresit]

MONKEY MAN (2024) dir. Dev Patel

[gayiconwaluigi]

The protagonist is named Kid in the credits. He is constantly surrounded by children who should not be in the situations that they have found themselves in. All of the children featured have been forced to grow up, and with the protag’s character name Kid, he has not moved on from the trauma of his childhood. This calls into question the lives of the children around him as his mother’s question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” haunts the narrative, showing that for many children, you do not get to choose.

[sunncourts]

for me, the heart of monkey man was its immense love for india, and the confidence of articulating that love through representation and criticism—the things that make india beautiful are not the colorist, hindu-nationalist propoganda stories of bollywood but largeness of the diaspora: indians who trans, who are muslim, who have been oppressed by their government, who are unacknowledged by society, etc—and prevail despite the odds stacked against them. they are encouraged to be themselves and fight against these occupational forces.

major props to dev patel for showing that hey, you actually can make a movie about indians in a way that perfectly encapsulates the various cultures, mythologies, AND egregious political climate, while also highlighting indian people and giving them the recognition and respect they often don't recieve in western—OR bollywood—canon. now that we know it's possible (it always was) i want more! thanks!

(also it helped that he was either in a suit, shirtless, or covered in blood [sometimes two at a time] for most of this movie. dev patel, i literally only need one chance...)

[kayrma]

thinking about how dracula has never been accurately adapted into a film and thinking about how dev patel would play the hell out of jonathan harker

[jbk405]

Okay, so, either the trailer for Monkey Man was horribly put together, or I completely misunderstood what was presented, because I had NO IDEA what I was getting into. The entire plot took me completely by surprise several times.

This film is deliberately political. I can't recall the last time I saw an action film have such a clear focus on government. It's relatively common for the Big Bad to be a person in government -- that makes them an even bigger threat because in addition to the Criminal Thugs they employ they also have the Police and Media on their side -- but when this happens their actual politics don't matter. They're also a drug dealer, or human trafficker, and that's what the hero is fighting against. Usually we don't even learn what their politics even are. We may see them give a speech saying "Family values!" intercut with them doing drugs and having sex so we know they're a hypocrite, but that's the extent of it. In this film we know that the villains are part of the Hindu Nationalist movement, and are encouraging violence against religious minorities and gender-nonconforming people throughout India.

The condemnation is so direct that I'm not surprised Netflix backed out of distributing out of fear of the backlash in India. The only way the film could have been bolder would be if they used actual political party names instead of the "We're not actually saying 'Bharatiya Janata Party'" angle.

I was also completely unprepared for the inclusion of the hijra temple commune. I was already surprised just by the mention of crime against trans people on the news in the film, but then the main characters finds himself rescued and rehabilitated and welcomed into their society with open arms. They counsel him both philosophically and physically, and prepare him to resume his quest. And then they join him!

A literal army of trans women toppling the oppressive power structure was not on my BINGO card, I'll tell you that.

This movie was intense and an experience, and if you can see it in theaters I say you go right now!

[scouped]

MONKEY MAN 2024

[satiricaily]

monkey man promo interviews r just like oh yeah dev patel broke multiple bones during the action scenes and he simply shoved a screw into his hand and moved on and the sets kept burning down and the cameras were malfunctioning and we spent half a year editing a segment in a scene and we were trapped in an island for months and the crew was marrying n divorcing each other in total soap opera fashion but whatever we made it because if there's a will there's a way <3

[shesnake]

Dev Patel on the transgender representation, including the hijra community, in Monkey Man (2024).

[deadringers2023]

DEV PATEL as GAWAIN THE GREEN KNIGHT (2021)

[whichcouldmeanothing]

Music in Film: Monkey Man (2024) dir. Dev Patel