‘The Fits’ immerses viewers in the world of girldom

Published 1:30 am Friday, July 8, 2016

One of the ways you can spot a strong new movie director is by listening to what she does with the soundtrack — not the music, although that’s part of it, but the whole sonic enchilada.

I like a lot of things about “The Fits,” and the first thing that got me was the way it sounds.

As the film evokes one Cincinnati girl’s bumpy journey into the mysteries of adolescence, the soundtrack ripples with densely layered noise: the slap of feet on a hardwood floor during dance practice, the rhythmic meeting of boxing gloves in the workout room, the specific way a song echoes in a big empty school gym. The noises are realistic enough, but when they’re piled on top of each other, it all sounds like a dream.

“The Fits” is written and directed by Anna Rose Holmer, who developed the story with editor Saela Davis and producer Lisa Kjerulff. But “story ” isn’t the right word, because “The Fits” is more an immersion into one girl’s point of view, as she tries to figure out her identity during a peculiar time at her school.

When we first meet Toni (played by Royalty Hightower), she is working out in the school gym, emulating her hard-working older brother. But Toni isn’t entirely a jock yet; she gazes through a school doorway (there are a lot of people looking through doorways in this movie) in the direction of dance practice, where the school’s glamorous “Lionesses” are holding rehearsal.

Toni tries out for the squad, and although she can’t get the rhythm at first — her body is still attuned to the grim routine of exercise rather than dance — she eventually finds the beat. This breakthrough happens in a great sequence done in a single shot, of Toni dancing alone on a freeway overpass, as though shouting her skills to the world.

Toni is otherwise quiet, a cautious observer (the film is practically a visual poem on the topic of introversion). This is in marked contrast to her classmate, Beezy, who tries out for the squad at the same time. The irrepressible Beezy is played by Alexis Neblett, a girl with a lot of pepper — somebody’s probably developing a sitcom for her right now.

But something else is going on at school. The older Lionesses are suffering from fainting spells, or seizures, or … something.

Maybe the drinking water is bad, school officials say, or maybe it’s the power of suggestion. Whatever it is — and don’t expect an answer — Holmer clearly sees it as deeply connected to the experience of teenage girldom.

The girls who have had fits carry with them the aura of having been somewhere special; some of the girls who haven’t had spells are longing to join the club. After Beezy faints one day and Toni says something to her later on the subject, Beezy snaps, “What would you know about it?”

The film has no scenes of home life, and almost no grown-ups present. This is all about the hothouse of youth. Cinematographer Paul Yee’s camera is often low, at kid-level, reinforcing the idea that what we’re looking at is Toni’s way of seeing.

To that end, Holmer makes ordinary places seem charged with possibility or strangeness; when Toni and Beezy break into the gym at night and try on the brand-new sparkly dance costumes, it’s a grand adventure; when Toni hops into the school’s emptied swimming pool, it becomes a big lonely cavern.

Back to that soundtrack. Along with the interesting ambient noises, there is music, maybe the most distinctive movie music since Mica Levi’s score for “Under the Skin.”

Composed by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans (they did the cool scores for “Martha Marcy May Marlene” and “Enemy”), the music sounds a little like experimental jazz mixed with the hand-clapping rhythm of cheerleader chants. Like so much about “The Fits,” it takes the familiar and makes it into something new.

“The Fits” (3 1/2 stars)

A pre-teen girl (Royalty Hightower) tries out for the school dance team at the same moment the older girls are beginning to suffer an epidemic of mysterious fainting spells. Anna Rose Holmer’s film is an immersion into one introverted girl’s point of view, and it announces a strong new directing talent.

Rating: Not rated; probably PG for subject matter

Showing: SIFF Cinema Uptown