Cuties
There’s a clip of the most salacious thing that happens in Maïmouna Doucouré’s “Cuties” floating around that critics have been using to condemn the film as child pornography. It happens late in the movie when, in a moment of anxiety, 11-year-old Amy (Fathia Youssouf) undoes her pants, and takes a picture of her crotch before posting it online. It sets in motion the remainder of Amy’s arc, and comes at a critical point where she has been struggling with fitting in with the other young girls she has started to spend time with, and dance with, as they get ready for a dance competition. No, you do not see the picture (or Amy’s crotch), or really any nudity whatsoever in Doucouré’s film; taken without context, you’d think that clip was indicative of the entire movie. If the film were fueling a productive discussion about the way we, as a society, sexualize girls and women in general, there’d be value to the conversation that has arisen since Netflix promoted the film with a truly awful new poster that really only matters for the last 15 minutes of the film. I think Doucouré genuinely welcomes that discussion; her film seems willing to be an active participant in it.
Amy and her family has moved into a new apartment, in awaiting for her father’s marriage to a new woman. Amy’s family is French-Senegalese, and they are very traditionally Muslim. It’s a tough time for Amy, in a new country, and she is trying to be a good, traditional girl so as to not disrespect her family. She’s not really interested in tradition, though, or the religious practices she sits through for her aunt. One day, she sees a neighbor girl, Angelica, twerking while doing laundry, and she soon finds herself immersed with Angelica and her friends- who have formed a dance troupe called Cuties- as they are getting ready for a dance contest. As they prepare for the contest, their movements get more provocative, and their outfits more revealing, and Amy really finds herself at odds with her family’s conservative values.
Amy is a character based on Doucouré herself, and there’s an honesty to her story that makes the film eminently watchable, and her story an empathetic one. The film is about a young girl whose family has sheltered her from outside society, and how she reacts to that society. Unfortunately, one of the things that comes with being opened up to the larger world, especially when it comes to the one Amy finds herself apart of in this movie with the other Cuties, is that we might overcompensate in our actions, thinking some behavior will make us more popular, or is necessary for the sake of popularity. “Cuties” is ultimately about Amy dipping her feet into the culture around her for the first time, and where that leads. More often than not, it leads to an over-correction, wherein one goes too far in their behavior before realizing they need to pull back, and find a balance between the person they were, and the person they became. That’s Amy’s arc, and it does lead to some troubling behavior like the aforementioned crotch pic, but by the end, she finds that balance, and her face at the end points to a much happier person. That’s a compelling story to follow, and Youssouf’s performance is strong and moving in showing us all of the emotions that lead us there.
One of the main points of criticism of the film is how it contributes to the sexualizing of girls while wanting to contend to it, and it’s certainly a fair point at times in the film. When the Cuties are first practicing the moves of their dance, or the way Doucouré shoots a scene of them dancing on a set of stairs that Amy posts to her social media account, it’s pretty uncomfortable to watch, but I don’t know that I would say it completely misses the point of what Doucouré is trying to say; it should be uncomfortable for us to watch those moments, and again, they play to the larger message not just about societal hyper-sexualization but how Amy- and really, all of the Cuties- are over-correcting to be accepted in society. They think that’s the way to be popular because society has shown them that’s how entertainers become popular. Amy realizes that is not the way for her; the others are not at that point just yet. I’m curious to see how her story progresses from there. Maybe once all the furor has died down, Doucouré and Youssouf will get the opportunity to continue it.
