“The Fits” – Fit in [MOVIE REVIEW]
Royalty Hightower in Anna Rose Holmer’s “The Fits.” Courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories.
“The Fits,” the narrative feature debut of Anna Rose Holmer, who directed, produced and co-wrote this film, was conceived and executed at part of the Venice Biennale Cinema College program, a complement to the Venice International Film Festival.
Toni, played in a dazzling debut by Royalty Hightower, is an eleven-year old whose primary afterschool activity is boxing with her brother at the community center. She’s focused, coordinated beyond her years and talented. There is a mesmerizing rhythm to her feints and dodges. Her older brother clearly dotes on her and is her protective shield against outside influences. But try as he might, one day the outside breaches the dam and in rush the Lionesses, played by the real life competitive dance group called the Q-Kidz Dance Team, who share practice space at the center.
Ranging in age from middle school through high school, the Lionesses are champions many times over and the self-confidence and carriage of these dancers show it. At first merely distracted, Toni becomes obsessed with becoming one of this group and, to the disgust of her brother, drops boxing in order to try to make the team.
Young and impressionable, Toni is bedazzled by the world opening up to her, but also bewitched bothered and bewildered by the toll it seems to take on the dancers. Within her first week working with the group, the captain of the team is overcome with uncontrollable, erratic movements and faints, as if in a religiously induced trance. The world of Toni and her new friend Beezy, an endearing Alexis Neblitt, is further upset as more and more of the older dancers are similarly overcome. Beezy, however, views this affliction differently and realizes that, like speaking in tongues, it is a way in to the close-knit society of girls. She, too, succumbs, leaving Toni to contemplate her place in the hierarchy, one in which she will eventually find her footing.
Under the rules of the Venice Biennale Cinema College, Holmer and her co-writers, Saela Davis and Lisa Kjerulff, pitched the idea for “The Fits” and were given one year and a micro-budget of 150,000 Euros in order to write and execute the film. Within those constraints, “The Fits” is a fine film and was shown at both the Venice International Film Festival and at Sundance. If one were to consider this a student film, which is, in essence, what it is, then it is a success.
Certainly Holmer’s aspirations for this film were to create a metaphor for coming-of-age using the “fits” bedeviling the dancers as a rite of spring-type ritual. It’s not entirely a stretch to view them that way but the lack of character development for everyone but Toni limits the effectiveness of this view and creates an opaque wall between all of the other characters.
Much is implied obtusely in terms of Toni’s attraction to the dancers. Is she attracted because of the pulsating rhythms to which they respond or is it the strength they exude, a more abstract strength than the one she feels from boxing. One could argue that leaving it up to the viewer to fill in the motivations is more than acceptable. Nevertheless, a little more guidance from Holder would have been preferable. Like many films that began as successful student projects and were then developed more fully, it might have been preferable for Holder to take this route. The viewer coming upon this film for the first time without knowing that Holder had a micro-budget and a time frame might be a bit less impressed. As a hook, it’s not a bad one but arguably it’s not enough. “Tangerine,” a much praised Indie released last year, had a smaller budget, a less obtuse story and, as is not revealed until the final credits, was shot entirely on an iPhone.
The Q-Kidz Dance Team. Photo by Lindsey Rome
Still, there are times that the film takes flight with the rhythm of the dance beat and the focus of the girls; the short running time works in its favor. Holmer is definitely a director to watch and it was wonderful that she was allowed this chance given the overall lack of opportunity for women directors in the industry. A cinematographer and camera operator, she clearly knows where to put her camera but needed a better developed script than the one she and her co-writers devised. It is an excellent sample of her craft, just not an excellent movie.
Opening Friday June 17 at Laemmle’s Monica Film Center in Santa Monica, the Playhouse in Pasadena and NoHo 7 in North Hollywood.