Polite Society

Grade: A

A movie like Polite Society is a joyous reminder of why I go to the theater so often. When I stumble upon one like this, that is so breathlessly entertaining and exhilarating, the good feeling it gives me is unparalleled. Let’s take a mental screenshot here, because I anticipate that for years down the road, we will get copycats that try to piggyback and draw inspiration from this film – and people will say “It’s no Polite Society.” Remember this moment, and when you saw the OG.

Actress Priya Kansara, our star, has very little experience. This is her feature film debut, and her 6th credit, total. She is spunky, charming, funny, touching, tough, and I hope she’s ready for the world to fall in love with her. She plays Ria, who attends one of those girls’ schools where they wear uniforms. She dreams of being a stuntwoman – and as we see throughout, is a really strong fighter. She sends sporadic but persistent emails of interest to Eunice, a very famous stunt coordinator, with the pipe dream that she’ll at least respond one day. After a few instances of silence, these letters become more and more like free one-sided therapy for Ria, as she opens up to Eunice about what’s going on with her, personally.

Her older sister Lena (Ritu Arya) is her best friend, other than classmates Clara and Alba (Seraphina Beh and Ella Bruccoleri). Everything changes one night when the family is invited to a fancy party at a mansion. The wealthy suitor is Salim (Akshay Khanna), who sets his sights on Lena. She is utterly charmed by him (and he looks pretty much perfect to the viewer), and after dating less than a month, they prepare for a wedding, after which he will promptly whisk her away to Singapore. Ria, who was already apprehensive about losing her sister in this way, becomes privy to a smoking gun secret of Salim’s, and makes it her mission to put a stop to the wedding.

The movie is simultaneously so many things, like an action comedy, with fights as exciting as I’ve ever seen. Or a beautiful cultural celebration, with the gorgeous costumes and dancing at the wedding. Director Nida Manzoor, also making her feature debut, pulls from a couple of influences, but uses them as a springboard to the stratosphere. There’s a love and reverence of martial arts on display here, much like Quentin Tarantino employed in the Kill Bill films. And the Mission Impossible/Ocean’s 11-style lengths Ria and her friends go to in order to find some dirt on the new boyfriend are enjoyable. After the big climax, there’s a scene that would normally not be in a movie at all – a car ride between two characters, immediately after. They want to decompress, discuss, and debrief about what just happened, and finally, a film invites us in for that.

I don’t remember a moment when I was bored. I was either laughing, touched, engaged, or entertained by the combat. And when I wasn’t any of those things, I was preoccupied with thinking about what I had just seen, and how great it was. Polite Society offers us so much. It’s a tight hour and 43 minutes, and its PG-13 rating means most are welcome. At the very least, it will be the best time you’ll have in a movie theater right now.

Grade: A