The city of Los Angeles lit up with black, green, yellow, and red as the highly anticipated red carpet LA premiere of Bob Marley: ONE LOVE took place on a star-studded evening.
Think back to the trials and tribulations of being sixteen years old—navigating yourself, friendships, and relationships. Now add a reproductive disorder that will jeopardize all three; that’s the reality for Lindy (Maddie Ziegler) in Blue Fox Entertainment’s coming-of-age traumedy Fitting In.
Blue Fox Entertainment
Lindy is your oh-so-typical new girl—a track star, best friends with Viv (Djouliet Amara), crushing on Adam (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), and keeping her relationship with her mom, Rita (Emily Hampshire), afloat. After seeing the doctor for birth control, though she has never gotten a period before, Lindy realizes something is wrong.
After a series of tests, including an MRI featuring the sounds of Aqua’s “Barbie Girl,” which, given what we know and love about the Barbie movie, is the perfect touch to this story. Lindy then learns she has MRKH, a rare reproductive disorder causing the vagina and uterus to be underdeveloped or even absent.
Since learning this diagnosis from a less-than-stellar male gynecologist, Lindy’s life is turned upside down, as she was just planning to have sex with her now-golden retriever boyfriend Adam and realizes she will never be able to have children.
Blue Fox Entertainment
When he delivers the news, director and writer Molly McGlynn does an impeccable job of utilizing camera movements to capture the “world crumbling around you.” A feeling that most of us have experienced at least once.
Lindy’s life continues to change as this diagnosis becomes too much to bare. She pushes away those closest to her, including her best friend and boyfriend. Between painful dilations that had viewers next to me wincing, tears, and modern loneliness, Lindy finds herself in a much different spot than the prior months.
Along the way, she gets to know Jax (Ki Griffin), an intersex individual, sharing their story with others. Despite only passing by each other in the pharmacy at the top of the film, Lindy confides in Jax about her condition, and soon after, one too many shots at a party, a few of the guests.
Blue Fox Entertainment
Soon enough, the entire grade finds out about the condition Lindy has and, like most high schoolers, acts like menaces over it. With courage, clarification, and a little help from her friends, Lindy owns up to her condition (in a stereotypical high school one-against-many standoff).
The film concludes with a content Lindy looking at us from the inside and Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” playing us out.
Over the 105-minute film, McGlynn makes the audience feel something and even jerks some tears, but the tears don’t last long because there is a punchline just around the corner, ensuring that viewers get the message but don’t dwell on a sad moment.
The writing is authentic to the current Gen-Z culture, which Ziegler commended McGlynn on in the post-screening Q&A with Ziegler and Amara.
“It was just about being a human, rather than ‘I’m a teen.’ It was a human experience, and I thought, ‘That’s why she’s so brilliant,’” said Ziegler. “Being 16 is so high cringe… A lot of people are trying to write these really cool teenagers, but teenagers are not cool,” Amara chimed in.
Speaking of Ziegler, her acting has soared to new heights. While she became a household name in 2014 after starring in Sia’s “Chandelier” music video, many OGs met her as a nine-year-old dressed in powder blue and white, a la Dorthy and The Wizard of Oz, on Lifetime’s Dance Moms. From there, we knew there was a star in the making. Her comedic timing, coupled with her dramatic monologues, is a display of her growth.
Blue Fox Entertainment
Ziegler’s star shines alongside the rest of the cast, including Hampshire, whose character starts as a fit yet unsteady mother who is met with mediocrity in her work as a therapist and her love life when she fails to find a partner. However, toward the middle of the film, we start to see more layers of Rita when we dive into her previous journey with breast cancer and the lengths she will go to to help her daughter.
Rita is the only parent we’re introduced to, as Viv’s homelife was cut from the final script (it would’ve been great to see more background, but the film was already jampacked.) What we do know, from what Amara discussed in the panel, is that Viv had more absentee parents. We learn that her mother is away on business while her daughter competes in one of her biggest track events.
Nonetheless, the dynamic between Lindy and Viv is the epitome of a genuine high school friendship; even when things hit the fan, they have one another’s backs– even if the other one doesn’t know it at the time. The chemistry between the two is evident both on and off-screen, with Amara calling Ziegler “a f*cking lovely gem” and describing the overall filming process as “summer camp.”
Fitting In is Molly McGlynn’s semi-autobiography, and she turns her pain into passion and passion into an exceptional film. For Ziegler, bringing this story to life and raising awareness of this condition was a transformative experience.
“I was so specific about getting it right for Molly, and I wanted to do her story justice as best as I could. Something I’m so thankful that she did [for all of us] was, ‘As much as this is my story, it’s yours now too,’ and she gave us the freedom to explore the characters in a way she might not have even thought of,” she explained.
Regardless of opinions on the plot, audience members can agree that they walked away educated about this condition that society has buried for too long. Ziegler herself discussed the importance of women being able to talk about their bodies without the fear of “being taboo.”
Fitting In is a hilariously sad, honest rollercoaster that impeccably shows, rather than tells, the story of overcoming adversity in the face of one of the worst times in people’s lives: being a teenager. In a time when movie-goers long for the return of the next Y2K-esque coming-of-age film, Fitting In is an exceptional addition to that modern-day lineup.
Fitting In is in theatres now. Find a screening near you here.
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The Private Eye, Illusion Islands’ latest thriller, is a boatload of twists and turns that leads the viewer to question even their own judgment as it progresses. But to writer and director Jack Cook, at its very core, the film is a love story.
The mystery romance comedy thriller marks the feature directorial debut of Cook, and features Matt Rife in the lead role as Mort Madison, a private investigator whose life takes a downward spiral. The story focuses on the shifting perspective of Madison, who is hired by a mysterious woman named Michelle, played by Clare Grant. Michelle tasks Mort with spying on a man named David, who she claims to be her lover. But as Mort delves into the investigation, he finds himself falling for Michelle. In an unexpected turn of events, Mort decides that the only way to be with Michelle is to eliminate David from the equation. Viewers can look forward to a mind blowing twist as Mort’s pursuit of love takes an unexpected and thrilling path.
To pull off a film with so many twists and turns while also keeping the cadence of romance is no easy feet, yet Cook does so seamlessly, making the film one of a kind. On Friday, the cast gathered in New York City for the premiere of the film. In attendance was Cook, ELLIOT, Denzel Whitaker, Lexy Panterra, Charles Worth, Elijah Boothe , Eugenia Kuzmina, Eric Roberts, and many more. We chatted with the cast and crew about their experiences working on the film, check out the conversations below!
The Private Eye will be in select theaters on February 9th! Check out the trailer here!
‘The Tiger’s Apprentice’ is an animated film based on the popular children’s book series of the same name by Laurence Yep. The film focuses on the character Tom Lee (Brandon Soo Hoo) who plays a Chinese-American teenager who learns he’s part of a lineage of magical protectors known as the Guardians. Brandon shares his character Tom is, “able to keep his head up high during difficult situations.” With the help from the mythical tiger Hu(Henry Golding) trains with Tom to face Loo(Michelle Yeoh) with her evil intentions to destroy humanity with magic. Tom not only has to master his newly discovered powers but he must reunite the twelve Zodiac animal warriors to fight against Loo.
Diana Lee Inosanto(Horse), Sherry Cola(Naomi/Monkey), and Deborah S. Craig(Pig) all play zodiac animal warriors in ‘The Tiger’s Apprentice,’ and assist Tom with his fight against Loo. “She is quick on her feet,” says Cola about her character Naomi the Monkey who is a sight to see in the film. Leah Lewis as Rav and Tan Kheng Hua as Mrs. Lee are two characters that seem to spark Tom to overcome some of the struggles he endures. “He learns so many lessons on what it’s like to grow up and kinda just be proud of who he is,” says Leah Lewis on Tom’s character development in The Tiger’s Apprentice. This Paramount+ animation film ‘The Tiger’s Apprentice’ will premiere on February 2nd exclusively on Paramount+.
Quite a lot to fit in one chapter.
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