‘Fitting In’ Review: Maddie Ziegler Stars In Genre-Unsure Coming-Of-Age Movie [TIFF]
Maddie Ziegler in Fitting In. Courtesy of TIFF.
I'll describe Fitting In as a coming-of-age movie to maintain my best judgment and avoid terrible jokes. The film, which premiered at SXSW under the title Bloody Hell, follows Lindy (Maddie Ziegler), a 16-year-old who, among other things, has a crush (boyfriend? Their relationship isn’t exactly clearly determined in the opening minutes) and a best friend (Viv, played by Djouliet Amara). It’s after telling Viv that Lindy wants to have sex with Adam (the aforementioned crush/boyfriend, played by D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai) that she goes to see a consultant about getting birth control pills, only to learn that something’s not right in her anatomy. (Spoiler?) She’s diagnosed with MRKH Syndrome, meaning that, aside from having ovaries, she lacks the majority of a female reproductive system and will never be able to carry a child.
(L-R) Emily Hampshire & Maddie Ziegler in Fitting In. Courtesy of TIFF.
Fitting In (a smart double entendre) carefully walks the tight line between telling an interesting story versus coming off as simply educational. Yes, the film does work to educate its viewers on MRKH and tell a story, clearly articulating that education is not the only reason it was made. To address the title and the way Lindy’s condition is worked into a compelling story, the film tries to land somewhere in between the sex-comedy, high-school coming-of-age, and melodramatic self-discovery genres, always afraid to lean too heavily into any of them, failing to come across as any one thing instead of another. When it wants to be dramatic, it feels slightly too comedic. When it wants to be a sex comedy, there’s not enough sex or comedy. When it wants to be a coming-of-age movie, well, it actually does that one pretty well, except for the film’s ending, which begins with an absurd tonal shift that kicks off the most tame and cliché series of events a movie like this could’ve picked.
When the sole takeaway from a film’s message is, “Wow, I didn’t know that condition existed,” it clearly doesn’t have much to say. Some interesting moments touch on the taboo we associate with conditions that are regarded as “not normal,” but the film never really dives into that idea. A self-discovery subplot — that gets such a bad conclusion — feels slightly manipulative and out of place, though it does make the film the second addition to the “Maddie Ziegler queer cinematic universe of films that premiered at SXSW.”
Maddie Ziegler (left) & Ki Griffin in Fitting In. Courtesy of TIFF.
Ziegler, who broke into the film world with 2020’s The Fallout opposite Jenna Ortega (also a SXSW premiere), shines in her first true leading role, effortlessly carrying Fitting In on her shoulders when no one else steps into the batters' box and swings the bat, so to speak. She communicates the emotions of a young girl whose plans for the immediate future — and greater life — have been uprooted, with a consistent deadpan delivery that pairs well with the material. Outside of Ziegler’s performance, however, there’s not much to root for on the acting front. Even Emily Hampshire (Stevie from Schitt’s Creek) can’t come out unscathed as a supportive but overbearing mother.
There are a few moments in Fitting In where it looks like things might be headed in the right direction, but the generally poor filmmaking and misguided script put a stop to them without fail. The movie is simply too long, trying to do too much without doing almost anything truly well. The sound mixing is horrendous, and the visuals are flat and overly polished. There’s clearly a lot here that, had there been more focus, could have been really great, but not much ends up working.
