Polite Society

  Lina Khan (Ritu Arya) is going through a rough patch; She's dropped out of art school and is living with her British/Pakistani family while she figures things out. Meanwhile little sister Ria (Priya Kansara) knows exactly what she wants: to be a stuntwoman, a dream she pursues with all the manic determination a teen can muster, despite a complete lack of support from everyone except her sister.

 Complications soon arrive in the form of Salim, a hunky rich dude who sweeps Lena off her feet at a soirée hosted by his mother (Nimra Bucha). Ria is understandably upset at the changes this wreaks on her life and her sister; Who's going to help her do her martial arts youtube videos? She also disapproves of the relationship (she accuses Lena of Jane Austening it, happily marrying herself off to a rich dude,) and balks at her new wardrobe (She's wearing cardigans now!)

 Not the type to give up without a fight (or ten) Ria enlists her schoolmates (Seraphina Beh and Ella Bruccoleri) on a campaign to rescue her sister and/or sabotage her wedding. While her plans start out being comically inappropriate and only get worse, Ria soon starts to suspect there might actually is something sinister in her prospective brother-in-law's seemingly perfect façade, and runs afoul of his sinister mother. Things quickly get out of hand, but saying more would mildly spoil this movie's considerable pleasures.

 Polite Society is a silly, extremely likable comedy that's soaked with loving genre asides. The film mines a lot of laughs by from repurposing classic action beats and horror movie staging - a waxing plays the part of the requisite torture scene, for example, and Ria throwing Salim deranged dirty looks from the shadows like a pissed-off ghost is never not funny.

 It's a universe where everybody knows Kung-Fu and Jiu-Jitsu, and things get exactly as ridiculous as they need to to get a laugh from one moment to the next while still remaining (mostly) coherent. Great stuff.

 The fight scenes are frequent and fun - the fight choreography (by Rob Lock) is (intentionally) derivative with homages all over the place. It's not as good as a specialist action film, but it does a respectable job - and there's a lot of work done to adapt traditional moves to unusual wardrobe choices that result in some really stunning-looking scenes.

 The drama is effective, targeting ethnic and social conventions and traditions, while Ria and Lena's relationship is relatable and genuinely sweet. Don't expect a huge amount of subversion in the story department - early on one of the characters says something like "Tropes are tropes because they work," and the movie stands firmly by that.
 But there's real invention and smarts in writer/director Nida Manzoor's enthusiastic, genre-literate application of a melange of inspirations as they're carefully woven into the story she chose to tell. They feel natural, honest and affectionate even as they turn more mundane situations humorous. Turns out even the hoariest of clichés ("We are not so different, you and I!") can be really funny when delivered by a matronly woman to a wisp of a wild-eyed girl in traditional Asian wedding finery... as a prelude to a martial arts showdown.

 Priya Kansara is really great as Ria: genuinely funny, athletic and very, very expressive. There's a lot of laugh-out-loud-worthy mugging going on here, from her and the rest of the very game cast; It works great with the exaggerated nature of the script.

 Just about the only problem I had with this is that I kind of expected something a bit thornier out of it when it’s very much a crowdpleaser. Tough luck: it's proud to be a crowdpleaser. I was wrong, Polite Society is right, and repeat with me: tropes are tropes because they work. Especially when they're applied with this amount of verve and talent by everyone involved.