Polite Society: Film Review
I absolutely loved Polite Society and I would have watched it sooo many times if it came out when I was a teenage girl.
Nida Manzoor‘s feature directorial debut stars Priya Kansara as Ria Khan, an angsty teenager who shows off her martial arts skills on her YouTube channel and dreams of becoming a stuntwoman. She is super close with her older sister Lena (Ritu Arya) and cannot accept Lena’s new relationship with Salim (Akshay Khanna), who plans to whisk her off to Singapore after their wedding. Ria believes Salim and his mother Raheela (Nimra Bucha) are up to no good and she sets out to expose their game and save her sister.
This British comedy is such an enjoyable ride. It has a tongue-in-cheek, irreverent tone and an excellent sense of humour and is packed with laughs and hilarious performances. The action sequences are funny and well executed and make you question whether they are real or a figment of Ria’s fantastical imagination. She sometimes visualises herself as a stuntwoman in a movie and gets into insanely skilled fights when she’s only a schoolgirl.
I’ve never seen Kansara in anything before and I’ll keep an eye out for her going forward. She’s a star, that’s for sure. Ria is feisty, fearless and a classic moody teenager. I liked her immediately, even though Ria makes questionable choices. Is she telling the truth or is she delusional? Is she simply making her claims up to sabotage the wedding and keep her sister at home? These questions keep you guessing for a while but it all becomes clear at the end.
This is ultimately a love story between the two sisters and Kansara’s bond with Arya is a joy to watch. You really believe they are close sisters who love each other but piss each other off in equal measure. I loved watching them dance around or film content for her channel. Arya has excellent line delivery and a cool onscreen presence.
Ria’s best friends and sidekicks Clara and Alba (Seraphina Beh and Ella Bruccoleri) are hilarious. They made me laugh the most, particularly Bruccoleri with her quirky facial expressions. They made the sabotage planning sessions and the wedding day sequence all the more entertaining. Bucha is also excellent as the domineering, unnerving mother who seems like a secret puppetmaster (but is she?)
Polite Society is an absolute blast, with hilarious performances, fun action sequences, amazing costumes and a banging soundtrack.
In cinemas from Friday 28th April