Where I Watched it: Peacock
English Audio Description?: Yes
There’s always this murmur amongst the naysayers on the internet that our future is full of franchises, and slowly original ideas will die away. Honestly, and perhaps because I don’t spend a lot of time watching Bollywood, Polite Society was like being smacked in the face with the physical manifestation of originality. I’ll even admit, since I went into teh film cold, with no idea what it was about, that the beginning made me think i was in for some drivel. But I was happily wrong.
What follows is a story of a young girl who wants to be a stuntwoman ever so bad, and her idol is a stuntwoman. She makes her own YouTube videos, trying to prove she has the ability to perform complicated (or somewhat) stunts. It’s a giant love letter to stunt men and women, and the lead is a girl. I’m already in love.
Then the plot kicks in, which reveals that our hero needs to save her sister from her impending nuptials, and at first we wonder if it’s just about losing a sister to marriage, but the plot thickens.
What is so great about polite Society is that the movie makes bold choices, and has these almost dreamlike sequences of combat, like the kind you would find in a Street Fighter game or something. They literally pop in with this “character vs character” Everytime it happens, like a video game climbing to boss level. The fights are over the top, given the circumstances, and the film gets even more bonkers as it goes along, but in the best way possible.
My only qualm is that because of these sequences being so dramatically over the top, I needed the movie to do a bit more to distinguish whether or not we are truly living in a magical world, or if some of this isn’t just from an overactive imagination. The movie presents everything as is, assuming the truth and honesty, and suggesting this is a magical world where weird things happen, and fights are fanciful. I’m just not sure if that’s the intention. At times, it’s so grounded, and then at other times, we’re in the middle of mortal Kombat.
While this film is dipped in culture, it could be anyone’s story. I know some in the audio description community will see this diverse casting and expect the film to focus on all the costumes and set design, but in so many ways this is like a john wick for teenage girls. It’s so entertaining and charming though that it broadens beyond perhaps what its initial audience is, and should win over a lot of fans.
I just wanted a tiny bit of confirmation on clarity regarding how much of this is in her head, but otherwise, I’m pretty high on this film. I hope this is something more people get around to watching.
Final Grade: A-