michaelwood-96659 The Fits features a very clever central idea, depending on how you interpret it of course. Unfortunately, it is just this idea, and it doesn't entirely have a way of pushing it forward.That's a slightly harsh statement to make generally. Narratively, I think the film struggles to find a way to push it's central premise forward. They have fits, and figuring out how and why they're happening is more a job for the viewer than the screenplay. It makes for an interesting film, although personally I would have liked to have seen it explored on a wider level. This film was made for less than $200k. That's a lot of money in the real world, but in the film industry that's a remarkably low budget. You'd never have guessed, however. The film is gorgeous to look at, partly down to the crisp lighting and partly down to some fantastic framing and focus. The cinematography really is the highlight of this film. It's also not just used for style - the cinematography does seem to be helping the film form its tone and style as well.Some people have given great acclaim to this film, and I can absolutely appreciate why. It *just* misses the great level for me, but to discourage people from watching this would be wrong. It's an indie film with many admirable features and some exciting originality, but it just doesn't quite have enough meat on its bones.

bob the moo By way of unintentional contrast, I watched The Fits not long after watching The Falling – a film similar in that it deals with mass fainting of girls around the age of puberty. I will not compare and contrast the films, except to say that while The Falling left me on the outside looking it, The Fits manages to draw me into a character for whom I have little in common, make me understand what she is going through, and very much feel for her throughout the film.The plot sees a young girl stop boxing with her older brother in the gym and start to pay attention to the all-girl dance troupe that practice in another hall. As she joins the group and starts to integrate, some of the older girls fall into sudden seizures (which are dubbed 'the fits'). The split between those girls who have experienced these, and those that have not forms tensions within the wider group. The film achieves this while doing (by doing?) several surprising things. The most obvious is that dialogue is very light on the ground, and when it comes it tends to be functional stuff rather than any exposition or grandstanding for the cast to get their teeth into. The other thing it does is let the actual fits be a background thing – something that is happening but is not our focus; instead Toni is our focus, and our relationship to anything in the film is through her.There are so many ways this could not have worked, but it pulls it off well. Hightower gives a great performance and is very well directed; so much I was invested in with her character was down to small reactions, body language, the sense of pent up feeling – all of it drawing me in and giving me things I could relate to even if the specifics I could not. The journey is very clear, and the implied meanings are fairly obvious – but it is the intelligence and subtlety of the story- telling through this character that makes it more than just a series of events (far from it in fact).The Fits is a beautifully observed character study, which never lets the plot device become more than the people – and Toni is accessible and engaging as a character, and thanks to a very well-directed performance from the young lead. It is not a perfect film, and the sense of space may annoy some viewers, or the weakness of some aspects may grate, but at its core it is a tremendous film with near total control over what it is trying to do and how it is trying to do it.

axred Don't think too hard. This film is about wanting to fit in as an adolescent. And not fully understanding what peers older than you are going through, but wanting to be accepted regardless.Consider the first fit, the first "episode," as real. The leader, Legs, was PREGNANT, from Donte. Maybe she overworked herself dancing? Complications? Dehydration? But she was definitely, absolutely, pregnant... and she then had a seizure, an episode, whatever it was. Chances are it was the only sincere "fit" in the film.Imagine each subsequent fit to be each girl's attempt to follow suit. To be like their "leader." The girl they look up to each day while dancing, the girl they follow, for their own reasons. Toni's dialogue is all you need to know: "Maia wanted it to happen to her." So it did. And, eventually... Toni wanted it too.It's a surreal film. Obviously Toni isn't going to get pregnant, but her mind doesn't fully understand pregnancy yet, so she throws her own unique fit. Just as each of her friends threw their own. She creates a fantasy of being accepted. She floats, she flails, she falls, and she's caught by her friends. She fits.

subxerogravity In a reverse of your typical stereotypes, main protagonist Toni is a girl who actually starts out as a boxer (in training, mostly so that her boxing brother can keep an eye on her while he trains) decides to make a switch to the all-girl dance team that practices next door. It's a great coming-of-age story about a girl trapped in a bubble she needs to pop.When I saw the trailer, I noticed that the lead actress playing Toni is getting mad props for her performance, which she does deserve, but I also fell in love with the performance of the supporting actress whose plays Breezy, the friend that Toni makes when she joins the dance crew. The entire relationship was done simple and natural and yet sends a powerful message on friendship. Watching both of these young black actresses on the screen sharing scenes together made the movie for me.There was a big metaphor in the movie that I did not fully understand about the girls having seizures because of contaminated water, it has something to do with fitting in but I'm not fully sure.Otherwise, I absolutely enjoined this movie, especially the chemistry between the two young actors