Polite Society
Seen at the 2023 Atlanta Film Festival.
“Polite Society” builds its narrative arc out of the desire of its main character, Ria Khan, to be a stunt woman, but its emotional arc out of Ria’s inability to be happy that her older sister falling in love and preparing to marry a seemingly wonderful guy. That Nida Manzoor was able to combine those two elements into a film that goes as crazy as it does narratively while maintaining the emotional core at its center results in a truly delightful experience. I do think the story goes a bit off the rails by the end, but Ria and Lena keep it grounded, as the latter’s suspicions are proven in a completely absurd way.
When we first meet the sisters, Ria (Priya Kansara) and Lena (Ritu Arya) are societal outcasts- Lena is struggling after she quit art school, and Ria is someone who marches to the beat of her own drummer, with a YouTube channel devoted to her displaying her doing stunts. Being a stunt woman very much feels like a childhood dream, but Ria has the commitment to make it work. Their parents would rather see them just have normal lives, however, which- naturally- includes marrying well. The one thing that really connected with me in this film is how parents sometimes struggle to see our dreams the same way we do; understandably, but they would rather see us settle into a normal life they select for us. When Lena is set up with a handsome young doctor (Akshay Khanna), Ria is instantly suspicious, and as the courtship turns to a pending nuptials, her determination to get Lena out of it- whether she wants to or not.
Change to one’s support system is one of the scariest things we can go through in life. While Ria has school friends (Seraphina Beh and Ella Bruccoleri, whom are comedic delights), Lena is truly the emotional anchor Ria holds on to the most. She’s the most supportive of her dreams, and the one she feels as though she can talk to and just be heard. The emotions aren’t just coming from the imagination of a young woman with an unorthodox dream, but a sister about to lose her best friend. Having that as the emotional hook is where we go along with the story, even as it moves into the surreal when not only are Ria’s suspicions about the intentions of her fiancée and his over-protective mother (Nimra Bucha, taking the mother-in-law-from-Hell trope to outrageous levels in a great performance) proven correct, but go to a place that’s like something out of a horror movie. The reason we don’t recoil is because Manzoor maintains the tone- that of a dark comedy with bursts of action- beautifully, staging the action with flair, and setting her actors up to be naturally funny as this nightmare scenario unfolds. The comparisons to Tarantino and Edgar Wright when it comes to genre-splicing are apt, but this is more fun than any hybrid genre film either of those two have made in ages, with a striking breakout performance by Kansara that already is one of my favorites of the year. “Polite Society” understands the assignment, and gets an easy A in its execution.
