‘Polite Society’ Review: Wrath of the Demolition Desi
Polite Society
PG13: Strong language, violence, sexual material, and some partial nudity
Runtime: 1 Hour and 43 Minutes
Production Companies: Working Title Films, Parkville Pictures
Distributor: Focus Features
Director: Nida Manzoor
Writer: Nida Manzoor
Cast: Priya Kansara, Ritu Arya, Nimra Bucha, Shobu Kapoor, Ella Bruccoleri, Seraphina Beh, Shona Babayemi, Jeff Mirza, and Akshay Khanna
Release Date: April 28, 2023
In Theaters Only
We Are Lady Parts creator Nida Manzoor trades her TV guitar for film fisticuffs in Polite Society, a teenage coming-of-age story about sisterhood, following your dreams, and kicking high class.
Set in present-day London, headstrong British-Pakistani teen Ria Khan (Priya Kansara) is a martial artist in training dreaming of becoming a famous stuntwoman with the title “The Fury.” Bullies at her all-girls high school belittle her, and her conservative parents (Shobu Kapoor and Jeff Mirza) share are dismayed by her. Ria’s only supporter is her older artist sister Lena (Ritu Arya), who videographs Ria's amateurish martial arts stunts for her YouTube channel. Lena has been on a depression kick since she dropped out of university. She starts seeing Salim (Akshay Khanna), a skilled doctor and the son of Raheela (Nimra Bucha), an intimidating wealthy socialite. Frustrated, Ria enlists her friends, Alba (Ella Bruccoleri) and Clara (Seraphina Beh), to help her sabotage their relationship. Their failed attempts backfire as the pair quickly gets engaged. Now it’s up to Ria to put her stuntwoman skills to the test and find a way to save her sister, uncovering Salim and Raheela’s evil plans.
Manzoor’s dry comedic style and surrealist visual imagery—like Edgar Wright if he made movies from a feminist Pakistani lens—carries over to Polite Society wonderfully. Immediately, Manzoor straps you into Ria’s independent mindset and floors it with quick-paced action and consistently funny humor. We Are Lady Parts had Manzoor on her Scott Pilgrim musical shit; Polite Society magnifies her affection for stylistic combat through well-choreographed sequences. Ria’s martial arts face-offs have the same high-spirited and kinetic feel of silly action comedies from the ‘90s when Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh were kicking all kinds of ass. Each location stands out as a set piece due to the detail in the blocking, including background interactions adding to the comedy.
As much as I compliment the action, Polite Society is more of a heist comedy akin to the offbeat flair of a Nickelodeon movie. A good chunk of the plot focuses on Ria’s failed attempts to sabotage Lena’s seemingly happy relationship. While it admittingly bogs down the pacing, I couldn’t help but get a nostalgic whiff of teenage attitude and determination that perfectly aligns with the film’s PG-13 rating. Most of that sensation is credited to the strength of Priya Kansara’s star-turning leading performance. Kansara brings a fiery blend of “can-do” determination, rebellion, and charm to her spunky stuntwoman wannabe role. She has notable comedic timing with a range that jumps between deadpan and lively, with most of her line deliveries landing. She and the effortlessly funny Ritu Arya (Lena might be my new sad-girl mood board representation) share incredible chemistry, elevating the authentic sisterly portrait at the center. When it’s time for Ria to be vulnerable about the source of her sabotage, the emotional beats shared between Kansara and Arya are genuinely heartbreaking.
Polite Society’s core strength lies in the theme of sisterhood, magnifying the influence older sisters have on their younger ones. This was rushed in April’s other Comcast-distributed movie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, where the theme of brotherhood wasn’t as fleshed out. The film offers nuanced arcs for Ria and Lena, dreamers who want to achieve their passion. Lena’s failure gives Ria a major existential crisis, for seeing her big sister’s passion burn out frightens her. Sometimes Ria acts out in selfish ways, but Manzoor’s strong character writing and Kansara’s performance make her intentions clear.
If you need a wicked Pakistani matriarch, you call Nimra Bucha. Last year she was one hell of a cunning villain as Najma in Ms. Marvel. She’s deliciously despicable as Polite Society’s main antagonist, Raheela. Bucha constantly steals the spotlight with classy hubris, darting fierce intimidating glares at everyone in her path, striking tension whenever she butts heads with Ria. For someone who has been an MCU villain, Bucha intensifies the camp on the action-superhero movie sensibilities with her performance, relishing in her conniving actions.
As aforementioned, Polite Society suffers from loose pacing, spending most of its second act cycling through Ria’s endless sabotage attempts. It’s 15 minutes too long, but the runtime’s length is heavily felt in brief spurts.
I commend Manzoor’s ambitions and crafting a unique rebel teen comedy with a spunky attitude. Sometimes its genre-bending carefree notions don’t click in the way something like Everything Everywhere All at Once does. However, it’s not a detriment to the film itself, for whenever it falls, it gets back up and tries something new that still impresses.
Nida Manzoor’s Polite Society finds the writer/director showing her cinematic warrior spirit through a lively, genre-bending teen action comedy with spunk, stylish action, and a kick-ass breakthrough performance by Priya Kansara.
