The Fits

I feel so conflicted about 2015's THE FITS.  This is a kinetic debut for writer/director Anna Rose Holmer.  A film with a strong sense of gender identity, a consideration of community.  It pulses with life without the use of narration or grating scoring.   It's a highly physical film, with the human body so integral to its story, setting, and myriad of themes.  There is boxing and competitive dancing.  Pierced ears.  What appear to be seizures, though initially indistinguishable from the dancing. 

The film is seen through the eyes of eleven year old Toni (Royalty Hightower), somewhat tomboyish.  She boxes with her brother but is eyeing the girls' dance team across the gym.  Her tryout is less than stellar, but she gets encouragement from her same age peers and even a team captain.  And her brother, who will remark how quickly she's growing up (as we hear Looney Toons cartoons in the background). Toni will practice on her own, where she seems to thrive.  We get the sense that she's always been a loner.  Can she "stop thinking of herself as an individual" and be a team member?

The older girls in the troupe begin to have violent attacks, full body spasms.  Soon, even Toni's friends.  There's talk that maybe the water in the gym is contaminated.  One young girl thinks it's "boyfriend disease."  Why aren't the boys affected/infected?  Toni stands back, seemingly immune.  The adults eventually rule out contamination.  Toni learns to master the dance moves, but competitions are canceled as every team member suffer "the fits."

Does this sound like a hybrid of coming of age drama/horror film? Thankfully it is not.  This is not IT FOLLOWS, or thank heavens, the bloated SUSPIRIA remake.  THE FITS is a confident, assured self actualization story with what I consider a fairly obvious metaphor, but Holmer teases other interesting interpretations beyond "Aunt Flo".  That's an insensitive comment to direct at such a serious, mature film.  But too often it felt like a contemporary Afterschool Special.  And even with a seventy-two minute running time, it feels repetitive and self conscious.  This would've been much more effective as a twenty minute short subject.

But Ms. Hightower is astonishing, and reason enough to see this movie.