Polite Society. 4 stars 

Polite Society appears in the Sundance Midnight section which usually means there will be horror and pain.  This is where you will find some of the bloodiest movies you can imagine at Sundance.   Not so with this one as it is a comedy with martial arts action and British humor featuring young girls.  It took some imagination to create this story set in a London girls school with a mostly Pakistani cast.  Schoolgirl Ria has been studying martial arts and her dream is to become a stuntwoman.  Her sister Lena has dropped out of art school and Ria is horrified to learn that she is being set up for marriage to a wealthy young Pakistani doctor and then moved to Singapore for a nefarious reason.  So Ria makes it her mission to stop this marriage enlisting the help of some of her classmates.  This fast moving comedy uses many of the same techniques seen in modern Asian action movies only with high school age girls.  It’s an interesting blend of genres that we seldom see.  It is directed by Nida Manzoor and stars Priya Kansara of Bridgerton as Ria. The cast and crew were present for the Q&A following the world premiere.