Cuties - a Film Review

Cuties – downright uncomfortable, or the mere reflection of an uncomfortable truth?

What does it mean to be a woman?

Cuties is a coming-of-age French film that explores the juxtaposition of being a young girl presented with two ideas of femininity: one from her cultural heritage, and the other from a group of girls at school called the Cuties. It’s uncomfortable. It’s confronting. And as a result, it’s highly controversial.

The Netflix film has received a lot of backlash since its release, as I’m sure you’ve seen if you spend any time on the internet. Intended to spark conversation critiquing the way young girls are sexualised in the modern world, the film has instead been accused of sexualising young girls.

This skewed reading can be blamed partly on the film’s off-the-mark marketing, but also from those taking to the Internet to spread their misinformed opinions and the hashtag #CancelNetflix despite having not seen the film.

Understandably, some scenes do open the floor up to criticism – did that shot really have to be so provocative? Did they really need to cast such young actresses for these confronting roles? Did the camera really have to capture that lingering shot of the girls’ midriffs and bums?

Arguably, the film perpetuates the cinematic male gaze by hyper-focusing on the girls’ bodies – and this can certainly be a point for critique.

Nevertheless, the film needs to be taken as a whole – and this is where the true meaning can be derived.

The film itself follows eleven-year-old Amy – a Senegalese French girl who comes from a culture that is heavily patriarchal and religious. Starting at a new school, Amy discovers a group of cool girls in her grade called the ‘Cuties’. They wear high heels and crop tops, and Amy wants to be just like them.

Soon enough Amy joins the posse, and the group begins training for a dance competition. Influenced by the online world of likes, Insta-fame and going viral, the girls are presented with social media’s perception of what femininity should look like: something that is hyper-sexualised and provocative.

Their dancing is disturbingly sensual, and for the viewer, these drawn-out and close-up dance sequences are nothing short of uncomfortable.

All the while, Amy’s life at home is messy and upsetting: her father is about to marry a second woman of which Amy is meant to attend the wedding ceremony of, and her only destiny in life should be that she marries a man.

Thus – Amy is presented with two conflicting ideas about womanhood, and what her place should be in the world.

The film reaches its conclusion when Amy flees from the stage of the final dance competition back home to where her father is about to marry his second wife. About the imminent wedding ceremony, her mother tells her ‘you do not have to go.’

Abandoning her wedding ceremony attire and her skimpy dance outfit on her bed in favour of jeans and a cardigan, Amy is finally back to being what she is: simply a child. She’s finished conforming to her perceived ideas of what womanhood should look like and the final scene showcases Amy joining in with other children outside in a game of jump-rope. She’s exuberant, and she’s exactly where she should be.

At its core – the film aims to highlight the grotesque world that many young girls grow up in and are influenced by. Some scenes are unarguably downright uncomfortable to watch, but the film itself reflects an uncomfortable truth of our reality that is perhaps difficult to accept.

In a world where young children are exposed to the internet and social media so early on – the likes of which heavily perpetuate the sexualisation of young girls - the film aims to highlight the potential ramifications of this for young girls in the modern age.

The film is not about sexualising young girls, nor is it about painting the Cuties as aspirational.

It’s about critiquing the sexualisation of young girls in modern society and demonstrating the ugly world that young girls can get caught up in and influenced by. It’s about sparking an important conversation about what representations are out there, and what young girls are being exposed to. It’s about reflecting on our society, and the representations of femininity that we want our daughters and sisters to grow up with.

Cuties is not comfortable to watch, but it presents a topic that is relevant and that needs to be talked about.