Cuties

 3/4

Starring: Fathia Youssouf, Medina El Aidi-Azouni, Amimouna Gueye, Esther Gohourou, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas, Mbissine Theres Diop, Miriam Hamma

Not Rated (probable PG-13 for Language and Sexual Content Involving Young Teens)

"Cuties" has created a storm of controversy since its release, much of it misplaced.  There's no doubt that it deals with tricky material, but criticism of the film ignores what writer/director Maimouna Doucoure is saying and how she says it.  In fact, the filmmaker and her critics are saying more or less the same thing.

Amy (Youssouf) is an eleven-year-old living in France with her family.  Her father is away in Senegal and her mother (Gueye) and aunt (Diop) are preparing for his upcoming wedding to his second wife.  Feeling lonely and neglected, she finds solace in a group of girls who like dancing.  She joins them and finds freedom in dancing and her new friends.  But their attempts to look and act like the adult dancers they see on TV have consequences they are unprepared for.

The film has received a harsh rebuke from critics and audiences, ranging from Senator Josh Hawley trying to drag Netflix CEO in front of Congress to a petition for removal of the film from Netflix and so on.  Some have even called for legal action against the company (which seem a non-starter as doing so would run into conflict with the First Amendment).  Some have even called it "child pornography."

Such criticisms fail to take into account what Doucoure is saying and how she says it.  Yes, the girls dress in skimpy clothes.  Yes, they dance provocatively.  But this is not exploitation (both the parents and the actresses were fully aware of what they were doing and why, and there was a child psychologist on set) and it is certainly not pornography.  Doucure repeatedly connects the girls dancing and costumes to what they see in music videos online.  Combined with the isolation they feel, it's no wonder that the girls think this is a good idea.  They want to feel like grown ups and no one is around to set boundaries.  Much of what happens is because the girls don't fully grasp what they are doing or how it looks to other people, and there is no one to tell them otherwise.

Doucure pushes the envelope, but only enough to get her point across.  When she shows the girls dancing, she films it like the music videos they see, making it clear what the target of her ire is.  But she does two things that make her film something other than smut.  One, she suggests what is going on but does not show.  The film's most uncomfortable scene is when Amy sends a revealing photo.  The director makes it clear what is happening, but moves her camera to make sure that Youssuf doesn't show anything.  The other is that she shows the consequences of their behavior.  An exploitative movie would have had everything turn out right for Amy and her friends.  Doucure has them face the cold, hard reality of their actions.

While I will defend what Doucure is saying and how she says it, her skills as a filmmaker leave something to be desired.  For one thing, there's only one three-dimensional character: Amy.  Everyone else is poorly developed and thus not as interesting.  About all we know about the other characters is that Angelica is that she feels neglected and acts out in response, Amy's mother is having trouble dealing with the fact that her husband is getting a second wife, and Amy's aunt is a traditionalist.  That's more than I can say about the other people in this movie.  The acting is good, but the characters feel more like they're there to move the plot along rather than real people.

I'm puzzled by the strong, negative reaction to the film.  Doucure wants to generate discussion and have her audience consider the messages that young girls are getting.  But what I find curious is that no one seems interested in listening to what Doucure is saying.  Or that she's saying anything at all.  When you allow young girls to watch Beyonce dress in next to nothing and Miley Cyrus to grind up on people, is anyone really surprised that the same young girls will imitate that behavior?  Just because the songs don't have any profanity doesn't mean they are "clean."  Or appropriate for kids.

That's what this movie is about.