Fans Were Pumped For This Film: Watch How Fast They Turn on It After Its 'Trans' Inclusion Was Revealed
There is no word that can despoil interest in a movie the way that “representation” does.
Whenever the word is used to describe the casting or plot of a movie, you can bet your last dollar that it didn’t get that way organically. Instead of existing at the service of a plot, it exists at the service of a point.
It marginalizes groups that progressive Hollywood types like to call “marginalized” because it assumes that the only reason they’re in the project in the first place is to make that point. And it telegraphs to anyone who isn’t seeing the movie or TV show because they agree with that point that they’re viewing a lecture, not an entertainment.
Such is the case with “Monkey Man,” a heavily hyped project that went from small streaming indie to potential big-screen blockbuster, the first project directed by “Slumdog Millionaire” star Dev Patel, who plays a superhero version of the mythical Indian character of Hanuman.
“The film follows Kid (Patel), who scrapes by with the cash he makes getting beaten in an underground fight club before unresolved trauma from his childhood drives him to infiltrate the social scene of his city’s wealthiest and most corrupt,” the plot was described by Variety.
“As it becomes clearer that the people who murdered his mother continue to inflict casteist and Islamophobic violence on millions of others, he unites with others on the outskirts of society to get revenge on their common enemies.”
OK, so it already has a political subtext — but industry hype had been pretty substantial around the action film, which one industry insider told Deadline was basically “‘John Wick’ in Mumbai.”
Universal Pictures picked up the film from Netflix and it was released April 5 via Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions. Patel told Deadline that Peele’s involvement “took us from this thing that was brushed under the carpet to putting us on top of the mantel piece.”
But then comes the issue of transgender “representation” in the film; a Variety reporter told Patel on the red carpet premiere for the film last month at SXSW in Austin, Texas that it was “not what I was expecting to see” but that it was “so gorgeous.”
Patel agreed: “For me, this is an anthem for the underdogs, the voiceless and the marginalized,” he told the interviewer.
“Together they wage this war for the good and the just, and for me, I really wanted to include the hijra community, the third gender in India.”
Dev Patel on the trans representation in #MonkeyMan and including the hijra community in his film: “This is an anthem for the underdog, the voiceless, the marginalized.” https://t.co/SKt22QcOUJ pic.twitter.com/5IwIZ0vW2D
— Variety (@Variety) April 4, 2024
As NBC News noted, the hijra community is usually seen as an intersex, generally males who identify with feminine characteristics.
Some reaction was good, although it had nothing to do with whether or not the film itself was good or not:
you don’t understand. the people in this gif are hijras/transfemme/3rd gender people & they’re about to kick ass. MONKEY MAN is an incredible action film featuring INDIAN TRANS PEOPLE as a major part of the plot! I can’t stop screaming it from the rooftops! Dev Patel ilysm 😭🏳️⚧️ pic.twitter.com/WX4fQE2Omo
— Jeremy Allen Black 🇵🇸✊🏽 (they/them) (@LKirwanAshman) April 7, 2024
As for those who were looking forward to something to watch, not so much:
Damn, went from 100% interested to 0 real quick https://t.co/DORGuqeGQb
— 1/4 Black Garrett (@QTRBlackGarrett) April 4, 2024
Trans representation?
I was really looking forward to this movie and now I’m like, what?!
This is annoying and why red carpet events are some of the worst advertising for new movies. https://t.co/0k0cHzVRwo— Nina Infinity (@Nina7Infinity) April 4, 2024
And interest gone. https://t.co/tGcAUMg3V6 pic.twitter.com/G6PsSoYZ9B
— Mr.Bug (@buggy_con) April 4, 2024
…aaaaaaaand I’m out. https://t.co/bDMz3JApSd pic.twitter.com/jrEOPODJE3
— Gulag Inmate: Equality 7-2521 (@ShdVanguard) April 4, 2024
Now, can you chalk some of this up to what’ll doubtlessly be called “transphobia?” Your mileage may vary on that. Can you chalk most of this up to the fact that, when you hear “representation,” you know you’re not watching a movie, you’re watching someone else’s sociopolitical message that you’re spending your time and money to see? Absolutely.
And let that be a message to Hollywood. As ScreenRant noted in a Monday report, while the film has grossed $22 million globally, it fell out of the domestic top five in its second weekend in the box office in the United States, only grossing $4.1 million. This for a project that was heavily tipped as a crossover hit.
It’ll still likely be a financial success for Universal — the break-even point was $20 million globally, given its budget — but it’s hardly the money-printing machine Hollywood thought it was going to be. Instead, the profits will be far more modest than the hype suggested.
I’m sure entertainment insiders will blame any number of things, from the fact that it is essentially a foreign title to the recent troubles that superhero movies have run into at the box office in general. However, the R-word likely played some part in it. Those who might have otherwise gone to the theater out of sheer curiosity and laudatory reviews realized they were in for a lecture with their action and chose to do something else.
“Representation” isn’t just condescending, it’s also box-office poison. Maybe “Monkey Man” will wake someone in Hollywood up — but judging by previous failures in the same vein, probably not.
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