The Fits

Like IT FOLLOWS, but for menstruation...I guess?

I wonder if anyone has had a seizure while watching this film and whether or not the director would consider it an unfortunate coincidence or a compliment

The best movie you'll see in which seizures caused by contaminated water is an analogy for one girl's journey out of training bras.

Young Toni (Royalty Hightower) joins the prestigious dance team at her local gym, but the older members soon begin falling victim to mysterious convulsive fits. That's about it in terms of story, and the characters aren't given much in the way of depth, but Hightower's natural charisma and Anna Rose Holmer's sharp, audacious direction almost overcome the lacking material. Kudos, also, to Paul Yee's camerawork and the excellent score.

A quiet and haunting film with a magnetic central performance and a beautifully assured directing hand.

If you don't have a story, adding random supernatural events isn't gonna save your movie. Royalty Hightower came close to saving it, but repeated mugshots with boxing paraphernalia in the background get boring quickly, even of such an expressive face. An actress to watch.

Calm movie. like a drone song.

There was stuff to like here, mainly in the camera work and a breakthrough performance from Royalty Hightower (what a name). Story wise it just never goes far enough, not much at all to take from "The Fits" and severely lacking any x-factor.

File under: perfect examples of movies you don't have to 'get' in order to know that you're witnessing something special.

Halfway through, the uninflected poetry of an outsider portrait gives way to girls having nonsensical fits whose meaning might be connected to puberty or especially race and achievement, but in the end that warm, esoteric place escaped me.

Those liminal space moods were real. It's beautifully shot, immersing you in scenes in which being alone or being within a group, or just on the fringes of it is communicated by not only the acting itself, but also through the images and sounds. If you're in the mood for just being open to feeling a movie rather than getting carried by an intense plot, this one is a good one to mellow out with.

Holmer's vision and direction feel unique and assured, respectively, yet her characters mostly feel like empty vessels meandering through a undercooked story that's not nearly as interesting as the obscure message she's trying to convey. There's just no enjoyment or excitement to be derived from a world and story I had no interest in dissecting, even at 70 minutes, which in the end felt twice as long.

Not without stuff to like - some great shots, very good performances considering the cast members' youth, the plot going in an unexpected direction instead of taking the typical 'outsider tomboy vs. cool kids' route - but the final third lost me in a big way.

Quiet, detailed, and simple. Maybe too much so for me to really enjoy. I liked the potentially multiple meanings to walk away with.

Creepy and oh so metaphorical.

This movie won't squeeze itself into easy categories. Watching the girls defy gravity as they whirl into scary, seductive, hallucinatory patterns, you realize The Fits is more than a transporting film experience. It's cinema poetry in motion.

Allegories that are waaay too obvious don't work for me.

A remarkably keen and instinctive performance from Royalty Hightower, and to the film's credit, it manages to match the tone and pace set by its young lead. The editing is generous, giving each scene the space it needs to let the plot soak further and further until, by the end, you can feel the smothering pressure on Toni as if it weighed on your own bones.

Resist the temptation to write it off as a one-track allegory, and "The Fits" is an interesting and refreshing film, of surprising realism and formal sophistication for a first-time filmmaker. I liked it much better than, say, "Moonlight".

The formal work on display here is top notch--confident, rich in detail, and complementary to the narrative. I especially appreciate Holmer's eye for framing and color, and so many of her formal choices make for a fascinating complement to the film's story--I got a serious Claire Denis vibe. Of course, the central performance from Hightower is fantastic, relying as it does not just on her quiet persona, but on a kind of physical movement that deeply informs the characterization she offers.

The Fits (2015) is one of those rare modern films where I actually appreciated the simplicity! Wish more would have happened, but the endless stares of Royalty Hightower had me staring too.

What a debut. I can't say I know a lot about what it feels like to be a 12-year-old girl, but I think everyone can relate to something in this film. Whether it be change, fitting in, the horrors of adolescence/puberty, or loneliness, The Fits is ripe with motifs. While it feels stripped bare, each theme is wonderfully portrayed on screen in a dazzling array of sound and movement. None of this works, however, without Royalty Hightower's performance. The physicality makes it tough to look away