Polite Society

Good clean fun abounds in writer/director Nida Manzoor’s feature debut, Polite Society — at least until the proceedings venture into cuckoopants territory and the film never quite recovers.

The tale of Pakistani/British high schooler Ria (Priya Kansara, Bridgerton) and her protectiveness of art-school-dropout older sister Lena (Ritu Arya, The Umbrella Academy) yields plenty of laughs through Manzoor’s witty dialogue and the sibling’s winning rapport, as well as budding stuntwoman Ria’s action-packed shortcomings in her career pursuits.

And when handsome suitor Salim (Akshay Khanna) romances Lena, Polite Society achieves a quirky, exaggerated tone, somewhere between the high school shenanigans of Alexander Payne (Ria’s judgy stares out her bedroom window echo the shocked expressions in Election) and Amy Heckerling (these teens could easily coexist with Cher & Co., or in the halls of Ridgemont High).

The paranoid Ria’s desperate ploys to break up the happy couple with help from her best friends Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri) are likewise gleeful — particularly the disguise-filled infiltration of Salim’s gym — yet when the actual disturbing reason why they shouldn’t be together is revealed, it’s so absurd that it feel lifted from another film entirely.

The comedic and directorial prowess exhibited up to that point, however, suggest that Manzoor is a born filmmaker, and is likely to stick the proverbial landing before too long.

Grade: B-minus. Rated PG-13. Now playing at the Fine Arts Theatre and Regal Biltmore Grande.

(Photo: Parisa Taghizadeh/Focus Features)