Polite Society Review | Like Eating an Entire Rotisserie Chicken (in a good way)

A raucously entertaining and innovative genre mash-up, writer-director Nida Manzoor’s action-comedy-thriller Polite Society throws everything it can at the wall, and a lot of it sticks. This post-modern, go-for-broke tale of sisters fighting for their freedom and friendship in the face of outdated and very culturally specific traditions is unquestionably overstuffed and scattered, but Polite Society benefits greatly from its grounded cultural critique and celebration, which comes from a youthful, realistic South Asian point of view. Stylistically and tonally, Manzoor’s work is all over the place, but as an overall concept with a strong, original narrative and emotional backbone, Polite Society works really well.

Bullied and awkward British teen Ria Khan (Priya Kansara) dreams of being a famous stuntwoman, often roping her big sister, Lena (Ritu Arya), into helping capture some daring, often ill fated feats on camera. An art school dropout with plenty of potential and a depressive streak, Lena normally coasts through life on autopilot, until one day she catches the eye of Salim (Akshay Khanna) at a fancy Eid party. Almost immediately, Lena turns from being a quirky, loner outsider and into someone destined to be a doting, obedient housewife. In almost no time at all, Lena and Salim are set to be married, thrilling their proud parents – especially the groom’s mother, Raheela (Nimra Bucha) – but Ria suspects something sinister has happened to her sister.

What Ria eventually uncovers is a grand conspiracy that will put her erstwhile stuntwoman skills to the test, but really Polite Society works best when viewed first and foremost through a cultural lens and not as much as a straightforward genre piece. UK based filmmaker Manzoor (creator of the highly underrated series We Are Lady Parts) builds her genre hopping story around the weight of cultural expectations and the ways relationships are forever altered by arranged marriages. At it’s heart, Polite Society is an emotionally charged story of a sisterly bond placed under great strain. Ria is faced with losing the one person in her family who didn’t treat her like a disappointment, and as such is willing to fight to maintain that close relationship.  Manzoor questions how a culture can thrive on mechanics that can forever alter close, personality defining relationships all in the name of carrying on tradition.

That close bond is one solidified in the brilliantly funny opening scenes of Polite Society, and it’s easy to cheer for these sisters to be made whole once again. It’s also charming enough to sustain Manzoor’s work from occasional narrative whiplash. Polite Society is first and foremost a comedy, but thanks to Ria’s dream profession, there’s a fair bit of highly stylized action set pieces peppered throughout. The action is well executed and amusingly staged, but it’s not always present, meaning the energy level of Polite Society tends to ebb and flow. It’s always interesting to watch, but whenever Manzoor switches up tones and genres, the effect is like someone slamming on the breaks really hard. 

This becomes more of a problem past the halfway point, when Polite Society pivots further into horror and paranoid thriller territory. This element is handled with curiously more seriousness that’s out of step with the other perceptive, fun elements of the story. The thriller bits are also less effective because the grand reveal of the film’s villain and their perverse motivations – while darkly amusing in its own way – is something that has been seen and done better in films that had more of a grasp over the tone they were going for.

But it’s not as if Polite Society is some sort of bait and switch operation, and the tonal inconsistency seems more a side effect of first feature, bigger budget jitters on the part of Manzoor than anything genuinely wrong with the concept. Even when the story is in the process of spinning out of alignment, Manzoor’s cast remains compelling, likeable, and funny, especially Kansara, Arya, and Bucha. Manazoor gives her cast plenty to work with by placing them in a veritable fantasia of opulent sets and costumes that both scream wealth and refinement, while also easily being read as trappings that are masking potential Bond level villainy. It’s a lot like watching people having a blast in a sandbox, and that spirit is infectious, even when Polite Society feels overly fussy and exposition heavy.

Polite Society isn’t perfect, but it is wildly different from everything else out at the moment and has virtually no clearcut point of comparison. That’s absolutely something to celebrate when the results are pretty good. It’s a stylistic pastiche that falls somewhere between John Wick, The Matrix, Get Out, and any number of movies where someone feverishly tries to stop a wedding. It’s fun, even when it isn’t at its absolute best, and a perfect reflection of Manzoor’s main character. Polite Society is like a procrastinating student who mainlines a pot of coffee the night before a big paper is due and still manages to turn in a B+ assignment because they’re that good at what they do.

Polite Society opens in theatres everywhere on Friday, April 28, 2023.

This film was originally screened at the 2023 Sundance Film festival.