The Fits

Expectations are high and the stakes are even higher for a four-time championship winning dance team on the West End of Cincinnati. Eleven-year-old Toni (Royalty Hightower) is a quiet but hard-edged boxer who joins the squad helmed by haughty upper class captains. In the mix of her new friendships, Toni finds her individuality becoming blurred in a striking juxtaposition of the synchronized dances in which she rigorously immerses herself. When a captain collapses in an unexplainable convulsion, members of the entire team soon begin experiencing the same phenomena, one-by-one. Scrutiny about what the public has named “The Fits” envelops the school, while inside the walls the young women gossip and bond over what becomes a rite of passage. Rarely does the film move to the snappy rhythms of the routines, but rather to dissonant chords as uncomfortable and unnerving as navigating the social sphere of youth. Focusing on an age when we feel we have little control over ourselves, THE FITS is a stunning, rich depiction of the pressures of acceptance in the world of teenage girls. –N.D.