Cuties (Mignonnes) - 2020
Directed by Maïmouna Doucouré
Written by Maïmouna Doucouré
Starring Fathia Youssouf, Maïmouna Gueye
& Médina El Aidi-Azouni
So, this is the film that so many people stupidly protested without watching it. The ignorance of humanity is just stunning to observe sometimes, and there are a great many people who came out against this film, despite the film being on the same side they are. It was just a pile on. U.S. Lawmakers joined in the hunt, making indictments as it became a topic of the moment, and yet without having a single clue about what they were talking about. Because they hadn't seen it. Because they didn't know what they were talking about. Because they were reacting to a tweet, or a poster, or the guy they shared a lunch with who also hadn't seen it. If they had, they would have realised everything was back to front - and that
Cuties represents a strong statement against the sexualization of minors. But what can we do? Some people are idiots.
Cuties is something of an autobiographical film for it's feature debut director Maïmouna Doucouré, a woman of Senegalese family origin that lived with a polygamous father, and thus two mothers. In this film Amy (played by Fathia Youssouf, making her film debut) is also in a Senegalese family, and is waiting for her father to return to her home in France with his second bride. She's 11 years-old, has a strict religious upbringing, and finds it hard to fit in at school. She's drawn to a group of peers who wear overly-sexualized clothing and are constantly practicing how to dance, and even though they bully her, she eventually gains acceptance into their group. These girls have access to pornography and suggestive dancing on their phones and other devices, and it's this dancing that some of them try to emulate, without fully realising the implications of what they're doing. Eventually, Amy will be in conflict with her restrictive, traditional family, and her rebellion will only lead her further down the wrong path. Good role models seem very hard to find, and all Amy really wants is acceptance and respect - not realising that this kind of dancing won't get that for her.
There are a lot of real issues raised by this film, and all of the young actresses do well in giving us an impression of how these kids lack maturity, mimic a lot of what they see, and are full of sensitivity and emotion. One scene in particular, with a condom one of them has found, shows us just how naïve they really are as they insist touching one gives you AIDS (they eventually wash the poor girl's mouth with soap to try and "wash away the infection".) There's an uncomfortable moment when Angelica (Médina El Aidi-Azouni) is introduced as she dances - already with suggestive clothes in a sexual manner - as when she turns it really hits us just how young this girl is. But it's clear that none of them even realise what they're doing - they're simply imitating what they see on their computer screens and phones. These are girls that don't have strong parental figures to sit down with them and talk to them. Most often they're left to fend for themselves in a society that's just too busy to stop, listen to them, and discuss all of this with them.
All of this is mostly played with realism, but there is just one small part of the film - where Amy comes into contact with a traditional Senegalese dress, the gives a small sense of the mystic. This dress bleeds when she does, unknowingly becoming a woman, and it bulges as if
becoming her at a certain point in the film. Living in a French or Western society, but still adhering to many old Senegalese traditions must be hard - and I know if I was a kid I would have been rebelling against a lot of it - especially considering how different it would have made me to my peers. The same goes for Amy, who starts the film so alone, except for her little brother. When she rebels, witch doctors are called in, and religious ceremonies are performed, but her mother never really sits down and talks with her. Amy herself only finds out more about her father by eavesdropping on a conversation while hiding under a bed. Her mother, meanwhile, is deeply wounded by her husband taking a second bride - but polygamy isn't the subject of this film, and that practice isn't explored much more than this.
As the film was released on Netflix, a very silly, and frankly weird, mistake was made. The promotional image used for it's cinematic release in France wasn't used - that of some kids shopping and having fun in the streets. Instead the girls were shown in sexually suggestive clothing, striking sexualized poses. Whoever decided this was a good representation of the film, and a good advertisement for it, needs to see a psychologist and answer some questions. As expected, controversy came down hard, as people took that marketing on face value and decided this film was nothing more than child pornography - the very thing the film is railing against. Once that genie was out of the bottle, it didn't matter anymore what the film actually was - people decided on the strength of other people's tweets, social media and comments. I feel so sorry for Maïmouna Doucouré, having her great film misrepresented in such a way by people who hadn't even seen it. I hope it doesn't damage her career. The film sits with a 3.4/10 rating on the IMDb, and this is a solid 7.1/10 film - many people have rated it "1" without ever seeing it. This is all madness.
The cinematography (which was quite good), music and editing were performed by fresh young French talent, making this a truly 21st Century generational film - it all marks a new voice speaking out against the permissive culture we have media-wise, where what young eyes can see has truly spiraled out of control. It doesn't help that mindless people protest this film, and help support platforms that allow this permissiveness to flourish. It truly marks this particular era in human history as an era of ignorance. Fortunately, Doucouré won the Directing Award when the film was shown at Sundance, and in 2017 the script also won an award at that particular Sundance Festival. It was this recognition that tempered demands from U.S. lawmakers that the film be banned. Netflix was indicted by a grand jury in Tyler County, Texas, but the platform defended the film, as they should. The people that tried to market it on Netflix the way they did however, should have had some kind of case to answer.
I was fully immersed in Amy's world, and could understand her need for acceptance and validation - the film does this very well. Even though I've certainly seen a few films like this before, it was fresh enough not to bore me, or seem derivative of anything else. I remember watching
Christiane F. way back when I was a child, and it was considered an important film to watch to educate young people about how easy it is to fall into a cycle of drug addiction, how dangerous it is, and how hard it is to get out of it with your life. The same could be said for
Cuties, for both young people and older people who have children. The over-sexualization of children is everywhere we look these days, from advertisement, to inappropriate beauty contests, to dancing contests like the ones in this film. Kids have access to too much adult content. If society isn't smart enough to deal with it, it's up to individual parents to provide guidance for their kids. Just good, level headed, guidance.
I thought this was a great film that handled it's subject in just the right manner, and gave the audience a point of view very close to that of an 11 year-old girl in modern society. The pressures, the fears, responsibilities to family, need for friendship and recognition, and over-exposure to inappropriate media content. They live in a society where there never seems to be much time for communication, and where good role models seem to be scarce, but the film itself gives us the impetus to step up and educate and be good role models for our kids. It's also a good warning about social media, the internet and modern music and dancing - that not all of the content is appropriate for girls who are yet in their late teens. That this was protested boggles the mind and defies belief. It presents us with naive girls who imitate, but not aspire to this sexualization we see in dance - and they can pay for that with ridicule and shame. Some almost seem to be raising themselves on social media, with no guidance at all - which makes
Cuties a great wake-up call for parents these days.
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Hell I have to think about what day tomorrow is! Sure Monday eve/Tuesday morning is fine
