The Fits

Anna Rose Holmer's debut feature provides an engaging reminder that imagination can triumph over budgetary limitations. A haunting fable of adolescent alienation made with a non-professional cast in an impoverished area of Cincinnati, The Fits stars Royalty Hightower as Toni, a young girl who becomes entranced with a championship dancing squad while training at a local recreation center with her brother, an aspiring boxer. Toni tries out for the group and is accepted as a member, but soon the other dancers begin to suffer from inexplicable fainting spells. The script sidesteps the pitfall of offering an overly explicit psychological explanation of the phenomenon, leaving it to serve as a metaphor for moving from childhood to adolescence and from social isolation to integration into a larger community. Energized by Hightower's charismatic performance, a series of frenzied dance sequences, and Holmer's skill in fashioning a dreamlike atmosphere through the simplest of cinematic means, this is recommended. (F. Swietek)