Mignonnes

The people who did this movie should be accused of child abuse, together with the people who let this happen. As a parent of young girls, this thing is unacceptable.

Its one thing to try and describe underaged children being subjected to sexual behavior, its another thing to actually enact that behavior.

This is simply a movie for perverts who like underaged children, and somehow it got through all checkpoints and got published.

I initially thought that most of the people who where outraged by this movie where exaggerating, as that is the case for a lot of other questionable movies, so I decided to have a look at it, and I am utterly disgusted, did not even make it through the whole movie.

Right intentions, but rather awful execution.

I'll start off by saying I do believe the intentions of the filmmakers were positive. There are undoubtedly minors being exposed to similar themes to that of the film, so it's imperative that people - particularly parents - are made aware of this.

With that said, 'Cuties' goes about it in entirely the wrong way. The message, which does become clear at the end, is to stop the exploitation of children - yet here they are doing just that. There are scenes and/or camera angles that simply should not have been filmed and shown. There is no need for certain shots.

More should've been left for the viewer to work out, as opposed to shoving it into our faces and therefore practically doing what they are criticising. For example, they could've zoomed away at particular points or got an extreme close up of the characters' eyes when they were doing sexualised things.

For what it's worth, I will say I respect the performance of lead Fathia Youssouf (Amy) - I felt a fair amount of emotion from her at certain points. None of the other cast members stick out in my memory, though none produce anything negative.

I've spent a long time thinking about how I was going to word my review, much longer than I usually would at least. It's slightly tricky as, as mentioned, I do believe it intended to do the right thing. Unfortunately though, it ends up - in my eyes - doing what it's trying to say is bad.

There are some extreme thoughts on this film, not all of which are right in my opinion. However, as said, it isn't a good watch - even if only judging on film merits.

I just finished watching the film in its entirety. Outside of the dance scenes, this is an incredible film. The acting was amazing and the story was very compelling. I empathize with Amy and her friends. My heart broke for her mother's struggles. The cautionary theme surrounding the effects of technology and social media on pre-teens was on-point.

That said, the dance scenes were downright stomach churning and, in my opinion, did not need to be anywhere near as graphic as they were to support the plot. I'm not going to pretend that pre-teen children aren't beginning to discover their sexuality at this age. It's a natural part of life and, in an appropriate fashion, is reasonable to address in a coming-of-age story. But to have child actresses dance more provocatively than many women in music videos crossed the line and ruined the film for me.

Shaming this movie for what it depicts it's like blaming a thermometer because it says we have fever. This is just a picture of our horrible reality.

The story is the story of the mother, not the daughter. Yet, at a certain point somebody decided that sexing up very young women would make it a way better movie. I simply don't get French cinematography in the last two decades. So many movies who lack a plot, but are very concerned with the sex lives of people 6 to 16.

As for empowering women, this is the precise opposite. It simply plays the role of the abusive old woman who would cut the clitoris off the young woman if she were from East Africa instead of West Africa. It is about keeping women in their place, obedient and voila! you get bliss.