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These Movie Reviews Called Netflix’s Cuties ‘Extraordinary,’ ‘Powerful,’ ‘Provocative’

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• Multiple film reviews have praised Netflix’s newly released “Cuties” despite backlash on social media.
• “Cuties,” released Wednesday, not only includes many close up shots of little girl’s crotches and buttocks, but also depicts them viewing pornography and discussing sexual acts and shows one girl photographing her genitalia, among other explicit scenes.
• Netflix defended the film in a statement, saying: “Cuties is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children.”

A number of media outlets have written positive reviews of Netflix’s newly released “Cuties,” though the film has been heavily criticized on social media.

“Cuties” not only includes many close up shots of little girl’s crotches and buttocks, but also depicts them viewing pornography and discussing sexual acts and shows one girl photographing her genitalia, among other explicit scenes, a review by the Daily Caller News Foundation found.

Netflix defended the film in a statement to the DCNF late Thursday evening, saying: “Cuties is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children.”

“It’s an award winning film and a powerful story about the pressure young girls face on social media and from society more generally growing up – and we’d encourage anyone who cares about these important issues to watch the movie,” a Netflix spokeswoman said.

A slew of film reviews have also defended the film, calling it “provocative,” “powerful,” “extraordinary,” and emphasizing film director Maimouna Doucouré’s assertion that the film is a critique of the hyper-sexualization of young girls.

“Cuties” is “this month’s must watch,” according to the Daily Beast’s Laura Bradley. USA Today’s Carly Mallenbaum wrote that “Cuties” confronts “the horrid reality of how accessible imagery and videos can negatively impact children.”

“Forget the moral panic – Netflix’s controversial French import is disturbing and risqué because that’s exactly what it aims to be,” wrote film critic Tim Robey in a review for the Telegraph calling the movie “a provocative powder-keg for an age terrified of child sexuality.”

The New Yorker’s Richard Brody referenced Netflix’s initial posters for the film which Netflix removed after backlash, saying they were not representative of the film. A DCNF review of the film found that this statement was inaccurate: the posters closely resemble the actual dancing that occurs in “Cuties” during the final dance scene.

“The promotional image, showing young girls in bikini-like clothing dancing in provocative ways, matched with an inaccurate description, has been taken to suggest that the film celebrates children’s sexualized behavior,” Brody wrote. “In fact, the subject of the film is exactly the opposite: it dramatizes the difficulties of growing up female in a sexualized and commercialized media culture.”

Other movie reviewers also suggested that critics of “Cuties” would change their minds if they watched the film.

“The people freaking out about ‘Cuties’ should try it,” Alyssa Rosenberg wrote for the Washington Post. “They might find a lot to like.”

The Rolling Stones’s David Fear also referred to the poster incident as “a major marketing mistake,” saying that the posters caused “Cuties” to be “accused of sexualizing girls.”

“Out of context, the girls’ outfits look questionably flashy and trashy,” he writes, adding that “seen in context, as the costumes for a hip-hop dance troupe competing for a grand prize, you understand how they function in regards to a bigger-picture message that Doucouré is trying to get across.”

The Independent’s Clemence Michallon acknowledges that the poster is representative of the film, contrary to Netflix’s statement: “The image does, in fact, reflect a specific scene in the film,” she writes. “But without context, and without director Maïmouna Doucouré’s skilled storytelling, it fatally fails to reflect the essence of Cuties.”

Contributor Scott Mendelson mocked conservative outry over the movie in a review for Forbes.

“Now that I’ve seen the movie, the online outcry over Maïmouna Doucouré’s Cuties, which finally debut on Netflix this morning, was as absurd, overblown and inaccurate as you’d probably expect,” he wrote.

“‘Cuties’ deserves better than it got from Netflix — and from those who condemned it sight unseen,” wrote Justin Chang for the Los Angeles Times.

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