Polite Society is the funniest, most gonzo film of the year so far
There exists a sub-Reddit devoted to technically accurate but, nonetheless, deeply misleading summaries of film plots. For example, “teen ruins younger sister’s chance of appearing on national television” for the Hunger Games. It would be a struggle to write something similar for Polite Society. Largely because the film got there first. The plot follows Ria, a secondary school student from Shepherd’s Bush, alarmed that her big sister, Lena, has agreed to an arranged marriage. Despite the rest of her family’s delight, she fears what this will mean for their close bond, for her sister’s artistic aspirations, and that her apparently perfect fiancé is not what he seems. Which sounds like the set-up for a family drama and/or a coming-of-age comedy. Which it is. But it’s also a martial arts film. Ria dreams of becoming a stuntwoman. Her bedroom is decorated with more posters from the Golden Age of Hong Kong kung fu cinema than Quentin Tarantino’s. Her struggles regularly lead to maybe real, maybe imagined fight sequences replete with high kicks and big spins. There’s also a horror element implicit in the very icky underlying premise. And lest, you’ve somehow missed that this is all a bit strange, Lina’s mother-in-law to be is played by Nimra Bucha, AKA the leader of the Clandestines in Ms. Marvel, with vaudeville villain vibes worthy of Hannibal Lector, even if – or perhaps especially if – she’s doing something apparently mundane.
The temptation for a lot of reviewers seems to be to try and explain Polite Society in terms of other films: “British Pakistani Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” or “Scott Pilgrim meets Jane Austin”. These are all evocative descriptions. Austin is explicitly invoked. Mining for comedy in the dissonance of the huge action of an American or Asian blockbuster in the down to earth setting of a typical British film is very reminiscent of early Edgar Wright, especially Hot Fuzz. Nonetheless, I’m hesitant to lean too far into these comparisons. Especially the one with Everything, which despite striking many people, including me when I first saw the trailer, as the most obvious reference point, is unhelpful for a number of reasons. For starters, Everything didn’t premiere until after Polite Society had already wrapped filming, and was, therefore, not actually an influence on it. This shows in the fact that despite the blending of many similar elements, their content differs rather markedly. Polite Society is told from the point of view of a younger generation. Everything is both more self-consciously artistic and has more gross out jokes about sex toys. While Polite Society is clearly influenced by American, Indian and Hong Kong films, it is very distinctly British and a lot of the comedy rests on capturing the distinct ways different Londoners speak. Most fundamentally, in the two films, Everything is a philosophical meditation on existence, whereas Polite Society is a social satire.
Itshould be allowed to stand by itself. I found expectations of what sort of film it would be, obscured my appreciation of the film it is: the funniest, most gonzo experience I’ve had at the cinema this year. It combines bite with real sweetness. Absurdity with a firm grounding in an actual place. Things get very surreal whilst the characters continue to seem very real. It has all the makings of a very rewatchable cult classic.
I’d also hope that off the strength of it, we’ll see writer-director Nida Manzoor and star Priya Kansara given the chance to work on something like the MCU or Star Wars. Polite Society is strong evidence, they’d be good fits and would bring a lot to a bigger canvass.
Matter Of Facts 