Polite Society (2023)

It's a very familiar tale. A woman is prepared for marriage to a seemingly-perfect suitor. Unfortunately, her younger sister isn't happy with this development, and sets out to find flaws in the character of the groom-to-be. If this was a standard rom-com then we would have the younger sister scheming with her friends to put a stop to the marriage, and we do get that. It's very much not a standard rom-com though. The sisters are two women who seem destined to avoid the life paths they view as being rigidly laid down for British Pakistani women, with the older (Lena) trying her hand at being an artist and the younger (Ria) desperately hoping to use her allotted upcoming work experience week to learn more from a movie stuntwoman, Eunice Huthart (a real stuntwoman who first came to the attention of the British public when she accomplished a victory on the TV show "Gladiators"). As tensions rise between the two sisters, Lena struggles to hold on to her ambition, despite working hard on her own stunt/fighting skills, and things take a very strange turn in the third act, when she stumbles upon something that takes the film towards a whole other genre.

Written and directed by Nida Manzoor (acclaimed for "We Are Lady Parts", a show I have yet to watch, and have now made a top priority), Polite Society is vibrant, funny, feminist, insightful, and a bloody great time at the cinema. Although it's not as much of a loony genre mash-up as Everything Everywhere All At Once, I can see why some have compared the two, thanks to the use of action and fantastical elements to underpin a tale that speaks most directly to a specific audience demographic (while also appealing broadly to everyone). This is what can happen when we let seemingly-familiar tales be told by those who haven't always had the same representation in art and media, and it feels like a win-win for those who make films and those who enjoy watching them.

Priya Kansara is a delight in the role of Ria, carrying around a self-confidence and strength that some others resent, and she delivers in the straight acting department as well as she delivers in the moments that require her to show off some fighting skills. Ritu Arya is equally enjoyable as the older sister, managing to be a character you always root for while also working so well with Kansara that the two absolutely feel like real sisters, during good times and bad. Serphina Beh and Ella Bruccoleri are a lot of fun as, respectively, Clara and Alba, two best friends of Ria, and Shona Babayemi is an entertainingly formidable presence in the role of a bully named Kovacs. Akshay Khanna is fine as the man who may well be whisking away Lena, Nimra Bucha is excellent in the role of his mother, and Shobu Kapoor and Jeff Mirza get to play the parents of our two leads without having to seem unwavering in their views or unsupportive of what their children think is best for themselves.

There's not much more I want to say about this, part of the joy comes from being so consistently pleasantly surprised by it, but just know that an opportunity to see the movie is an opportunity to have a big smile on your face for the entire runtime (and there's a scene involving a male changing room that made me laugh harder than most standard comedies I've seen in the past few years). Brilliant characters, a script full of choice dialogue, a great soundtrack, and an absolute crowd-pleaser of a third act all help make this a strong contender for one of the best films of the year.

9/10

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Netflix And Chill: Red Notice (2021)

Dwayne Johnson is a tough and tenacious Interpol agent named John Hartley, Ryan Reynolds is a quick-talking art thief named Nolan Booth, and the two of them are about to be manipulated into working for the elusive and intelligent master criminal known as The Bishop (Gal Gadot). The prize that everyone is after is a lost bejewelled egg that was gifted to Cleopatra centuries ago. There were three eggs in total, but nobody seems to know the location of the third. Well . . . maybe Nolan Booth does. If he finds it, it can make up the complete set, which would lead to the biggest payday for whoever got them into the hands of the right buyer. Set-ups, pair-ups, and balls-ups ensue.

A lot of people weren't impressed by Red Notice. Despite the obvious big budget, the ridiculous set-pieces, and the attractive stars, many were left cold by the way they felt it was just like the objects at the heart of the plot. I can't deny that this is pretty and hollow, it also has a twist or two that can be spotted a mile away, but I also can't deny that I had fun for most of the 2-hour runtime. I like Johnson, Reynolds, and Gadot, even when they're just doing something that they've done at least a dozen times before.

The feeling of everybody working very much in their comfort zone also extends to behind the camera, with the writing and direction from Rawson Marshall Thurber. This is his third movie with Johnson, to date, and it almost feels like a bridge between the exuberant fun of Central Intelligence and the mishandled straight action of Skyscraper. The script obviously gets the characters from A to B to C, and so on, but there's a strong feeling that most of the non-exposition dialogue came from the cast just improvising. Which is fine when the results are funny, and some of the results are funny, but not so fine when the stars feel like they're just trying too hard with every line.

Johnson does what he does well. He's the muscle, and he pairs up well with Reynolds, although I prefer his comedic pairings with Kevin Hart (the absolute ineptitude and fear of the characters played by Hart allow the coolness and strength of Johnson to play funnier). Reynolds is playing a version of the character that he's generally been playing for the past decade or so. He's a man who, no matter what the situation, will insist on delivering a quip that he thinks will either make for a fine insult, a fine compliment, or some fine last words. I like Reynolds, but I can always see why those who aren't really that big a fan of him will hate most of his performances. Gadot is always in control when onscreen, depicted as always being the smartest person in the room (as well as being able to handle herself physically), and she's good in her role, although her limited work in the field of comedy shows that it's not exactly her forte. 

Most of the criticisms that you will have already seen are totally valid. The plot is very predictable, very simplistic, and a bit tiresome. None of the stars are at their best. The set-pieces are middling, at best. Things could have been greatly improved by polishing the script and tightening everything up. The soundtrack and score even feel a bit half-assed.

I still enjoyed myself though. Not enough to mark this as some kind of new favourite, and I probably won't ever revisit it, but I can see why the numbers were big when this first dropped on Netflix. It was a shiny blockbuster delivered straight into our homes, for better or worse, and I wasn't majorly disappointed when I opted for this as a centrepiece of my weekend viewings. I'll probably even watch a sequel, but I hope they do a better job with it.

6/10

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