Polite Society

The 2023 British comedy, Polite Society, feels like the kind of film that a specific audience would gravitate towards and become engrossed by its wacky tone and goofy premise, yet wouldn’t do very well outside of that specific bubble. While the film was favorably reviewed by most critics and got some attention from its advertising, it hasn’t launched a substantial following after its release, so it remains as that small-scale movie that got a few followers but never got crazy famous, which is both understandable and sadly unfortunate given the quality of the picture itself. British Pakistani teenager Ria Khan (played by Priya Kansara) dreams of becoming a stunt woman yet is constantly told that it is a silly and childish dream by her teachers and even her parents, Fatima, and Rafe (played by Shobu Kapoor and Jeff Mirza). The only one that has faith in her is her older sister, Lena (played by Ritu Arya), a recent art school drop-out who helps Ria display her stunt work through her YouTube channel, yet this bond is fractured when Lena starts dating successful geneticist, Salim (played by Akshay Khanna), whom Ria is convinced is hiding something, especially after he pops the question of marriage only after a few dates. After basically having his intentions confirmed by his obviously evil mother, Raheela (played by Nimra Bucha), Ria tries to find a way to convince Lina of the truth behind this sudden marriage with the help of her friends, Clara, and Alba (played by Seraphina Beh and Ella Bruccoleri), not realizing the truly weird rabbit hole she’s going down when she finds out the real purpose behind this engagement. Being distributed by Universal with the help of Focus Features, Polite Society isn’t really that bad of a movie as it houses a few shining components, but as a whole suffers from poor pacing, weak characterizations, a bad script, an overly wacky tone and unambitious technicals.

When viewing this film for the first time, you can feel the many influences that no doubt inspired the vibe and personality of this story, from more broad approaches with directors like Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright, to more specific inspirations like Jackie Chan flicks and Hindi cinema. The style of this movie is quite wild, wacky, and often times cartoonish and overblown, and while this in concept isn’t too bad as the idea of a martial arts comedy with a British-Pakistani flair actually sounds pretty fun and the trailers did a good job presenting that tone in a likeable manner, the film doesn’t manage itself very well and because the plot itself isn’t very strong, it means the film feels a little under-baked in many areas. This feels like a testing of new waters for director Nida Manzoor, and her inexperience can be felt in how a lot of the film’s core elements feel a little aimless and not as properly ironed out as they should be. The script (also written by Manzoor) isn’t particularly good, with a literal hotplate of extreme ideas and quirky moments meshed together against a more down-to-earth tone and characters roster, all the while still trying to be an over-the-top action-er, with a final result that doesn’t come together in the slightest. Scenes lack a sense of engagement or weight, the characters aren’t very well defined, the choice of narrative focus is too generic one moment and then too crazy the next to result in a stable and consistent viewing experience, and despite how out-of-the-box it’s presenting itself as, nothing about the plot is really that new or fresh for this type of genre (even the eventual reveal at the end just feels like a crazy plot twist you’d see in a standard wacky comic book storyline). The only time the movie really feels at its peak is during the climax, as the tone feels more realized, the characters start to come into their own, the action is enjoyable as well as a touch creative, and it gives the audience what they probably wanted to see more of throughout the whole movie. From a directing standpoint, it still houses some issues like poor pacing, the humor and tone not really working, and an occasional bad line read from the actors, but it feels like Manzoor has a style and personality that, with more experience, could really become electric and unique. Her past success as the creator of the very highly regarded Peacock series, We Are Lady Parts, proves she’s a talented director, and her mixture of zany antics with dry British sarcasm showcased alongside more mainstream, street-level problems and individuals, does result in a fun distinct combo. While this might not have been the best demonstration of her abilities, she has them nonetheless and it’ll be nice to see her evolve beyond this point.

Another factor that probably holds this movie back in comparison to films made by Tarantino or Wright is that while the style is always front and centre in their movies, they have very distinct memorable characters who, whether likable or not, interact with that style in a unique way that adds to the overall atmosphere of their stories. This movie doesn’t have very strong characters as a majority of them are quite cliched, underwritten and even kind of unlikeable. Despite the framework for this premise being fairly straightforward in layout and you can see how this could be mapped out to inject emotional beats against its crazy antics, they never really come to fruition where you’d expect them to, and the film instead brushes past them without much rhyme or reason often for the sake of a forced conflict. There’s a strong lack of connection between a good chunk of the characters which does hamper many of the film’s key moments, especially in regard to the bond between the sisters. It’s not presented very well, so any moment where they mention they are really close doesn’t feel very authentic, and it is also slightly weakened by the acting. Priya Kansara as the lead doesn’t always work, with a delivery that can be a little phony at times and a character that is honestly pretty unlikeable (and not written in a way that makes any of her actions make sense). With that said, she is still young, she does improve as the film goes on, and she does nail most of the moments where she has to act hysterical and frantic, so there is room to improve. Ritu Arya as the sister is also pretty flat and sadly doesn’t improve as the film continues, but her minimal screentime and improved acting abilities in other shows like Doctors and The Umbrella Academy proves she can be better as well in other projects. The acting from the rest of the cast is honestly not too bad, but none of the roles are strong enough to allow them to showcase the best of their abilities. Seraphina Beh, Ella Bruccoleri and even Shona Babayemi as a friend-turned-bully provide good support for the lead and have good comedic timing, yet they don’t really have much personality, Shobu Kapoor and Jeff Mirza are pretty good as the parents, but don’t really contribute much to the story, and Akshay Khanna is given nothing to do as the character of Salim, so just kind of come across as the possible red flag love interest (considering how much of a factor he is to the growing conflict and eventual twist of the picture, he probably should’ve had a bigger role or at least have had some agency). The only one who manages to stand out is Nimra Bucha as the villain. After being wasted as the main villain of the Marvel series, Ms Marvel, this movie proves once again that she is a fantastic actress who can be legitimately chilling and threatening if given the chance, and while the character she plays isn’t very well handled, she is having so much fun playing overly crazy and maniacal that it is a blast to watch.

Despite being labelled as a martial arts comedy and taking inspiration from several Indian and Asian martial arts films (which prove to be more creative and even sometimes interesting that action films made in Hollywood), that aspect isn’t really that interesting or well-handled here. Considering that the main driving force for the lead is to be a stunt performer, you’d imagine that the stunt work and choreography on some of these fight scenes would be a little more interesting, but they really aren’t anything memorable or impressive. The moves handled by stunt coordinator Crispin Layfield aren’t that great, the camera work by Ashley Connor doesn’t do a very good job showing them off, the slow-motion effects arguably damage the coolness of the stunt more than enhance them as seeing them for a longer period shows how unimpressive some of them are, and the moves aren’t flashy and outlandish enough to feel like something out of an Indian flick, but they also aren’t grounded or technically amazing enough to feel like something out of an Asian martial arts flick. It’s a shame that for something that could’ve provided a whole new kind of comedic action flick with more of an Indian flair attached, it doesn’t take full advantage of what it could’ve provided (something like what RRR did and ran all the way with).  Even most of the production doesn’t take advantage of its unique British-Pakistani identity, as outside of the climax at a lavish wedding with culturally appropriate decorations, attires and colors, the production design by Simon Walker and the costume design by PC Williams doesn’t bring out a lot of color, flair or even culture for most of the picture, so it feels like a large waste (it’s not like it needs to shower itself in culture if it doesn’t want to, but because everything else isn’t that engaging or distinct, it would’ve at least added a unique visual design).

Polite Society may carry a lot of flaws and doesn’t work as a whole, but in spite of this, it’s not really a bad movie and is even passable in the right viewpoint. While it can be tonally messy, lacking in its characters and story, and has a tone that can feel pretty irritating at times, there is undoubtedly going to be people that are engaged by this kind of story and personality and love it for its wildness and weirdness. It just feels like Nida Manzoor was out of her element, and it would be nice to see her explore what she’s good at in a feature film later down the line, because it truly feels like she has the workings for a stand-out director if she just fine-tunes her strengths and maybe steers away from her weaknesses (or better yet, improves upon them). It is a mess, but a mess with interesting spikes attached and one that has the potential to be someone’s guilty pleasure or maybe even more later down the line.