Monkey Man

As someone once said, if you’re going to steal, steal from the best. The borrowings here are clear and right out on front street: heavy doses of John Wick, plus touches of Kill Bill and The Dark Knight Rises, to say nothing of their antecedents. Director and star Dev Patel uses all of the influences, filtered through a very subcontinental lens, to tell a tale that is interesting for its similarities to and differences from other entries in the action-revenge genre, while still being plainly and accessibly entertaining. And, seemingly just to show off, Patel also slips some pointed commentary about the current state of affairs, social and political, in India into his story. Pretty impressive for a debut work. The only caveat here is the usual warning for the wilting flowers about some scenes of truly gruesome violence. If you can handle that, then this movie is definitely worth a look.

Slumdog Millionaire

You know all those people you know who insist on how much they want to go to India? Based on this movie, those people are nuts. Or maybe it's not a place full of violence, evil-doers, wretched poverty and gangsters. Someone, on one side or the other, has bad information. As for this as a work of cinema, it is certainly a strong effort, and probably deserved its Best Picture win, especially in relation to its competition (you could argue for Benjamin Button, probably not the others). The strength here comes from Dev Patel's performance; he made an interesting choice to go calm in a role that often seemed to call for frenetic, and that comes across as a wise decision. Director Boyle's signature visual flair helps sew together what might have otherwise been a distractingly discontinuous narrative. And the climax definitely pays off the long, complicated trip to get there. The only quibble: fact-checking those quiz show questions would have been nice; at least one was dead wrong, and another was debatable. All in all, though, a good film well worth one's attention.