Monkey Shines: Just a little guy doing his thing

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, it depends on how much you like staring at animals. If you need a plot with twists, you will probably hate this. If you just want to clear your head and watch a chimp climb stuff for twenty minutes, you’ll be fine. It is simple. It is quiet. It is just a monkey.

There is this one moment where the chimp stops to inspect a leaf. It lasts way too long. Most modern movies would have cut that out in the editing room to keep the pace up. Here, you just sit with it.

You can see the chimp thinking. Or maybe he’s not thinking at all. Who knows? It feels less like a documentary and more like a weird, fuzzy home movie found in an attic.

Oddly specific observations:

• The way the light hits the fur when he’s sitting in the shade.
• The chimp looks directly into the lens at one point and it feels like he’s judging my life choices.
• There are no subtitles, thank god.

It reminds me a bit of the simplicity in The Busher, where things just happen because that's life. No big speeches. No fake tension. Just the rhythm of the day.

Some parts of the film feel like they were shot on a whim. The camera work is a bit shaky, like the cameraman was trying not to get bitten. It adds a certain charm that you don't get in polished productions these days.

If you're looking for a deep message about the human condition, you're looking at the wrong screen. It's just a chimp. That’s enough. 🐒