The Fits was a hard movie to comrehend. I'll admit I knew nothing about the film other thanit had dance in it. Not a lot to go off of I know but, I gave it a shot. Toni is a girl who with her brother train daily at the local community center's boxing gym. Every day she trains and trains. Shadow boxing and jumping rope she seems bored with her daily routine. One day she spots the dance troupe and it piques her interest.
Toni decides to try for the dance team. All is pretty straight forward in the film until it throws a curve ball at you. One of the girls gets sick. Very sick. Taken away by amubulance kind of sick. Rumors begin to circle why she became ill. Then the film threw another curveball when another girl got sick. Not quite the same symptoms but still sick. Toni (Royalty Hightower) and her small group of friends gossip and talk about why girls are getting sick. The boys arent getting sick, it's only happening to the 'older girls'. Uh oh.... Can you put 2 and 2 together here?
The film doesn't come right out and say it is a metaphor for that first 'period' in a girl's life but it's pretty obvious that is what "The Fits" are. They call the illness "The Fits" if you were wondering where the title came from. It actually does make sense in this context.
This was a surprise for me, I really enjoyed my time watching this. The performances by this ensemble of young actors and actresses was phenomenal. The film did stray away into metaphorical land a few too many times for my taste but, not enough to lose me. Now, I won't spoil exactly who gets "The Fits" because the suspense builds towards the end. Not a perfect film but a very enjoyable one.
Rating B-