Cuties

Shaming this movie for what it depicts it's like blaming a thermometer because it says we have fever. This is just a picture of our horrible reality.

I just finished watching the film in its entirety. Outside of the dance scenes, this is an incredible film. The acting was amazing and the story was very compelling. I empathize with Amy and her friends. My heart broke for her mother's struggles. The cautionary theme surrounding the effects of technology and social media on pre-teens was on-point.

That said, the dance scenes were downright stomach churning and, in my opinion, did not need to be anywhere near as graphic as they were to support the plot. I'm not going to pretend that pre-teen children aren't beginning to discover their sexuality at this age. It's a natural part of life and, in an appropriate fashion, is reasonable to address in a coming-of-age story. But to have child actresses dance more provocatively than many women in music videos crossed the line and ruined the film for me.

The story is the story of the mother, not the daughter. Yet, at a certain point somebody decided that sexing up very young women would make it a way better movie. I simply don't get French cinematography in the last two decades. So many movies who lack a plot, but are very concerned with the sex lives of people 6 to 16.

As for empowering women, this is the precise opposite. It simply plays the role of the abusive old woman who would cut the clitoris off the young woman if she were from East Africa instead of West Africa. It is about keeping women in their place, obedient and voila! you get bliss.

Sometimes movies have to tell an uncomfortable story, sometimes movies have to depict uncomfortable trurh. Despite all storytelling shortcomings Cuties has - I can agree that it at least has a valid point about children oversexualization these days. But you don't have to depict it so bluntly! Some may say that this is the point, you have to watch it and think to yourself: "Damn, this is sickening". But this is just mental gymnastics at its finest. You don't have to depict a litetal murder to tell that "murder is bad", you don't have depict real, unacted abuse, rape, torture to say that these things are bad! I get it, maybe Cuties story never could've worked if they haven't depicted oversexualizing scenes. But if that's the case - this movie shouldn't even exist. It should be a book, an animation with adult actors, whatever. Just something that doesn't take this message too far into reality.

Ever hear of a discretion shot? Implied content? Suggestive camera angles? No one involved in the making of this movie did. Here's a hint: most of the "naked" scenes in movies involved clothed actors being shown from the shoulders up, so you get the idea, without flashing the studio and theater. You can ALLUDE to things happening but for the love of all that's good, DO NOT actually show despicable content on camera. Because then you're not teaching a lesson to change things. You're just exasperating the exact problem you're trying to solve. You can have child actresses, or you can have sexualized content. You can't put the two together and claim moral superiority.

Cuties fails the very ones it claims to want to protect in the worst possible way. That not one person making the movie realized this, is almost comically sad.