Every so often a movie comes along riding a tidal wave of controversy. Sometimes it’s warranted and sometimes not. While there are a number of reasons for the uproar surrounding Cuties (and additional rumors circulating about the casting process), it did spark an important conversation about how young girls are represented on film and artistic integrity.
Celebrities have spoken out on both sides, both in the name of protecting young girls from exploitation and in defense of artistic expression. But beyond the controversy, this is a story about a young girl from a very traditional religious upbringing who’s exposed to a whole new way of life and desperately tries to fit in with a new group of girls who aren’t acting their age.
Fathia Youssef is great in the lead as Amy. With her dad taking another wife and bringing her into the family home, Amy’s life is upended. As a result, she lashes out. Despite not really approving of her behavior or decision making, it’s difficult not to feel sorry for her. The common thread of absentee fathers among the girls looms large over the social context of this film and it’s not by accident.
Writer/Director Maïmouna Doucouré was trying to prove a point about those very issues and she succeeded in doing so, even though she pissed some people off in the process. While the presentation certainly pushes the envelope, she’s pointing out societal pressures on young girls to hypersexualize themselves from a young age for the sake of popularity and how it’s all amplified by social media. This was a film made and told from the female perspective and there’s no male character in the story who’s sexualizing these young girls (except for one lecherous guy in the background for once second at the very end), it’s about why these girls are doing it to themselves.
This was a mostly well-made and well-told story but it gets cloudy with Yann Maritaud’s cinematography and that’s most likely what sounded the alarms about exploitation. The twerking scene that has drawn all the attention isn’t meant to be sexual, it’s more about these girls not really knowing what they are doing or why they are doing it, but the audience can easily get all the contextual implications without such blatant focus. Obviously, this was a stylistic choice by Doucouré and Maritaud for shock value but that’s what has drawn the backlash. There’s just way too many tight shot closeups of these young girls’ butts and the backlash for that is appropriate. In the process of proving the point, she may be guilty of exactly what she’s addressing.
While Doucouré and the film itself have been directly in the line of fire, none of this may have been an issue had Netflix not decided to change the film’s marketing for it’s streaming debut. I don’t recall hearing much noise about this movie when Netflix bought the distribution rights after the Sundance Film Festival, but it was big news when it first dropped on the streaming service. The choice to make a new, more suggestive poster and change the description had clear implications. The media giant has since issued an apology and changed the poster artwork back to its original look, but the damage is done.
Two independent companies that track cancellations among streaming services cited a noticeable spike after the film’s release. Netflix hasn’t commented on those numbers just yet but they’re scheduled to release their quarterly report in mid-October. Ultimately, Cuties is not a bad movie but the streaming giant needs to address the culture that led to some of their decisions.
Recommendation: Generally speaking, you can pass on this one for a lot of reasons. However, If you’re finding yourself outraged over this film but haven’t seen it, you should probably watch it and make an informed decision for yourself.