Itty Bitty Titty Committee

I really wanted to like Itty Bitty Titty Committee. Sadly, I was disappointed in my expectations.

Itty Bitty Titty Committee is about Anna, who works as a receptionist for a plastic surgeon. One night, she meets Sadie who is vandalizing the clinic. Sadie gets after Anna about being part of an industry which makes women ashamed of their natural bodies. Anna develops a crush on Sadie who turns out to be the leader of a radical feminist group called the C(i)A (Clits in Action). Through this crush, Anna herself becomes a member of the radical third wave feminist community.

My first big problem with Itty Bitty Titty Committee is that I didn’t like the core relationship nor either the characters who make it up. Admittedly, Sadie is supposed to be pretty flawed. Anna is warned throughout the film that Sadie uses people. We see Sadie in a relationship but still openly flirt with Anna and apparently, this is a pattern of behaviour for her which doesn’t get fully resolved. Generally, in a romantic comedy, it’s not a great idea to have serial adulteress be one of the love interest’s flaws.

As a protagonist and other half of the core romantic couple, Anna becomes less likeable as the film goes on. As she becomes a more active member of the C(i)A, she becomes really rude to everyone outside the organization– her family and her customers at the plastic surgery clinic. I don’t think being a radical feminist means you also have to be a massive dick but there’s definitely a correlation between those two things in regards to Anna.

Between the two of them, how selfish they are about the relationship and what we’ve seen of Sadie’s character type, I feel like their relationship will be over by the time the end credits role. As such, I wasn’t invested in their relationship. I wasn’t excited to see Sadie get closer to cheating with Anna instead of actually breaking up with her girlfriend. When they finally kiss at the end of the film, I didn’t feel happy for these characters I was just annoyed by them.

It’s more frustrating still that Anna and Sadie are the leads when the supporting cast is full of much better characters. Another member of the C(i)A is Aggie, a trans woman and actually likeable character. Near the end of the movie, Anna has a one-night stand with Aggie. After this, I was fruitlessly hoping the movie might suddenly take a sharp turn on the love plot and ditch the Anna/Sadie thing and have Anna and Aggie end up together instead. Obviously, this does not happen. Oh well. Aggie was better than Anna anyway.

Similarly, there’s a relationship subplot which I found much more enjoyable than Sadie and Anna’s. One of the other members of the C(i)A, Shulamith develops a relationship with Calvin, a butch dyke. I really, really liked the small amount of screen time developed to their developing romance. Calvin is a great, secondary character with enough back story and personality that they could be the lead. Shulamith becomes more likeable as a character as a result of this relationship. They also have a great sex scene in a car. Overall, I was invested in this relationship and enjoyed watching it play out significantly more than the relationship that Itty Bitty Titty Commitee chose as its main focus.

The other huge problem I have with Itty Bitty Titty Committee is that I disagreed with its politics. This is obviously a subjective critique, but I do think that this movie could have benefited by adjusting the political statements and focuses of the C(i)A that we see in this film. I have no idea whether what the C(i)A gets up to is an accurate portrayal of radical feminist organizations or not but I disagreed with most of their priorities and actions. I really did struggle with the fact that all the feminist issues they brought up were sort of small potatoes. The major debate the C(i)A is having is about how much classic architecture is phallic related and how that is a problem. I couldn’t help but feel that there are more pressing feminist issues than this.

I further didn’t agree with what the initial meeting between Anna and Sadie says about how the group operates. When Sadie sees Anna who is currently working as a receptionist at a plastic surgery clinic, Sadie berates her for assisting with plastic surgery which teaches women to be ashamed of their bodies. Apparently this makes Anna a traitor to her gender or something. I have a problem with this. Anna is a receptionist, this is her living and Sadie attacks her as if Anna was the inventor and key marketer of boob jobs. I absolutely hate it when any sort of protesters take their issues out on powerless, low-level employees who are just trying to earn a pay check.

The final issue for me was when the C(i)A goes to protest a pro-marriage rights march on Washington because marriage isn’t feminist. Does this group not have better things to do than protest a marginalized group searching for equality? They make some valid points about why marriage as a concept is outdated but I in no way agree with the idea of a feminist group focusing their efforts on such as issue. This was the major event that made me not just disagree with the group’s politics but begin to get annoyed by the C(i)A’s actions.

On a more positive note, I do like the look of Itty Bitty Titty Committee. I enjoy the third wave feminist/riot grrrl style and aesthetic which is present throughout this movie. The styling of the main characters is great. I love the black and white transitional scenes of riot grrl concerts. The people involved in wardrobe, production design, etc all did great work.

That it looks cool is not enough for me though. I found the lead characters and their politics to be largely disagreeable in Itty Bitty Titty Committee. I did not find the film to be particularly funny nor romantic so as a romantic comedy, it’s 0 for 2. Itty Bitty Titty Committee is not successful enough on any level for me to recommend it to anyone.

Overall rating: 4.6/10

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