REVIEW: New Film Polite Society Has Action, Culture, 540 Kicks, Sisterhood, and So Much More

Focus Features’ new film Polite Society is everything one would want in a culture-filled and female-fueled action comedy and more.

Newcomer Priya Kansara (Bridgerton, The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself ) stars as a British Pakistani London-based teenager Ria Khan in Nida Manzoor’s Polite Society. We follow Ria as she finds her way, attempting to perfect 540 kicks for social media as she aspires to become the next best street-fighting stunt woman with big dreams of filling the shoes of her celebrity idol. Along the way is a beautiful and slightly chaotic but hilarious story on sisterhood, friendship, and living your best life alongside her older sister Lena, portrayed by Ritu Arya (Red Notice). Lena recently dropped out of art school and is back home with Ria and their parents as she tries to find her way.

Ria has a lot of self-improvement to do alongside her two besties Seraphina Beh (Wheel of Time) as Clara and Ella Bruccoleri (Call the Midwife, Extraordinary) as Alba, as she dips and dives the sucker punches thrown by her high school bully named Kovacs (Shona Babyemi, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night), who at first whoops Ria’s very ambitious butt in the school hallway, letting her know to abandon her street fighting dreams as a stunt woman as she’s plastered on the hallway floor and basically becomes a new extension to the school’s now shattered glass trophy case.

Ria and Lena’s parents Rafe (Jeff Mirza, What’s Love Got To Do With It?) and Fatima, Shobu Kapoor (Shobu Kapoor, Bridgerton), don’t seem all that traditional, as they let Lena attend art school in the first place but were super hyped that she dropped out. Next thing you know, their mom’s super conventional and conservative friend Raheela (Nimra Bucha, Ms. Marvel ) has invited the girls and their parents to a party at their mansion, which turns into a traditional high society match-making session with oodles of women fawning at the site of the hosts impeccably dressed, without a hair out of place son, Salim portrayed by Akshay Khanna (Red, White, and Royal Blue).

Ria is devasted that Lena has fallen under the spell of Salim and quickly discovers that he and Raheela are not what they seem, as he instantly has his eye on Lena as a wife. It’s up to Ria and her friends to save the day, and it gets really complicated in a race for their lives. Things get quite violent pretty quickly and even include some gunshots, a little science fiction, a really big dance scene, incredible stunts, and a leg and bikini wax torture session.

The film originally premiered at Sundance and is the directorial debut feature from British filmmaker Nida Manzoor (We Are Lady Parts). The performances across the board were stellar, with great comedic timing. Ashley Connor (Madeline’s Madeline) is the director of photography, and she brings a slick and rich look to Polite Society which mirrors her past work in Sundance-winning work such as The Miseducation Of Cameron Post and festival premiere projects such as True Things, The Death Of Dick Long and Sharp Stick directed by Lena Dunham.

BAFTA-winning costume designer and stylist PC Williams (We Are Lady Parts) created some really gorgeous costumes with some of the most stunning traditional garments. The editing and production were amazing, with a fun continuous flow to the entire film, which was like one big female empowerment caper.

The stunts (Crispin Layfield) were awesome, from the dance scenes to the fight scenes (Rob Lock), and the entire cast basically takes part, including Salim and Raheela’s characters. The score was upbeat and fun and added to Polite Society knocking this one out of the park. Move over Tarantino fans, another female-focused fresh, and modern action comedy has arrived on the scene.

Polite Society opens in theaters on April 28.