Polite Society, the feature debut from British writer-director Nida Manzoor, traffics in several familiar lanes: the coming-of-age high school comedy, a Bollywood movie, the light gravity-bending and slo-mo shots of a martial arts flick. Its particular flavor, however, is immediately distinctive and winning – at least at first. The 104-minute film from the creator of the TV series We Are Lady Parts has one of the most refreshing first halves of a comedy that I’ve seen, with a promising set-up: genuine sibling concern over what an older sister’s engagement means for their bond and creative dreams, crossed with a teenage girl’s capacity for self-centered fantasies.
The younger sister in question is Ria Khan, played by delightful newcomer Priya Kansara, a London-based Pakistani Muslim girl who dreams of becoming one of Britain’s top stuntwomen (in one of the film’s more successful bits, Priya’s unanswered feelings-dump emails to Britain’s actual top stuntwoman double as both voiceover and diary.) She’s close to Lena (Umbrella Academy’s Ritu Arya) in the spiky, secret-language way of two sisters against the world – Lena, recently returned home after dropping out of art school, will protest and spar with Ria but ultimately still films the amateur stunt videos for Ria’s YouTube channel, to the gentle chagrin of their more traditional career-seeking parents (Shobu Kapoor and Jeff Mirza).
