SXSW: Itty Bitty Titty Committee

Anna (Melonie Diaz) is in hell: A bad breakup with her girlfriend, her sister's impending wedding, her nightmare-like job answering the phones at a plastic surgery clinic. Her mom's cool with her being a lesbian, in a mom-kinda way ("You could wear a little makeup for your sister's wedding ... I read The Lesbian Handbook, and it didn't say anything about 'no makeup.") But one night leaving work, Anna spots a young lady spray-painting graffiti on the building where she works. After talking to the vandal, Sadie (Nicole Vicius), Anna's politics -- and a few other things -- are aroused when Sadie tells her about the radical agit-art group she's part of, C (i) A, Clits in Action.

Directed by Jamie Babbit (But I'm a Cheerleader) and written by Abagail Shafran and Tina Mabry, Itty Bitty Titty Committee feels like it came out of a short-hop time machine; Sleater-Kinney and Le Tigre blare on the soundtrack, the film's political discussions seem curiously frozen in the late '90s, the group's manifesto is a Xeroxed 'zine and the candy-colored fun times are all as bright and glossy as any Hollywood teen romance comedy. Anna soon discovers that Sadie's part of a larger group of rebel women and locked in a long-term relationship with the older, more politically polished Courtney (Melanie Mayron) ... but still engages in actions with the gang just so she can be near Sadie. This is not that brilliant a long-term strategy. ...

A lot of Itty Bitty Titty Committee feels statistics-and-factoids driven. When C (i) A member Shuly (Carly Pope) meets ex-Army explosive expert Calvin (Daniela Sea), and is told about why Calvin left the Army, Shuly vents: "Women make 14% of the American military but account for 30% of the discharges under 'Don't ask, don't tell.'" There's no reason to tell Calvin this -- she probably knows -- so it's a line for the audience, as plain and obvious as a factoid in a Very Special Episode of 90210. It's also odd that, for a group railing against conventional, consumerist images of beauty, the women of the C (i) A are pretty much all played by actresses who fit into that conventional, consumerist image of beauty.

Itty Bitty Titty Committee culminates in the group's biggest action yet, striking back at society in general and a few targets in particular; take away the personal-political subtext, and you could be watching Animal House. Will Anna wind up with Sadie? Will Anna learn about herself? Will the group come under fire, but re-form stronger than ever after being hardened in the crucible of emergency? Yes, yes, and yes, and if you can't tell that within the first five minutes, this must be the first time you've seen a movie.

It's hard to hate Itty Bitty Titty Committee -- Diaz and Vicius are easy to watch, and it's breezy, light fun; you can understand how it won the Narrative Film Grand Prize at SXSW this year. At the same time, it made me wonder: When marginalized and traditionally-underrepresented groups make entertainment as weak, thin, shallow and laden with wish-fulfillment fantasy as the mainstream does, is that a moment of triumph against the dominant paradigm, or a statement of surrender to it?

For more on Itty Bitty Titty Committee, check out Erik Davis' review of the film from Berlin and his interview with the director.