POLITE SOCIETY : Tuesday 2nd May 2023.

I saw the M Rated 'POLITE SOCIETY' earlier this week at my local multiplex, and this British romantic heist action comedy drama film is Written and Directed by Nida Manzoor in her feature film making debut. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Sundance Film Festival at the end of January this year, was released in the UK, US and here in Australia last week and has generated mostly positive critical reviews. It has so far grossed US$1.5M at the Box Office.

Here, London schoolgirl Ria Khan (Priya Kansara) practises martial arts in order to become a stuntwoman - just like her idol Eunice Huthart. Ria practices her stunt moves for her online followers while being filmed by her older sister Lena (Ritu Arya), who has decided to drop out of art school and move back in with her Pakistani born parents Fatima (Shobu Kapoor) and Rafe (Jeff Mirza), because she doesn't believe she is good enough. Both Fatima and Rafe deride Ria for her career ambitions, saying she needs to concentrate on getting a proper job!

At school, Ria is inseparable from her closest buddies Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri), but their disapproving teacher urges her to pursue a more 'serious' career, such as becoming a doctor which she volunteers Ria for on an upcoming work experience programme. Ria emails Eunice about a potential mentorship but these go unanswered, and she is later defeated by the school bully Kovacs (Shona Babayemi) when the two come to blows.

The Khan family is invited to join an Eid Mubarak gathering hosted by Raheela (Nimra Bucha), the leader of Fatima's social circle of Pakistani mothers, at her sprawling up-market mansion. Reluctantly the two sisters have to tag along and Ria realises the party has been arranged to find a suitable match for Raheela's son Salim (Akshay Khanna), a successful good looking affable geneticist in his early 30's, but is unable to stop Lena from agreeing to a date. Ria becomes more and more mortified as Lena is increasingly charmed by Salim and, after just four weeks of dating, agrees to marry him and relocate to Singapore - flying out on their wedding night. Despite their parents' support, Ria's refusal to accept Lena's choices, including abandoning her art career, drives a wedge between the sisters. 

Convinced there must be a more sinister explanation, Ria enlists Clara and Alba's help to spy on Salim. Ria concocts a plan that begins with 'Diplomacy' but when that doesn't work she turns to 'Dirt' whereby they devise an elaborate plan to steal his laptop, with Ria distracting him at his gym while her friends hack his computer, but they find nothing untoward. When this doesn't work they turn to a 'Smear' campaign where Ria forces her way into the mansion, and breaks into Salim's bedroom to plant several used condoms. She is caught red handed when Raheela walks into the room, and Ria later confronts Salim with a picture of his first wife, whom he explains died in childbirth. Furious, Lena berates Ria to give up the fantasies that her sister will ever change her mind about her pending marriage, or that she will ever become a stuntwoman.

Meanwhile, Ria has fallen out with her friends Clara and Alba after the 'Dirt' campaign yielded nothing and now they ignore her at school. Added to this she remains at odds with her sister and has given up on her martial arts training classes. She visits Raheela with a box of home made pastries to apologise and is dragged into joining her spa day, where Raheela reveals her true colours and tortures Ria with a waxing. Fighting off Raheela's staff, Ria stumbles into the mansion's secret lab and discovers that all the eligible women at the Eid Mubarak party were secretly scanned and tested using covertly taken DNA samples, and Lena was selected for her fertility. 

Smashing an upper skylight to gain exit, Ria escapes back home, but realises she cannot convince her family of the awful truth. She tells Clara and Alba, and after they reconcile their differences they devise a plan, persuading Kovacs to drive them to the wedding to rescue Lena in exchange for the girls completing her geography homework for the rest of the year. Ria distracts the guests with a traditional dance routine while Clara and Alba, disguised as waiters, successfully gain entry past the armed guard at Lena's door. They chloroform Lena and hide her inside a tea trolley and make their escape. Raheela however, captures Ria, and reveals she and Salim plan to impregnate Lena with a clone of herself.

Listening in on ear pieces, Clara and Alba are forced to return Lena. The friends are locked in the bridal suite as the wedding gets underway, but Kovacs comes to their rescue and knocks out the guard with a fire extinguisher. Taking his gun, Ria holds Raheela at gunpoint and exposes her plan, just as Lena and Salim where about to sign the marriage registry. This causes Lena to remember being drugged and tested by Salim, who admits that his first wife died carrying his mother’s clone. Raheela seizes the gun but is disarmed by Fatima, as Ria’s family and friends fight off the guests. Outside the wedding venue Lena subdues Salim while Ria finally masters a reverse spinning kick to knock out Raheela, and the Police sirens are heard approaching as the sisters drive off in Kovacs car, with Ria saying 'sorry I ruined your day' and Lena replying 'yeah you ruined my day . . . but you saved my life'. Reconciling with Lena, over a burger, chips and a milkshake in a diner, Ria receives an encouraging response from Eunice offering to meet over brunch, and the sisters celebrate together.

'Polite Society' defies genre pigeon holing as it is a gregarious mash-up of martial arts, coming of age, RomCom, family drama and female empowerment revenge flick all rolled into one, and somehow it manages to succeed meshing together into a reasonably coherent and entertaining first time feature for Director Manzoor. The cast are all spot on with particular credit going to Priya Kansara, Ritu Arya and Nimra Bucha, very ably supported by Seraphina Beh and Ella Bruccoleri who between them deliver some of best sight gags and one liner retorts in the film. The script, the performances from the principle cast, the action sequences, the production values and the soundtrack all coalesce into a tidy package that marks this Writer/Directors arrival onto the British scene earmarking her for a bright future. My only criticism of the film is that it goes off the rails in the third act lurching almost into absurdity, and all the times that Ria gets kicked, punched, thrown against something with force or lands on her face or back she gets up and dusts herself down with barely a scratch likes she's Wile E. Coyote. Nonetheless, this is a good fun movie that maintains the attention throughout its 103 minute run time.

'Polite Society' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 27th April 2023.

This years 'Hot Docs' documentary film festival marks its thirty year anniversary, and is running from Thursday 27th April through until Sunday 7th May, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Hot Docs was founded in 1993 by the Documentary Organisation of Canada, a national association of independent documentary filmmakers. In 1996, Hot Docs became a separately incorporated organisation with a mandate to showcase and support the work of Canadian and international documentary filmmakers and to promote excellence in documentary production. Each year, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, North America's largest doc festival, conference and market, presents more than two hundred cutting edge films from around the world. Hot Docs is not-for-profit organisation dedicated to advancing and celebrating the art of documentary and creating production opportunities for documentary filmmakers.

Of the two hundred or so documentary films being showcased, twenty-five are being shown in 'The Special Presentations' section over the duration of the festival. These are as detailed below :-

* 'Black Barbie : A Documentary' - from the USA and Co-Produced and Directed by Lagueria Davis. International Premier.

* 'Blix Not Bombs' - from Czech Republic, Germany and Sweden and Directed by Greta Stocklassa. North American Premier.
* 'The Deepest Breath' - from UK and Ireland and Directed by Laura McGann. Canadian Premier.
* 'The Disappearance of Shere Hite' - from the USA and Co-Produced and Directed by Nicole Newnham. International Premier.
* 'El Equipo' - from the USA and Co-Produced and Directed by Bernardo Ruiz. Canadian Premier.
* 'Food and Country' - from the USA and Co-Produced and Directed by Laura Gabbert. International Premier.
* 'Igor Levit - No Fear' - from Germany, and Directed by Regina Schilling. North American Premier.
* 'Innocence' - from Denmark, Israel, Finland and Iceland, and Directed by Guy Davidi. Canadian Premier.
* 'Invisible Beauty' - from the USA and Directed by Bethann Hardison and Frederic Tcheng. Canadian Premier.

* 'Is There Anybody Out There?' - from the UK and Directed by Ella Glendining. Canadian Premier.
* 'It's Only Life After All' - from the USA and Co-Produced and Directed by Alexandria Bombach. Canadian Premier.
* 'Joan Baez I Am A Noise' - from the USA and Co-Produced by Miri Navasky, Karen O'Connor and Directed by Miri Navasky, Karen O'Connor and Maeve O'Boyle. Canadian Premier.
* 'Love to Love You, Donna Summer' - from the USA and Co-Produced by Roger Ross Williams and Directed by Roger Ross Williams and Brooklyn Sudano. Canadian Premier.
* 'The Man Who Stole Einstein's Brain' - from Canada and Directed by Michelle Shephard. World Premier.
* 'Periodical' - from the USA and Directed by Lina Lyte Plioplyte. International Premier.

* 'Praying for Armageddon' - from Norway and Directed by Tonje Hessen Schei and Michael Rowley. North American Premier.
* 'The Rise of Wagner' - from France and Directed by Benoit Bringer. World Premier.
* 'Stephen Curry : Underrated' - from the USA and Co-Produced and Directed by Peter Nicks. International Premier.

* 'Still : A Michael J. Fox Movie' - from the USA and Co-Produced and Directed by Davis Guggenheim. Canadian Premier.
* 'Theatre of Violence' - from Denmark and Directed by Lukasz Konopa and Emil Langballe. North American Premier.
* 'Time Bomb Y2K' - from the USA and Directed by Marley McDonald and Brian Becker, and Produced by Brian Becker. Canadian Premier.
* 'Total Trust' - from Germany, the Netherlands and China and Co-Produced and Directed by Jialing Zhang. North American Premier.
* 'We Are Guardians' - from Brazil and the USA and Directed by Edivan Guajajara, Chelsea Greene and Rob Grobman and Co-Produced by Chelsea Greene. World Premier.
* 'Who's Afraid of Nathan Law?' - from the USA, Hong Kong and UK and Co-Produced and Directed by Joe Piscatella. World Premier.
* 'Without Precedent : The Supreme Life of Rosalie Abella' - from Canada and Co-Produced and Directed by Barry Avrich. World Premier.

For the synopsis of each of the aforementioned documentaries, plus a whole lot more good stuff including the full run down of all films being showcased, you can visit the official website at : https://hotdocs.ca/festivals/hot-docs-festival

This week, to tease you out to your local Odeon, we have four newly released movies hailing from all four corners of our world, and which kick start with an American sports comedy offering that sees a group of friends who made it their life-long mission to go to the Super Bowl and meet NFL superstar Tom Brady. This is followed by a film set in South America in 1960 in which a lonely and grumpy Holocaust survivor convinces himself that his new neighbour is none other than Adolf Hitler. Next up is a British romantic action comedy that is a merry mash up of sisterly affection, parental disappointment and bold action as it follows a schoolgirl martial artist-in-training who believes she must save her older sister from her impending marriage. And closing out the week there is an Australian offering that tells the story of two siblings who find hidden beneath their bedroom floor a land of enchantment in need of protection from an ancient enemy, but they soon face epic challenges as they embark on a quest to unite five mystical treasures and save the kingdom.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the four latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the coming week.

'80 FOR BRADY' (Rated M) - is an American sports comedy film inspired by a true story that is Co-Produced and Directed by Kyle Marvin in his first feature film making effort. Costing US$28M to produce the film has so far grossed US$40M, was released in the US in early February and has garnered mixed or average Reviews. Just two days prior to the films release famed NFL quarterback for the New England Patriots for twenty seasons and then the Tampa Bat Buccaneers for his final three years, Tom Brady, announced his retirement after twenty-three seasons. 

Four best friends Lou (Lily Tomlin), Trish (Jane Fonda), Maura (Rita Moreno) and Betty (Sally Field) live life to the fullest when they make it their mission to embark on a wild trip to see their hero, Tom Brady (Tom Brady who also Co-Produced here), play in the 2017 Super Bowl for the New England Patriots against the Atlanta Falcons at the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas. 

'MY NEIGHBOUR, ADOLF' (Rated PG) - this Israeli, Polish and Colombian Co-Production is Co-Written and Directed by the Russian born Israel raised Leon Prudovsky in only his second feature film offering following 2009's 'Five Hours from Paris'. South America, 1960. A lonely and grumpy Holocaust survivor Mr. Polsky (David Hayman) convinces himself that his new neighbour Mr. Herzog (Udo Kier) is none other than Adolf Hitler. Not being taken seriously, he starts to do some investigative digging of his own to prove his claim, but when the evidence still appears to be inconclusive, Polsky is forced to engage in a relationship with the enemy in order to obtain undeniable proof. The film has garnered mixed or average reviews.

'POLITE SOCIETY' (Rated M) - is a British romantic heist action comedy drama film that is Written and Directed by Nida Manzoor in her feature film making debut. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Sundance Film Festival at the end of January this year, is released in the UK, US and here in Australia this week and has generated mostly positive critical reviews. Here, London schoolgirl Ria Khan (Priya Kansara) practises martial arts in order to become a stuntwoman. But when her sister Lena (Ritu Arya) drops out of art school and gets engaged to Salim Shah (Akshay Khanna) after barely a month with plans thereafter to relocate to Singapore, Ria decides she and her friends must pull off the most ambitious wedding-heist in the name of independence and sisterhood. 

'THE SECRET KINGDOM' (Rated PG) - this Australian family adventure film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Matt Drummond in his third feature film making outing following 'Dinosaur Island' in 2014 and 'My Pet Dinosaur' in 2017. Here then, following a tragic accident, an anxious young twelve year old boy Peter (Sam Everingham) and his nine year old sister Verity (Alyla Browne) relocate with their family faraway to a stately old house—one that was once-grand, but is now cracking at the seams. Upon exploring the local area, they discover an ancient artefact that leads them to an incredible adventure in an underground world. As Peter and Verity’s journey begins, they encounter fantastic creatures and distant lands beyond their wildest imaginations, but soon discover that not everything is at it seems. Aided by an army of pangolins, Peter and Verity must battle the evil Shroud (Gabrielle Chan) to fulfil the prophecy and save time. 

With four new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the week ahead.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-