So I watched Cuties: a thread.

Is it a pedo movie? Or a social commentary against the sexualization of young children?

The movie will definitely appeal to pedos as there are plenty of scenes of 11 year old girls twerking and twisting with gratuitous camera shots lingering and zooming in on their bodies. However was that intention? Or is it actually a social commentary against what it portrays?

No.

Though it tries to be, but fails. The aimless meandering art house style of the movie doesn't fit with the supposed intention of the film. You may be surprised to hear that a movie about society's sexualization of young girls requires... society to sexualize young girls.

However, every single authority figure in the movie that would represent some aspect of "societal authority" is 100% against the young girls sexualizing themselves. The only people that approve the young girls actions are other people their age.

There are no scenes of the main character looking around her world, seeing movies, tv, and social media, filled with images of scantily clad women twerking, and so she emulates it in a misguided attempt at womanhood. Unable to understand why it's okay for older women and not her.

In fact it's the opposite. The main character has to seek out on her own, and search for a handful of videos of older girls dancing provocatively And she does this on a phone she STOLE from someone else. She was not even given access to the media by socially approved methods.

The only big influence we see on her life is her Islamic upbringing. Perhaps there could be a message about how extreme repression could lead to going too far in the other direction, but that theme is not flushed out in the film either. So what is the movie about than?

A young girl part of a repressive culture sees a group of classmates rebelling against society by dressing too sexually provocative for their age and acting obnoxious, and she wants in because it looks fun. If anything that's really what the movie is about. Rebellion.

And if it's about rebelling from society, that means society is against their actions. Which means the story inherently cannot function as a critique, claiming society pushes this on young girls, when the movie shows the literal opposite.

This feels like a failure from the creators part to properly write the story she wanted to tell. It's as if she had in her mind the idea of just filming young girls copying the sexual provocative dances you would see in something like WAP, and that imagery alone would be enough

to prompt the viewer to question, "is this really what we want to teach our daughters?" Perhaps that critique would work if it wasn't a movie, and simply just a series of music videos replaced with young girls. However this IS a movie. And story surrounding the scenes of dancing

not only do not fit the idea of the social commentary, they seem to go counter to it.

There was lots of potentially interesting ideas to explore in the story. Child generally rebel in order to feel as if there are more independent from their parents. They seek to be adults.

So it would make sense for a young girl going through puberty to emulate what she views as "adult" behavior in an attempt to be an adult.

There is a scene in the movie where the protagonist is helping her mom by grocery shopping and watching her young brother and the baby.

Then she sees the "cutie" squad acting very childish, playing, and screaming, in the same store. At that moment the protagonist is more mature and closer to adulthood, compared to the irresponsible childish "cutie" squad, despite them dressing more "adult."

The irony of the protagonist actually acting MORE mature before she decides to dress and act sexual. (And completely ignores any responsibility she has as member of her family) Combined with the irony that the group of girls "playing" at being slutty have no concept of what

there are doing, which makes them appear more immature, more childlike, to everyone else. Thus pushing them away from their goal of growing up.

However this idea is never explored. Nothing of real interest in the movie is ever explored. The movie is actually incredibly boring.

At the end, the protagonist changes her way from being a raging asshole, and seems to go back to being a normal kid. Though the reasons for her change are not fleshed out or explained. She just does. Seemingly no lesson is learned.

Though I will say the acting was all around very good. It's too bad it was in service to nothing interesting.

Beyond the acting, as to why anyone would heap praise on to this movie I cannot say.

So that's what Cuties is. A boring, aimless, not well thought out, art house film about young girls rebelling against society. If not for the pedo controversy I doubt anyone would talk or care about it whatsoever.