Does sincere have to mean serious? A lot of filmmakers seem to think so. The idea exists that, in order to say something about the human condition, the yuk-yuks need to be tamped down. Why? Because if humor exists, it will inevitably leech away the essential emotional truth of a film. At least, that’s the theory.

I can hear some of you saying, “What, are you saying there needed to be a moment in Schindler’s List where Oskar Schindler got kicked in the nuts by a mischievous kid?” I am not. I’m saying a well-placed joke, even one appearing in a film about a monstrous event, can reveal important aspects of character and carry emotional weight.* 

We Americans don’t do well with sincerity. On the rare occasions when we are sincere, it’s usually paired with violence, sarcasm, or piety, none of which are necessary to express a genuinely-held emotion. Sincerity does pair very nicely with humor.  Polite Society, the fiery comedy about two sisters dealing with change, proves that point nicely.

In her head, she’s The Fury. Everyone else knows her as Ria Khan (Priya Kansara), and maybe that’s part of the problem. Ria spends most of her days at a London school. Her mother (Shobu Kapoor) and father (Jeff Mirza) expect that she’ll head off to college, have a respectable career, marry a successful man, have a passel of kids, and make them proud as punch.

Only that’s not Ria’s plan. She wants to be a stuntwoman. Her idol is Eunice Huthart,** and Ria emails Huthart obsessively, hoping for a chance to meet her idol and find a way into the business. Odds are Ria would be a good fit, since she’s a committed martial artist and regularly posts stunt videos to her YouTube channel. She also goes by The Fury on her channel, so she’s got the branding issue squared away.

The one thing that Ria loves more than stunts is her older sister, Lena (Ritu Arya). Lena helps Ria with stunt videos, while Ria supports Lena’s studies in art school. They’re a united front against the traditional wishes of their fussy parents, and everything is perfect…until it isn’t. Lena drops out of art school, which is bad. Then, she meets Salim (Akshay Khanna), which is worse.

Salim is impossibly handsome. A successful geneticist. Charming. Funny. Naturally, Ria hates him and suspects he’s up to no good. She might be right, due to Salim’s devious mother Raheela (Nimra Bucha). Then, the worst possible thing happens, which is the engagement of Lena and Salim. There’s only one way for Ria to save her sister from marrying into a (possibly) evil family. She’ll team up with her besties Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri) to pull off an audacious wedding heist.

A crowd pleaser doesn’t necessarily have to be a big-budget blockbuster. While I can’t easily find the budget of Polite Society, I do feel comfortable saying that director Nida Manzoor didn’t spend the equivalent of the GDP of France to make something exciting and cool. Her budget feels reasonable, and she’s definitely learned some important lessons from Edgar Wright.*** Manzoor’s film never looks cheap, and her fast edits and well-choreographed action scenes live in harmony with intimate time spent with the characters. Her pacing moves like a rocket, but it does so when it’s necessary. Manzoor understands that if she hits the gas too much, we won’t have time to get to know these characters, and if we don’t know them, we won’t care about them.

As the screenwriter, Manzoor knows that wackiness is more effective when you have grounded characters. She takes time to create a strong sisterly bond between Ria and Lena, while also efficiently sketching out who these two are, what they want, and what’s standing in their way. Good screenwriting is all about telling the audience those three things in a clear manner, and Manzoor is a damn good screenwriter. After having laid the groundwork for the characters, the gonzo action scenes have more weight since we’re seeing them mostly through Ria’s perspective. It’s cool to see her defend herself against a school bully. It’s really cool to see the combatants fling each other around, since that action movie perspective is the lens through which Ria sees the world.

Speaking of Ria, her character is highly specific. If the role was cast with an actor who didn’t get her ubiquitous POV, we’d be stuck with a highly annoying protagonist. Luckily that didn’t happen with the star-making performance by Priya Kansara. She sells Ria’s single-minded ambition to become a stuntwoman and her equally single-minded drive to save her sister. Kansara also easily pivots to real vulnerability, and she makes her fear over losing Lena believable. She’s got an excellent counterweight with Nimra Bucha as Raheela. Bucha got the assignment perfectly, and plays Raheela as,  literally, a cackling supervillain. Everyone in the cast, and Kansara and Bucha in particular, know that they’re in a film where secret labs and combat trained manicurists exist alongside real anxieties about change.****

Polite Society doesn’t just work as an action-comedy, though it does function splendidly as that. It’s filled with dazzling inventiveness, kickass fight scenes, and characters who want what they want and damn the costs. Nida Manzoor has made a film that’s funny, cool, and most importantly, sincere.

 

*Schindler’s List actually has one of the single funniest moments I’ve ever seen in a movie. Next time you give it a watch, pay attention to the montage where Schindler is interviewing secretaries. It’s hilarious.

**Huthart is a longtime stuntwoman, and has doubled for Angelina Jolie in several films.

***A little research tells me that Manzoor has been influenced by Wright, the Coens, and Jackie Chan movies, which one hundred percent tracks.

****Somewhere, someone is discussing an American remake of Polite Society, and they’re very earnestly making the point that it needs to be more “grounded.” Trust me, it does not.



Tim Brennan
Tim has been alarmingly enthusiastic about movies ever since childhood. He grew up in Boulder and, foolishly, left Colorado to study Communications in Washington State. Making matters worse, he moved to Connecticut after meeting his too-good-for-him wife. Drawn by the Rockies and a mild climate, he triumphantly returned and settled down back in Boulder County. He's written numerous screenplays, loves hiking, and embarrassed himself in front of Samuel L. Jackson. True story.  
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