Watching the French film cuties made me split into two. I began watching it from two different points of views.
This movie has sparked much controversy. A hashtag and a petition to get it removed. I do think these actions were extreme. Yes, some points of the movie were uncomfortable and inappropriate, that is the point of the movie. The movie was given a yes from the French government and had counselors onset ( unlike thirteen reasons why ).
Cuties goes into Amy’s life as it starts to change. Amy starts a new school and meets a new dance clique she wants to be apart of. Within the movie, Amy finds out that her father is going to get a second wife.
The first point of view I looked at going into this movie was a big sister’s point of view. My sister is four and I can’t even imagine her doing anything like Amy. This movie is uncomfortable and scenes are inappropriate. This point of view made me think would this be more accepted as a book or if Amy and her friends were older.
Cuties opens the conversation of how young girls are impressionable and can be hypersexualized. Showing young eleven-year-old girls trying to be way older than they are. Throughout the movie, the girls begin mimicking video girls with twerking and sexual dance moves. They want to talk to older boys and show as much as their bodies as they can. Wanting to fit in, it’s even briefly revealed at the end of the movie that one of the girls has an eating disorder.
Even though the girls are doing these things throughout the movie it still shows how little they know about many things. It shows that even though these girls are trying to be grown they are still just little girls.
Cuties made me think about the blurred lines of owning your body and saying no that’s too much. I thought about how it’s a time and a place in a woman’s life to own her body and just being a kid, dressing and acting like a kid. Every girl needs guidance to learn how to do these things.
Many reviews went over all these things about Amy and her friends. The most important which a lot of people I believe missed is, we are watching an eleven-year-old girl have a mental breakdown.
We see her rage and sadness. There are many scenes where she goes to do something wrong and questions herself, as soon as she sees her dress for her father’s wedding she goes and chooses the wrong path. Watching her mother pretend to be happy and then silently cry. Amy wants to break out of everything. The pressure of her religion and her social life.
The moment Amy cried running off the contest stage. She began to have a clear head. In the last scene, Amy is herself. She is wearing regular clothing for an eleven-year-old girl. she doesn’t attend her father’s wedding. She doesn’t finish the contest. She finds who she is and has a clear head.
Cuties makes you have an uncomfortable conversation. To get into the mind of an eleven-year-old. To see the mental breakdown of an eleven year an eleven-year-old girl.