Cuties

Cuties is a French drama movie written and directed by Maïmouna Doucouré. The movie follows Amy, who becomes fascinated by the dancing of her teenage neighbour, and how this interest clashes with her families strict, traditional values.

The movie goes by the name Mignonnes in French-speaking territories.

Summary
"Eleven-year-old Amy lives with her mom, Mariam, and younger brother, awaiting her father to rejoin the family from Senegal. Amy is fascinated by disobedient neighbor Angelica’s free-spirited dance clique, a group that stands in sharp contrast to stoic Mariam’s deeply held traditional values. Undeterred by the girls’ initial brutal dismissal and eager to escape her family’s simmering dysfunction, Amy, through an ignited awareness of her burgeoning femininity, propels the group to enthusiastically embrace an increasingly sensual dance routine, sparking the girls’ hope to twerk their way to stardom at a local dance contest."

- Netflix Press Release

Plot
Amy, an 11-year-old immigrant girl from Senegal, lives with her mother Mariam and two younger brothers in an apartment in one of Paris's poorest neighborhoods. She helplessly witnesses her mother suffer as her polygynous husband prepares to return with a second wife. She is also bored with salah and Islamic culture in general that her aunt seeks to impress on her.

Things turn swiftly as Amy is fascinated by her disobedient neighbor Angelica's twerking clique, "Cuties", which is in stark contrast to Mariam's religious customs. The pre-teens practice for a competition and do not hesitate to adopt revealing outfits in the image of their older competitors. Encouraged by success and the quest for recognition on social networks, Amy decides to incorporate sexually suggestive dance moves into the choreography.

Following a humiliation at school where she gets pantsed during a public scuffle, Amy steals her uncle's phone and sends a photo of her vulva online to a sharing network, causing her to be ostracized. The Cuties also ban her from performing with them at the dance contest, and subsequently gets replaced with former member Yasmine. Her mother also scolds her.

While her father's wedding day corresponds the finale at the Parc de la Villette, she is determined to dance with them, and sneaks out of the house. She pushes Yasmine into a canal (but stops after seeing Yasmin splashing in the water and almost drowning), so the Cuties have no choice but to allow her to dance with them. The highly suggestive dance routine shocks the audience. Suddenly thinking about her mother during the routine, Amy bursts into tears and leaves before their performance ends.

Upon her return, she runs into her aunt who blames her for her outfit and recent attitude. Amy's mother intervenes by telling her to leave her daughter alone and then hugs her to reassure her. Amy implores her mother to allow Amy to not attend the wedding, in order to demonstrate her disapproval. Amy's mother permits her not to go, but states that she herself must go to fulfill her duty as a wife. Amy then abandons both the traditional wedding dress and her sexy dancer's outfit, and, in jeans and a T-shirt, her hair down, she goes out to play jump rope with a group of girls.

Cast and Characters

 * Fathia Youssouf as Amy
 * Médina El Aidi-Azouni as Angelica
 * Esther Gohourou as Coumba
 * Ilanah Cami-Goursolas as Jess
 * Myriam Hamma as Yasmine
 * Maïmouna Gueye as Mariam
 * Mbissine Thérèse Diop as La tante
 * Demba Diaw as Ismaël
 * Mamadou Samaké as Samba
 * Bilel Chegrani as Walid C.
 * Canelle Brival as Sweety Swag
 * Jean-Paul Castro as Frère Angelica

Controversy
While receiving generally positive reviews from critics for its ambition and acting as well as receiving accolades, it became a subject of controversy, starting from Netflix's initial promotional poster that was widely considered inappropriate. The film received polarizing reviews from audiences following its release on Netflix, due in part to sexually suggestive scenes involving the child actors. Cases of review bombs and subscription cancellations surged, emboldened by the hashtag #CancelNetflix, though Netflix has defended the film.

It has also been noted that there was a decrease in renewals to Netflix, likely due to the film. The days after the film's release saw an eight times increase in the number of cancellations of Netflix subscriptions than typical, reaching "a multi-year high", according to data analytics companies Antenna and YipitData. Research firm 7Park Data noted that the surge in Netflix cancellations died down within a week of the initial uproar.

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