My Thoughts on "Cuties"

​Disclaimer: I am a 16-year-old girl. You can check my post history to confirm this. Please don't bully or harass me. Or call me a pedophile (it technically doesn't apply, but you get the point). This movie was very uncomfortable for me to watch, but I watched it in order to get a full perspective before making up my thoughts. This will be long. I'll start with a summary because there are no good ones that I could find. All the details I mention will be important for me to draw a theme on later.My ReviewThe first thing I noticed was how provocatively they were dressed. I asked myself, "What children dress like this?! This is disgusting and not at all realistic!" And then, I had to think back to middle school (which wasn't too long ago) where all the "popular" and pretty girls were dressed exactly like the girls in this film, if not worse. The only inaccuracy was that nobody wore high heels to our school (not to middle school anyway). I remember being so jealous of all the girls who dressed in crop tops and ultra short shorts and I tried to emulate them. I would tie up my shirts and roll up my shorts. I used to beg my parents to buy me more and more skin-baring clothes (to which, they always said no).Keep in mind this is middle school, so I was 10-13 doing this.This is the reality that a lot of people (especially adults) like to sweep under the rug. The pressure on young girls to conform to the new norms of what is considered feminine is very real. Go on Tik Tok and you'll see girls my age and younger doing dances that aren't far off from what they're doing in this movie. I think I was 11 or 12 when Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda" came out and my friends and I used to practice twerking to it in preparation for our school dances. There was a lot of twerking and grinding at my school dances. Yes, we were 10-13.While, sexual liberation is a good thing, it's almost impossible to separate consenting, legal sexualization from exploitation (even self-inflicted) in a child's mind. Especially with how easy images of the former are to access on the internet.The perfect metaphor for this film was when Coumba picks up the condom and blows on it to make a balloon, unaware what it's purpose is. She shoves the blown-up condom under her shirt in an attempt to appear more mature, but only for the girls to recoil from her at the realization she put her mouth on a used condom. They scream at her as silent tears fall down her cheeks. "It's not my fault I didn't know."Another thing I was struck by was how much this movie reminded me of The Florida Project. Angelica and Moony are practically identical. The only difference is that Angelica is on the cusp of adulthood and unfortunately, for many girls and boys, adulthood is defined by sex, not maturity.Angelica was the gateway for Amy to explore what she considered to be "in" and "popular," but in doing so, Amy exceeded her in becoming the most sexualized of the group.For example, Angelica vents to Amy how everyone sees them as little girls and in an attempt to prove her womanhood, Amy photographs her genitals and posts them on social media. When confronted about it, Amy defends her actions as "affirming her womanhood."But this isn't womanhood (as we, the audience know) and I think it's an interesting dichotomy that Amy was more mature and dignified before she met the Cuties, got her period, and "officially" became a woman. She took care of her brothers and was a good daughter to her mother. That's more than can be said from her borderline-murderous angsty self we see towards the end of the movie.ConclusionI was expecting to go into a rage about this movie, if not about the sexualization of children, then definitely about the denigration of Islam and the need to "liberate" Amy from it, but surprisingly, none of that was featured in this film. In fact, in a very rare change, Islam was framed in a positive light by the end of the film.After finally realizing the error of her ways and the depth of the exploitation she was facing (after being jeered and frowned upon by a crowd of disapproving adults), Amy runs off to her father's wedding, only to be told she doesn't need to come. She participates in a game of jump rope with some girls her age as a Senegalese (prayer?) song plays in the background.I think this scene was the best part of the entire movie. It was innocent and sweet. It made me smile.Overall, I do recommend this movie. There are parts where you laugh. There are parts where you cry. There are parts where you cringe. But there are also parts where you smile and I think it's worth a watch (if you're not a pedo, of course).I think the film's reception in France and it's reception in America really highlights the difference in our cinema culture and the nuances that foreign audiences pick up on that American audiences just don't.Look at this French movie review website for example. Most of the reviews are glowing and I think that they do a great job of breaking down the essence of the movie's message. I find it fascinating how they were able to look past it's rotten exterior, the sickening interior, and find that little nugget of truth in the center.Do I think this film was oversexualized?Oh absolutely.Doucouré could have taken out over half of the sexualization in the film and still landed her message perfectly. The shots in which the camera lingered on the children's butt and crotch were the most uncomfortable. The purpose of this film was to make you uncomfortable and to make your skin crawl at just how badly the girls were exploiting themselves, but Doucouré also has to be aware that there are actual pedophiles watching her film. Hell, there are probably actual pedophiles who watch this for legitimate enjoyment.On one hand, as a young person, growing up, I recognize myself in many of these scenes. Straightening my hair, trying to wear make up, dancing way too provocatively, but at the same time, these are things that our society just doesn't like to address. The negative effects of an over-sexualized culture are never truly addressed and whenBut if you cringed at anything I did when I was 10/11/12, I guarantee you, I was very tame. Many of my peers (especially the popular ones) were sending nudes by 7th and 8th grade. If it makes you uncomfortable: good. It's fucking should. It is uncomfortable and I look back and cringe at a lot of the things I did and the adults I could have exploited myself to in the process.But this is what Western culture does to children when people are too scared to call it out and too scared to moderate it. When you're unable to kick children out of these spaces without being called a pedo or a creep for even suggesting it, you're also unable to protect them from real pedos and real creeps.The laser park scene describes this perfectly. The first guard grabs Angelica by the arm and attempts to drag her from the premises, only for the girls to scream about how he's molesting them and how he's a pedo. This attracts the attention of another guard who walks over in an attempt to mediate the situation. In the middle of the conflict, the Cuties find out they've been accepted in the finals of their dance competition and celebrate loudly to both of the guards' dismay. Amy then explains they're dancers and proceeds to do a very aggressive twerk. The first guard looks away, but the second guard is sorta turned on.This is why you CAN'T look away. You have to look at it and call it what it is: wrong and shameful. Even in this movie, I'm not afraid to call the exploitation wrong and shameful. That is the point of the movie.I don't ever expect this movie to be resurrected in the Western cinema circles, but I do hope that the outrage has taught everyone a lesson about sexual exploitation of children (even when they do it of their own volition). Make sure to call it out, educate, and encourage more age-appropriate behaviors.Rating: 6.5/101The pacing was good and I think the movie (aside from the gross sexual scenes for which I knocked a few points off) was pretty good. The performances, however, were a little lack luster. Especially from the supporting characters and at times, the leading actress, herself. Still a pretty decent film, though.1Edited from 7.5/10 via /r/movies https://ift.tt/32jsdt9