Cuties

In the tumultuous 2020, Netflix found itself dealing with separate controversies regarding certain movie releases. One of them was covered earlier with 365 days and its treatment of women as well as Stockholm Syndrome. There was a foreign language feature from debut director Maimouna Doucoure that they secured the distribution rights to from the Sundance festival. The issue arrived when the marketing campaign shocked many worldwide with its inappropriate poster for the American public that the director wasn't aware of (instead of just using the French one it would eventually use). The backlash over its content as displayed by the campaign was massive between accusations towards the streaming platform and death threats towards Maimouna regarding the content as child pornography. This brings us to the movie itself, Cuties (or Mignonnes in French), which was released during the summer though I chose to have it on my watchlist later. After watching it months after its release (I waited for things to calm down by then), this coming of age film doesn't reach its ambitions that well due to writing problems but tried something unique. 

What's it about? After moving into a poor neighborhood, an 11 year old gets caught between demanding negatives in her family's traditional Muslim upbringing and an equally problematic internet culture she encounters. There's ambition to give credit for with taking that angle in a familiar genre between how those respective lifestyles affecting her as she's entering phases of growing up. The search for her own identity leads her towards unruly behavior with the group of girls who have been enveloped with what they feels is normalized (behind parents backs). It's definitely an exploration with how modern generations of children will tend out act out as well as dress what they think their peers view as acceptable to the cases of extremes as they don't know any better. 

Unfortunately, there are issues with the execution that holds this back from meeting its potential. The main family drama arc is more engaging than the other arc being explored since the latter ends up overstaying its welcome before it ended up attempting to deliver. There's about 10 minutes of shenanigans and weird scenes that could have been cut out to expand on a weaker section of the script: the third act. The third act is rushed and doesn't land its goal well as the amount of time left for it (last 20 minutes) isn't enough to end strong instead of a cheap whimper. It also doesn't help that these children don't have much characterization to find investment in as the lead protagonist leaning towards realistic but annoying hyperactive behavior. 

 

How are the actors? In regards to story importance, the actors to focus on are Fathia Youssouff and Maimouna Gueye. Fathia fairs the best out of the child actors present here, but that's not exactly a high mark as what lets her efforts down would be the material and direction she's given (though again with child actors of foreign languages it can be difficult to tell). Maimouna gives the best performance that best portrays the struggle this mother goes through between the drama surrounding her spouse, her demanding upbringing, and children who don't think before they act. Anytime she's on screen, the momentum feels elevated depending on who she's interacting with.  

 

Overall Consensus: Cuties is an ambitious risky coming of age feature that has a unique concept, fascinating drama segments, and relevant yet uncomfortable activities but falters due to script issues holding it from landing the execution. ⭑⭑⭑ Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes R

 

Reasons to watch it: You are curious about what the story wants to portray and want to judge it yourself. You don't mind how uncomfortable it is to see children imitating adult trends or actions that they think are acceptable among their acquaintances. You are interested in foreign language flicks that take an ambitious risk in a familiar movie type. You are curious to see how a pre-teen is affected by the influential environment around her.

 

Reasons to avoid it: You don't want to see how uncomfortable it is to view children imitating adult trends that they think are acceptable among their acquaintances. You aren't interested in foreign language cinema. You are bored with the coming of age cliches that don't make their ideas rise to the occasion. You are annoyed with endings that try to take the cheap way out of its conflict. You want to see if you can empathize with the lead protagonist.