Parisa Taghizadeh/Focus Features
The coming-of-age movie receives a multicultural punch in the face with Polite Society, a rambunctious affair about fighting the patriarchy and, just as importantly, the old-school tiger moms who support it.
Invigorated by Priya Kansara’s charming turn as a defiant girl who won’t do what they tell her, Nida Manzoor’s feature debut, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and hits theaters Apr. 28, celebrates feminist independence and rage, even as it embraces the conventions of its many cinematic and pop-culture influences. Deftly straddling lines, it preaches individuality while simultaneously appreciating that, as one character states, “there’s a reason tropes are tropes—it’s because they work.”
In present-day London, Pakistani teen Ria Khan (Kansara) dreams of becoming a stuntwoman like her big-screen idol, spending all her free time training at a martial-arts dojo and making backyard videos in which she shows off her moves and tries, without much success, to execute an impressive reverse spinning roundhouse kick that’s equal parts Bruce Lee and Street Fighter.