The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends an impressive impersonation of Bob Dylan
Film round-up: April 4, 2024
Hindu heroics, a middle-class corpse, a diabolic prequel, and daft medievalism: The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Monkey Man, The Trouble with Jessica, The First Omen, and Seize Them!
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Here, Vermiglio, William Tell and Wolf Man
New releases from Thorpe and Morrison, Daria Kulesh, and Will Finn and Rosie Calvert
RINA ARYA confronts the brutal operation of Francis Bacon’s approach to portraiture
Emphasising his continuous engagement in labour movement struggles, ALISTAIR FINDLAY salutes John Foster’s contribution as activist, strategist, intellectual and defender of the Morning Star
ANDY MIAH advocates the use of AI to assist people by expanding access to global literature and culture
EWAN KOTZ relishes a veteran Glasgow band that have lost none of their verve for live performance
Monkey Man (18)
Directed by Dev Patel
★★★★
ACTOR turned director Dev Patel has come along way since his breakout role in Danny Boyle’s Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire as he takes charge behind the camera for the first time in this deliciously dark and violent revenge thriller about faith.
Ten years in the making, shot during the pandemic and produced by Jordan Peele (Get Out), Patel, who also produced it, co-wrote it with Paul Angunawela and John Collee and stars as the lead Kid, India’s answer to John Wick (viz: a one-man killing machine who befriends a cute dog).
More from this author
A landmark work of gay ethnography, an avant-garde fusion of folk and modernity, and a chance comment in a great interview
ANGUS REID applauds the inventive stagecraft with which the Lyceum serve up Stevenson’s classic, but misses the deeper themes
ANGUS REID time-travels back to times when Gay Liberation was radical and allied seamlessly to an anti-racist, anti-establishment movement
ANGUS REID speaks to historian Siphokazi Magadla about the women who fought apartheid and their impact on South African society
Similar stories
Hallucinogenic homosexuality, a quantum thriller, airport shenanigans and feminist Tolkein: MARIA DUARTE reviews Queer, The Universal Theory, Carry On and Lord of the Rings: The War of The Rohirrim
Domestic abuse, orgies revisited, baby trouble, and Hollywood claptrap: MARIA DUARTE reviews It Ends With Us, Caligula: The Ultimate Cut, Babes, and Borderlands
Vegan sermons, undercut snobs, fake messiahs and mash-up horror. The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews I Could Never Go Vegan, Jeanne Du Barry, The Book of Clarence, and Abigail
Maternal horror-show, valedictory recital, anger issues, and Kong-scale toothache: The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Mother’s Instinct, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus, Silver Haze, and Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire