Cuties is a movie about social norms as an eleven year old Senegalese immigrant is thrust between the orthodoxy of her religion and the overt sexuality of the friends she's made in France. It won a Sundance Award.
It has been through a ton of controversy, to the point where Senator Ted Cruz has labeled it "child pornography" and has demanded the Department of Justice to look into Netflix, the American distributor, as well as French filmmakers to see if a violation of CP was made.
This goes beyond mere arthouse film and has been thrust into even political as it has become seen as a symbol of the culture wars and a magnet for Qanon. For this reason, I think it deserves its own thread.
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My thoughts on the movie:
I think it's great.
One thing that I think many have missed about the film is how it tackles the topic of normalcy.
What is "normal?" That word could be considered the main theme of the entire story and the entire crux of its storytelling.
Amy's family is adjusting to their move to France as her father takes a second wife. Some of Amy's family have already settled in France such as her aunt. The aunt tells her mom to put on a brave face and that women must be strong as she's forced to personally call friends and family to announce the wedding of her husband's second marriage and for God to bless it.
Her aunt tells her to call someone else.
At one point she breaks down crying, muffling the phones sound to hide it, and plays it off like it was a bad connection. Yet still, she continues on unable to express her own grief of the situation, partly because she's not allowed to. The entire family treats the marriage as a normal piece of life.
Before the wedding the family's apartment is strewn with gifts given by family and friends.
No matter what anguish it causes Amy - stealing, acting out, depression, neglecting her brother - she and the women of her family are told to accept it as normal, to not even question it. But is it? Far from it. They are complicit in normalizing behavior that tears a family apart while diminishing women and their role in the family.
Similarly, Amy and friends create a bubble of pre-teen sexualization where their antics are treated as normal and even embraced among their peers. Further into the film Amy becomes the 'it' girl for her sexual dance moves: the girl you either want to be or be with as per the student population. But this emboldens Amy as she no longer knows what's normal. At the lowest point of the film she posts a picture of her vagoo on social media and her friends distance from her, she's called a slut, has her ass slapped. Despite this, she still wants to be one of the girls.
At the dance competition surrounded by, not her peers, but leering adults, the eyes watching them aren't in awe but disgust which breaks the facade of whatever "normalcy" the girls created. Parents cover children's eyes, mothers visibly look concerned, the judges start to argue.
Then the walls start coming down and the truth of Amy and her actions dawn on her.
None of this is normal.
When she gets home her mother finally speaks up for her, telling her aunt that Amy has justified reason to be so upset and that she doesn't have to attend the wedding she's been dreading so much. Her mother gains the courage to admit that none of this normal.
She chooses neither the dress, which binds her to her culture's tacit approval of her father's second marriage, or the clothes from the dance competition which normalize her own body in sexually explicit ways. Neither are normal.
At the end of film Amy walks out with standard western clothes and realizes she doesn't have to choose between two cultures without normalizing the worst excesses of both and their treatment of women. Finally happy and proud to be her true self.
Ted Cruz calling this child pornography is high key admitting he got turned on by it, admitting he's a pedo.
Powerful film with very disturbing, if necessary imagery. Fuck CardiB and Nicki Minaj. You would think a film that completely and utterly rejects the excesses of modernity would be up conservatives' alley. Instead, they expose themselves as pedos and people completely unable to appreciate artistic statements. Americans are backwards and deserve Marvel and Snyder movies.
Great film.