Anna Rose Holmer's The Fits is a singular vision of the confusion of adolescence, the curiosity of the unknown, and the importance of finding oneself among the collective. Centered around Toni, an 11-year-old girl, who spends almost all of her time in the boxing gym with her brother, The Fits chronicles this young woman as she becomes infatuated with a tight-knit dance team, enamored by the confidence and power which they elicit. Toni works hard to learn the routines, splitting her time between the boxing gym and the dance troop, but when a a mysterious sickness begins to plague the team causing faiting spells and violent fits, Toni's desire to fit in with her new friends is challenged. A film that embraces the mystery and intrigue of its character's plight, The Fits is a one-of-a-kind coming of age story that spells out very little for the viewer, relying far more on the psychological atmosphere it's able to create, in delivering a impressive portrait of the inner psyche of a young girl who is trying to find herself. I wouldn't go as far as to call The Fits oblique but it certainly doesn't provide easy answers either, relying on surrealistic touches throughout to create an expressive portrait of the young Toni, evoking her inner psychology through use of sound and image. Toni is a character who finds herself essentially trapped between these very, societal perceived, masculine and feminine worlds in boxing and dance, with The Fits capturing how society, in a sense, demands conformity, dictated by the desires of the majority. Always maintaining a subjective lens, The Fits routinely juxtaposes these masculine and feminine worlds which Toni is caught between, stripping away societies preconceived notions of what men and woman should be, showing the similarities and differences which exist while simultaneously reminding the viewer that the individual never has to fit into the majorities' mold. My favorite example of this would be when The Fits juxtaposes the dancers getting measured and weighed for their costumes with the boxers' getting weighed for their upcoming fights, capturing how both groups go through similar routines, in regards to their physical status, to prepare for competition. Towards the end of this scene on of the boxers comes up to tease Toni for joining the dance team, her response being a punch to the gut, a simple action to the naked eye, but one that further subverts the preconceived notions related to femininity and masculinity. What makes The Fits such a compelling film is simply how unwilling it is to spell anything out for the viewer, welcoming multiple interpretations in its unique vision of adolescence. From the sound design, which feels more at place in a horror movie than a coming of age story, to its visual aesthetic, which always aims to subjectively capture its characters' psyche, The Fits is one of the most unique coming of age films I've seen in quite awhile, a film that trumpets the importance of maintaining individuality when entering into a collective, which in this case would be the dance team in Cincinnati's West End.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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