By: Jeff Ching Are we seeing the genesis of Dev Patel as Hollywood’s next big action star? Will Monkey Man become a colossal action movie franchise similar to John Wick? Monkey Man is certainly in the running for this year’s best action movie.
We don’t watch Hotel Mumbai, we experience it. Filmmaker Anthony Maras makes his feature film debut with a dramatization so intense and effective that the audience has no choice but to grit their teeth and squint their eyes as they muster through the film’s realistic reenactments. I haven’t felt that way since Paul Greengrass’ heart-wrenching portrayal of 9/11 in United 93 (2006).
There is a genre which developed in the western “enlightened” post-9/11 world which proves that neo-colonialist sensibilities are alive and well. It’s characterized by representations of poverty and suffering in the third world which are set up in a way as to suggest that the citizens of these countries are complicit in their own suffering. Humanity is afforded to some characters, but they are the minority amongst human garbage.