Film

The Fits

A hypnotic portrait of preteen girlhood and desire set in Cincinnati's Black community. Toni, a tomboy training at a boxing gym, becomes obsessed with joining an elite dance troupe—until the dancers begin experiencing inexplicable fits. Visually stunning and deeply unsettling, it captures adolescence's intensity with documentary precision and surreal dread.

TMDb rating3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like quiet, observational films where a young girl's body language and the rhythm of a boxing gym say more than dialogue, and you don't mind being left to puzzle over what's happening.

Skip it if you want a clear plot that explains itself, since this one stays deliberately elliptical, lingers on wordless moments, and offers little in the way of conventional story beats.

What it asks of you: about seventy-two minutes of patient attention, with long unhurried shots and sound that does much of the work, so you'll need to lean in rather than wait for explanations.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Moonlight2016

Like The Fits, it's a quietly devastating portrait of identity and belonging told through sensory detail rather than exposition. Both films trust you to feel their truth without spelling it out.

But Slow, introspective cinema that demands patience. If you need plot momentum or conventional dramatic arcs, this will feel like waiting for something that never arrives.

Moonlight poster

The Florida Project2017

Another film about childhood in overlooked corners of America, shot with such visual grace that poverty and precarity become almost beautiful. Both see kids as complex people, not symbols.

But Sean Baker's film moves at its own pace and offers no easy comfort. The realism can feel punishing if you're looking for feel-good cinema.

The Florida Project poster

Girlhood2014

A French film about Black and mixed-race girls finding power and identity in community. Like The Fits, it's sensual, rhythmic, and alert to how friendship and belonging shape who we become.

But Deliberately paced and sometimes opaque about its intentions. The film doesn't explain itself, which some find frustrating.

Girlhood poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Fits

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Possession1981

Both films present bodily contagion and collective breakdown as the surface of something psychological and spiritual—the fits are real, but what they mean is the mystery.

Andrzej Żuławski's surreal horror masterpiece about psychological unraveling through the body—a woman's grotesque physical transformation mirrors The Fits' mystery of bodies behaving impossibly. Both use the unexplained fits as metaphor for emotional states that language fails.

But Explicitly sexual and violently avant-garde. Made during a divorce, it's genuinely disorienting and grueling, not haunting in a comfortable way.

Possession poster
More like this (6)

A Prophet2009

French thriller about a young man's initiation into a closed, violent world. Both films use observational realism to capture the strange magnetism of dangerous communities and forbidden belonging.

But Gritty prison drama with brutal scenes. It's less concerned with psychology than with the texture of institutional life.

A Prophet poster

First Reformed2018

Paul Schrader's hypnotic film about spiritual crisis uses long takes and visual repetition to create mounting dread. Like The Fits, it's formally adventurous and resists easy interpretation.

But Deliberately austere and theologically dense. It's meditative to the point of being austere, and some find it impenetrable.

First Reformed poster

The Rider2018

Chloé Zhao's portrait of a young rodeo rider uses non-professional actors and documentary-style observation to find grace in hardship. Both films see beauty in closed communities and ritualistic movement.

But Extremely slow and emotionally remote. If you need characters to articulate their feelings, you'll find it frustratingly opaque.

The Rider poster

Pariah2011

Dee Rees's stunning film about a Black lesbian teenager navigating identity and desire. Like The Fits, it captures girlhood's intensity and the hunger to belong to something transformative.

But Deeply sad and thematically heavy. The emotional weight doesn't lift, which some experience as exhausting rather than moving.

Pariah poster

Tangerine2015

Shot on an iPhone but visually alive, it follows trans sex workers in Los Angeles with energy and humanity. Both films find cinematic poetry in overlooked lives and communities.

But Frenetic and chaotic where The Fits is meditative. Its bright-colored, almost cartoon aesthetic is tonal whiplash for some viewers.

Tangerine poster

Certain Women2016

Both films are structured around unfulfilled desire and the quiet desperation of people trapped in spaces too small for their longings—the fits become visible what's otherwise silent.

Kelly Reichardt's three-part portrait of women's interior lives in rural Montana. Like The Fits, it's formally restrained and observational, finding profound emotion in small gestures and the gap between what people want and what they can have.

But Minimalist to the point of invisibility. Plot is incidental; if you need narrative momentum, this will feel like nothing happening for two hours.

Certain Women poster

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Recommended by

The Wound, Mustang, Beach Rats, Lovely & Amazing, Girlhood, St Trinian's, Wadjda, Whip It, Skate Kitchen, The Learning Tree, The Ron Clark Story, Tongues Untied, The Wonders, Firelight, Teen Spirit, Blackbird, Just Another Girl on the I.R.T., Concrete Cowboy, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Moxie, Shangri-La, Healing, A Girl Like Grace, The Heiresses, Betty, Minyan, The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete, Kidnapped for Christ, First Girl I Loved, Bare, Mosquita y Mari, Heartland, Acceptance, StreetDance 3D