A couple of decades ago, Harmony Korine and I exchanged lists of “Best Coming of Age Movies.” I don’t know if Harmony still updates his, but I do, and my latest addition—and one of the most joyous—is Nida Manzoor’s Polite Society (2023). There is, of course, nothing polite about the society—Southeast Asian/British bourgie Londoners—which 16-year-old Ria Khan, a.k.a. The Fury (Priya Kansara), wants to destroy. In so doing, she hopes to save her older sister Lena (Ritu Arya) from a disastrous marriage and to realize her own desire to become a world-famous movie stuntwoman.
Ria and Lena are as close as sisters can be, which means that when they fight they go all out, but above all, they always have each other’s back. That’s why the sisters’ parents are bewildered by Ria’s campaign against Lena’s wealthy fiancé, Salim (Akshay Khanna), and his doting, witchy-cruel mother (Nimra Bucha). Everyone believes that Ria is jealous or suffering severe separation anxiety. Even Ria’s besties, Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri) are dubious when she enlists them to help her get dirt on Salim. But Ria’s intuition is spot-on, and a plot is afoot that takes the movie—already a mash-up of acutely observed adolescent girl rebellion, punked-out musical numbers, and martial arts action—into a sci-fi realm of cross-generational cloning and kidnapped wombs.
Mansoor honed her directing chops with the 2021 comedy series We Are Lady Parts, which follows the adventures of a London-based punk band of Muslim teenaged girls. Clearly made on a shoestring, it nevertheless showcases Manzoor’s skill at directing young actors and, even more impressive, her ability to shape characters that are smart, funny, impulsive, and don’t take shit from nobody, without sexualizing or objectifying them in any way. The characters in Polite Society are even more winning, and so are the many set pieces—including a swirling Bollywood-style dance number which Ria stages for the assembled guests at Lena and Salim’s wedding and which is meant to distract everyone’s attention from another piece of choreography, this one a subterfuge. (When Ria, Clara, and Alba execute their outlandish but precisely organized schemes, it’s hard not to think of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Three Little Maids From School” turned completely upside-down.)
From this point on the film is non-stop chases through hotel corridors and up and down marble staircases, with DP Ashley Conner’s agile camera movement keeping up the pace until Ria confronts her nemesis and, using the spinning, flying martial-arts move that she’s been diligently practicing for months— Well, no I won’t say what happens. Kansara is the mind, heart, body, and soul of Polite Society. I hope she has a great career. I’m sure that Manzoor will make women-in-action movies that leave Wonder Woman in the shadows. Polite Society already does.
Polite Society opens today in New York City
