TIFF’23: Fitting In and the struggles of not fitting it in
Posted September 10, 2023 12:45 pm.
Last Updated September 10, 2023 12:49 pm.
Film is an incredibly powerful medium, because it has the ability to show you a perspective you can’t see. Through watching the films of Edgar Wright, you can see the perspective of a hardcore cinephile. In watching the films of the Coen brothers, you see their quirky desire to tell their peculiar brand of drama. And in watching this film, you learn about why it’s hell to be a teenage girl.
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Fitting In is the latest film by Canadian filmmaker Molly McGlynn. It stars Maddie Ziegler (from Music) as a teenage girl called Lindy. She’s very athletic, she’s got a crush on a cute boy (played by D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai from Reservation Dogs), and she’s finally ready to start exploring her sexual identity.
But a routine check-up at the gynecologist becomes life-changing for her when she discovers she’s got Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome, otherwise known as MRKH. This condition means she does not have a uterus and her vaginal canal is much shorter than it’s supposed to be. She’ll never be able get pregnant, and penetrative sex won’t come easily.
Emily Hampshire and Maddie Ziegler in Fitting In, courtesy of Elevation Pictures.
Ziegler commands with the complicated material, this is a young star in the making. She’s got a good cast to bounce off with, especially with Emily Hampshire (from Schitt’s Creek) who plays her mother. Ziegler’s character often keeps her struggles hidden inside her, rarely showing others how she feels in any moment. With every scene, you can see the pressure increasing inside of her.
Fitting In follows a lot of the classic tropes of high school movies, but with a more modern twist. It feels very contemporary by highlighting her experience alongside that of an intersex character (played by non-binary actor Ki Griffin from Hollyoaks). This film feels like the natural evolution of the high school movie, and while it is about someone with a very rare condition it can speak to a lot of young people about how they fit into society.
Fitting In isn’t a revolutionary high school movie, but it is one that highlights something not often shown in cinema. That is the mark of a good film, one that shows a perspective not known to the masses. Fitting In is a very enjoyable film, and it gets a 4/5.
