One of sensual instances in film this year includes a female incomplete attire as a primate. Thus far in comedian Nina Conti’s first directing effort, a intense buildup of romantic friction fills a camper van between depressed radio host Roy, played by Shenoah Allen, and the simian, acted by Nina Conti, who rescued him from taking his own life in a New Mexico hotel room.
Roy is naturally intrigued to learn the identity inside the outfit and the character that is part of it – a crass loudmouth who comments on all things around them in the stuffy British tones of Anne Robinson.
Monkey’s Disclosures
This character divulges some details about her real identity: she formerly went by Jane, who worked as a club mascot for her abusive stepfather Wade, portrayed by Bill Wise, and came to associate too much with her costume. Following her mother’s passing due to cancer, she then self-destructively shacked up with Wade.
Electing to flee his control, she insists Roy bring her to a Colorado lake where she plans to start a banana pontoon business. He possesses his own reckoning scheduled: visiting the graveyard and exhuming his despised father to recover a luxury watch with which he will finance her waterfront dreams.
Chase and Satire
When Wade pursues them on his racing bike, which acts as the catalyst for this consistently uproarious escapade, the simian gets the funniest remarks: “Your dad’s not going to dig himself up.” However it’s swiftly obvious that this satirical road trip is propelled by genuine pain – notably when Roy begins to move in closer.
“Jane’s leaving it up to me now. She died last night – just like you,” advises the monkey, who is a type of reverse ventriloquist’s puppet; accountable, rather than a intense id.
Much like Lenny Abrahamson’s Frank, Conti and collaborator Allen are exploring essentially profound points about self and alter egos isolating trauma.
Camerawork and Resolution
The director’s camerawork occasionally feels a bit unsure – maybe fittingly for a story about someone creating a makeshift life as a monkey. And the ending comes a bit too readily, not quite involving us in the challenges of Jane’s hominid transition as much as it might.
However these are slight complaints when Conti accomplishes the feat of being funny, emotionally astute and kinda appealing throughout.
