okay ppl are annoying me and some hentai artist who prolly didn’t see the fuckin movie decided to make ‘commentary’ abt it so i’m sitting down and watching cuties bc every bitch under the sun except a black woman has said smth abt it. this will be my spam thread

so first thing’s first: the director worked with a child psychologist on set (source: https://www.indiewire.com/2020/09/cuties-director-netflix-defend-film-child-pornography-claims-1234585763/amp/)

i’m coming in this as neutrally as possible but it’s hard to not feel some type of way when Literally Everyone who’s been the loudest abt shitting on this movie is not a black woman. but i’m open minded, maybe i will understand the backlash once the credits roll. idk

anyways to the movie

spoilers obviously

within the first minute we see the star of the movie crying with flashing spotlights in the bg. i’m guess this is setting the tone

we see the main character (don’t know her name yet) doing things like drawing, cutting cardboard, making her bed. it looks like she drew a family portrait and displayed it on her sheets

she’s chasing her younger brother and playing with him. it looks like they might’ve just moved into a house.

her name is amy btw. the little brother is ismaël. their mother is mariam

ah, she’s muslim

tangent but the hentai artist is crying abt how they can’t be taken seriously so they deleted the post. el oh fuckin el

oh wow, this lady is basically saying that you (as a woman) must follow allah’s word to a t bc ‘there will be many more women than men in hell’. okay

amy is looking like “um nah” ajfjwmfjsmfjsn

okay, she’s seeing this girl in a crop top and leather pants dancing to reggaeton and doing laundry. right after hearing that “evil dwells in the bodies of uncovered women”

i. why is this girl ironing her hair *cringes in thick, 4c*

amy got caught and ran away ahfjsjhfsn

oh, the bed she was making @ the beginning of the movie was her mom’s. mariam didn’t even pay attention to the cute lil display she worked hard on when she got into bed… she just brushed it off. i felt that

oh man, she tried copying that girl ironing her hair and burned it. she has really pretty hair

okay so i’m guessing the ‘cuties’ are the four girls wearing mini skirts/dresses (one is named yasmin). the leader is the girl from the laundry room

okay so far:

amy and her mom were washing up and she asked abt her father. her mother was clearly a bit… disgruntled (?) and said he’s coming ‘soon’
amy was dancing in her mom’s room w her shirt pulled up and knotted
she couldn’t take the knot out in time so she dove under the

bed and overhears her mom say that her husband has taken a second wife and is in senegal rn
the husband is going to come back w his new wife…

mariam is sobbing and hitting herself while she’s calling ppl and telling them the news. amy is crying under the bed

she’s @ the store and she sees the cuties running and playing around in the store

she was spying on them dancing and they hit her w a rock

first opinion incoming

so far, i’m seeing them dancing and dressing the way they do when they’re supposed to be 11, and i’m thinking about how this just looks like some shit off of toddlers and tiars but like. slightly older. i’ve seen more ppl trash this movie than i’ve even seen ppl trash that shit

ever**

not just t&t, but… any young girl group that’s supposed to appeal to adults. Yet I Don’t See That Getting Backlash.

inb4 this is the same thing, here’s different bc it’s not ‘real’ in the sense that these girls are are filling a role, while the real life equivalent is

real-er?? dunno how to say it djksfjjsjfsk ignore me

she stole her little brother’s shirt so that it’ll be a crop top. some guy saw her and she immediately covered herself

uhhhhh is that her dad? he looks kinda young compared to her mom so it didn’t register.

anyways she stole his phone. he got her a dress

OH THATS HER COUSIN MY BAD. also the clothes are for the dad’s wedding. yikes

she walked past the cuties @ school and three of them started bullying her. flashbacks to being 11 and being bullied by girls in tighter clothes :’)

tangent but i actually had a convo yesterday w my mom abt how she’s worried abt my niece and how she wears clothes that fit her bc

she doesn’t want her to be sexualized. it makes sense why she insisted on dressing me in super childish/baggy clothes up until i started dressing myself.

it also explains why i rebelled so hard and started dressing like a hoe when i was an older teen LMAO

i keep pausing to talk shit and i’m barely 20 minutes into the movie. shutting the fuck up bow (prolly not)

OKAY the ‘leader’ is angelica. she just stole some guy’s wet shirt and ran into amy’s apartment

amy has discovered the front facing camera and is taking pictures. she’s using an app to put makeup on herself

oh god were they watching porn in the bathroom?

now they’re daring amy to take a picture of this guy’s penis

okay amy and angelica are hanging out and she just locked her little brother in the bathroom after giving him candy ahfjwifekissk

they snuck into the spare bedroom and man, it’s so pretty. now they’re eating gummy bears and playing in the bed. their age is showing a lot

they watched a video of some girls dancing to reggaeton music in shorts and crop tops and one of them flashed the camera. amy and angelica look mesmerized

oh they’re a rival dance group!! they look way older than the cuties tho. still underaged but older

also that video was posted online by them.

my prediction is that these girls are gonna try to stand out by being as ‘sexy’ and explicit as possible? man

lmaooooooooo ismaël flooded the bathtub bc he “made a swimming pool”

i guess moments like this are supposed to juxtapose the more sexual scenes to really unsettle the viewer. really drilling in that these are 6th graders

okay angelica put some of her lipgloss on amy and is making her take off her jacket to show off her ‘dope’ croptop

that dance scene was really awkward bc they’re like 11 and 11 year olds all move stiff as fuck. there was also a funny moment when amy first started filming bc she didn’t know how to switch the camera

okay thoughts so far (i’m abt 1/3rd thru the movie)

- it’s beautifully shot
- the dialogue is realistic enough to make me believe that these girls are actually 11 (they’re all 14 irl minus one, who is 12)
- i’m noticing a flip flop of sorts between the sexualized scenes and

scenes depicting them as actually being children. a nice touch
- in a way amy is relatable bc i too wanted to be like the cool girls who dressed nice when i was 11. i wanna scoop them all up and protect them from how gross the world is

back to the movie. jess and coumba just body shamed amy for being flat

amy is watching the recording of them dance and trying to learn it

she skipped prayer to watch a reggaeton video w half naked women w fat asses dancing

oh she has ass envy now. man

OOP her dad wanted to talk to her on the phone and she dropped it (purposely) out the window. felt that

they got approached by older boys and all of them said they were 14 except for amy, who blew their cover. man

“kim kardashian is my mom”

oh ew is couma blowing up a used condom she found??

IT WAS OH MY GOD

THE GIRLS ARE FREAKING OUT AND SO AM I EW

i love how immediately after they tried to lie to get w cute, older boys coumba found a used condom and blew it up bc she didn’t know condoms could be pink

they’re scrubbing her mouth out with soap in hopes that she doesn’t get aids/it disinfects her mouth oh my god

they were all video chatting w angelica’s crush and they wrote smth explicit to him, but yasmin turned the camera on and the boy was disgusted and told her to go ‘play with her dolls’. everyone got mad @ yasmin (angelica even threw her laptop on the floor

okay amy got the moves down now

OH so that’s why amy is dancing instead of yasmin

okay it’s dinner time i’ll resume watching after

WE BACK LETS GO

amy teaching them to dance sexy is equal parts uncomfortable and hilarious and 100% of it is bc of how stiff they are. there’s this ultra sexy song in the bg and they’re tryna like body roll and pop their back but it’s juxtaposed by them being so stiff and looking so young

their youthful looks just makes them look stiffer bc all i can see are toddlers who watched a music video and are trying to imitate the dancing

y’all are prolly tired of me laughing @ how awkward they’re dancing but YALL this is sending me. why do kids move so stiff

also yeah this scene has a lot of shots of their buts so it adds to the discomfort levels

OH as the scene goes on they get less and less stiff but the camera shots make them look hella small

amy’s teaching them how to bite their finger and this is the juxtaposition part!! bc everyone else looks so goofy and awkward

they were practicing their posing and everyone collapsed on top of each other and they’re laughing and enjoying life

i’m close to halfway through the movie by now and i can tell that the sexualizing is gonna escalate the closer to the end it gets, but i’m thinking about that one tweet listing off all the inappropriate shots in this movie (have been since the beginning) and i don’t wanna jinx

myself but imma say it anyway: with how badly netflix fucked up promoting the movie, i feel like ppl watched this and hyper analyzed every shot that could be deemed inappropriate. which is kinda weird bc they completely missed the point and sexualized little girls more than

the movie itself. i’m willing to retract this statement if it gets REAL bad but that doesn’t dunk on my point since ppl acted like all the sexualized shots happened from the moment the movie began.

anyways back to the movie

i really like angelica and amy’s friendship. amy is braiding their hair together rn and it reminded me that i never took the chance to talk abt how sweet they are i’ve been reading too many tragedies lately but if this were supposed to be anymore sad her character would def be

the one to die by the end of the movie. she’s been super nice to amy since day one

anyways back to the movie

“i’ve been dancing since i was little” - angie

that’s kinda scary but also this is the case for a lot of little girls unfortunately

ooh, she’s telling amy abt how she never sees her parents bc they’re always working. that answers the “wHeRe ArE hEr PaReNtS” question

angie just wants to make her parents proud so she dances………

this scene is making me so sad… angie is talking abt how her parents always tell her she’s a horrible daughter, how she dreams that her parents will go to see her dance and tell her that they’re proud of her, and how that she heard that if you dream smth 3 times it’ll come true

this scene hits so hard after the dancing bc it really shows how young she is. angie just wants to be liked by everyone (which explains why she lashed out @ yasmin the way she did) and make her parents proud

OOP amy said she dreams that her father never comes back. felt that

she had to get up early to ‘be taught how to be a woman’

aka cooking the food for her father’s wedding

i thought amy was having a bad dream for a sec bc the dress she’s gonna wear @ her father’s wedding was bleeding and she missed the dance thingy, but it was foreshadowing bc she got her period for the first time

her mom came in the room, looked @ her, and went “you’re a woman now” and just walked out

they’re @ laser tag rn the cinematography is *chef’s kiss*

you never go wrong w a black light and dark skin. it’s also some more juxtaposition after they auditioned and amy ‘became a woman’

they git caught by a security guard and he was trying to call their parents and they lied and said they were orphans. then when amy tried to walk away and he grabbed her they accused him of being a pedophile LMAO

his friend came in asking what the fuss was abt and they said he was a trying to grope them. they got a text informing them that they got into the finals tho!!

guard 2: i’m calling the cops
jess: you can’t call the cops!
angie: we’re dancers! if you call the cops we won’t be able to make it to the finals
guard 2: *mockingly* heyyyyy i’m a dancer too!!
jess: *looks @ him up and down* …you should diet

I HAD TO PAUSE TO LAUGH AT THIS

this is the second time jess has told someone they should diet and she was also the one who started laughing @ ami for being flat. it’s not the focus of the movie but that’s a nice subtle thing to throw in abt how young girls obsess over body image. lord knows i got bullied to

hell and back for not being stick thin like everyone else :’)

anyways back to the movie

to prove that they were dancers ami started dancing, then everyone else started dancing w her. guard 2 was definitely checking ami out… but they let them go.

i noticed that the girls were dancing kinda stiff again, prolly to drive home that they’re still little girls

the scene after that they recorded themselves dancing to post online. everyone has makeup on, the clothes are kinda scandalous. there were some crotch and butt shots, but @ one point amy stumbled on the stairs and they paused and laughed before continuing

the video got A LOT of love and it’s obvious that it’s going to amy’s head

wow she came to school with makeup on, a small v cut crop top, leather leggings, HER HAIR IS DOWN????

it’s funny bc there’s a girl in the back wearing a crop top as well and she looks much more age and school appropriate than amy. she’s also prolly a year or two older

juxtaposition AGAIN bc amy is dressed so inappropriately while angie, coumba, and jess are dressed appropriately for once

mtl dressed appropriate in this scene:

coumba, angie, jess, amy

usually it’s amy, jess, angie, and coumba

amy got in a fight w one of the girls in the rival group and she pulled amy’s pants down.

ik ppl were pearl clutching @ this especially but… when you go to school in the hood this is not uncommon @ all LMAO. ghetto girls fight to the death and they‘re not afraid to rip clothes

deadass i met up w my middle school besties pre covid and oke of them was reminiscing about how these two girls started fighting (in 6th grade mind u) and one of the girls ripped the girl’s shirt AND bra and exposed her to everyone. have these ppl ever seen a ghetto fight??

every time amy looks @ the dress she’s wearing to the wedding there’s something wrong with it, and as the movie progressed it got more and more absurd. at first it kept knocking in the closet door, then it bled, just now it was breathing

okay, i was WAITING for this scene!!!

the girls are running after having went underwear shopping and they’re tossing their new purchases in the air, there’s confetti being tossed, they’re wearing cute bras and panties over their clothes. they look SO carefree!!

THE MUSIC IS SO

OMINOUS AND DEPRESSING!! it’s an operatic piece that sounds downright DREADFUL

this is shot in slowmo and honestly it’s beautiful. w/o context it looks like a bunch of girls enjoying a day out in town. it was so easy to just go w a happy sounding song but they didn’t. kudos

there’s a closeup of angie’s colored hair extensions and panties going up in the air, and amy’s little bro picking up everyone’s underwear and putting it in a bag

these scene gets better tho

there’s now a closeup of everyone dancing and biting their lip/finger, playing in their hair, etc. the song got even more dreadful sounding

wow. fucking wow

forgot to mention it earlier but amy stole money from her mother. this is now important

mariam saw ismaël playing w a tou and is asking where he got is from. amy lied but ismaël told mariam the truth. she’s trying to deny it tho

OH MY GOD

so the rival group took a photo of amy’s underwear and published it, and they became the laughing stock around school. in the middle of a facetime w angie amy’s cousin saw her w his phone and demanded it back. amy started getting undressed and her cousin pushed her

away like “wtf”. they then fought over the phone for a bit, but amy got it back when she bit him and ran in the bathroom and locked herself in there.

while she was in there, she snapped a picture of her underwear and posted it online to prove that she wasn’t a little girl like

everyone is saying.

the next day @ school as she was walking up to the board this guy slapped her on the ass, the teacher immediately called him out and he and amy started arguing. he called her a slut twice and then she took someone’s pen and stabbed him in the hand

her mother was just going off on her abt her behavior recently and… instead of being worried abt HER she’s worried abt what her father and new wife might think…

now amy is getting holy water tossed on her and she started panting and dancing

now everyone is mad @ her bc she posted that nude and ruined the girls’ image

a preacher just came and sat next to her and started praying. when he talked to her mother he assured her that she could leave her marriage and that there’s not evil spirit or devil in amy

none of the girls wanna be friends with amy anymore except for angelica, and even then she’ll only be friendly when they’re not around. they accepted yasmin back. it’s implied that yasmin has an ed now??

amy skipped the wedding to dance, and she pushed yasmin into the river to

take her place

their outfits are super skimpy but the makeup and hair is cute. angie is trying to get the other girls to accept amy so that they can dance together on stage

oh my god

they’re dancing on stage and getting booed bc of how sexual the dance/song is. and now amy is having s breakdown on stage

she completely froze up and started crying bc all she can hear is her mother singing in wolof

that was the scene’s juxtaposition!! the girls weren’t stiff @ all and the camera shots were VERY uncomfortable, but amy ran away mid dance and went back home

and here’s some parallelism!!

when she came home from having stabbed her classmate for calling her a slut she had on a bustier type crop top and a pencil skirt. her mother was chewing her out but her auntie intervened

she ran back from the competition wearing makeup, a tiny ass crop top, and hot pants and while her auntie is chewing her out for ‘dressing like a whore’,her mom just intervened using the same words auntie said to her (“leave her alone”)

she had a touching moment w her mother and she told amy she didn’t have to go to the wedding. amy asked her not to go before hand but she went

and after ALL of that, amy is wearing age appropriate clothes and jumping rope w some girls outside the apartment. she has her hair down her clothes are tighter than they were @ the very beginning of the movie, but she looks so happy

the final shot reminds me of the scene where she was running w the other girls after going lingerie shopping. it’s a slowmo type of shot but the camera is panning up and going high, but no matter how high it goes you still see amy’s face when she jumps, and she looks so happy

AAAAAAAAND END MOVIE

rant incoming

cuties deserves literally NONE of the fucking backlash it got. absolutely none of it. people really made it seem like there was t and a and v in this movie and there was NONE!! one older girl flashed her tit for two seconds and that was IT!!!

some fuckin weirdo even said there

was a 5 year old girl using a toy on herself in front of a camera and that all the ‘cuties’ started camming?? why the FUCK would you lie about that?? do y’all really hate black women that fucking much?? you people can never allow a marginalized person to succeed without accusing

them of being a fucking pedophile. did the butt and crotch shots make you uncomfortable? THAT WAS THE FUCKING POINT YOU DUMBASS!! it was very obvious that this movie was commentary on how y’all need to stop sexualizing young girls and instead of shutting the fuck up and using

your dead brain for more than five minutes you decided to attack and meme and deface this fucking film. it’s not even a NeTfLiX oRiGiNaL, this film won awards before netflix picked it up!! you lot are uneducated swine who would rather react for clout instead of actually THINKING

this is the opposite of the way lolita got treated. a white man writes a book from the pov of a pedophile as a critique of pedophiles and ppl misinterpret his shit as a romance. a black woman directs a film critiquing the way society sexualizes young girls and ppl say it enables

pedophilia. un-fuckin- believable. except it’s totally fucking believable because everyone hates successful black women. i hope everyone who speaks ill on cuties rots, this movie is beautiful and it hit so many nails on the head with my experience growing up a black girl in a

society that sexualizes my (and other girls who looks like me) very existence and the many issues i’ve come to face as a young girl

with the subject matter this movie addressed, it could’ve gone so south so quickly but it managed not to, as well as touching on other issues such as eating disorders, strained relationships with parents, etc. cuties is so good