Online Series: CUTIES netflix

[ORRFForever]

I've never considered watching it. Not for any moral reason, although it proved to be the high ground given the controversy, but because it just seems UN-interesting.

If they would just let the movie disappear, like all movies disappear, the world would be a better place.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I've never considered watching it. Not for any reason, although that proved to be the high ground once I heard about the controversy, but because it just seems UN-interesting.

If they would just let the movie disappear, like all movies disappear, the world would be a better place.

I'm all for people who know they'll be offended to refrain from watching it (bonus points if it contributes to their moral superiority). Now if the same people, after not watching it, would refrain from commenting the film, it would disappear a lot faster.

 

[ORRFForever]

I'm all for people who know they'll be offended to refrain from watching it (bonus points if it contributes to their moral superiority). Now if the same people, after not watching it, would refrain from commenting the film, it would disappear a lot faster.

 

[bleedblue1223]

I'd have to dig in but I remember some teenaged series + movies being far more graphic. I found Cuties weird and not particularly effective but it's not really graphic. It's cringy (both purposefully and sometimes sheerly due to lack of talent from the filmmakers) more than anything else.

And the whole reason it became notorious was because of the obvious bait that Netflix did on it's marketing. They manufactured all the outrage to get the clicks. A show like Toddlers and Tiaras should cause way more of an issue. Even if people want to criticize the parents of the child actors in this movie, the parents involved in the real stuff like that are way worse IMO or how TikTok is being used.

 

[Osprey]

I'd have to dig in but I remember some teenaged series + movies being far more graphic.

Euphoria (HBO series last year) is probably the most recent. That was rather controversial because it portrayed high school students getting naked, having sex (even being raped), using drugs and harming themselves. As far as I know, though, all of the actors were over 18, which is often the case with the edgier high school dramas, so there isn't the same exploitation argument. I still found the series rather disgusting, but at least I knew that the actors were of age. That's not the case with Cuties, in which the actresses are clearly pre-teens. It's a whole lot tamer, but also feels rather different than shows and movies in which 18-28yos are playing sexed-up teens.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Euphoria (HBO series last year) is probably the most recent. That was rather controversial because it portrayed high school students getting naked, having sex (even being raped), using drugs and harming themselves. AFAIK, though, all of the actors were over 18, which is often the case with the edgier high school dramas, so there isn't the same exploitation argument. I still found the series rather disgusting, but at least I knew that the actors were of age. That's not the case with Cuties, in which the actresses are clearly pre-teens. It's whole lot tamer, but it's also a lot different than all of the shows and movies in which 18-25yos are playing sexed-up teens, IMO.

Yeah, that's the sort of shit I had in mind (although I have never watched Euphoria) but as for the rest of your post, I mean, I get it, but then what? You never make a movie about the subject? Whatever we may think about art as a public service, the truth is it's a lot accessible and palatable than an academic paper. I'm not familiar with Netflix's advertising campaign (which may very well be worthy of criticism but also is not really the business or department of the filmmakers) and I only became aware of the film after the outrage had already been produced.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Euphoria (HBO series last year) is probably the most recent. That was rather controversial because it portrayed high school students getting naked, having sex (even being raped), using drugs and harming themselves. AFAIK, though, all of the actors were over 18, which is often the case with the edgier high school dramas, so there isn't the same exploitation argument. I still found the series rather disgusting, but at least I knew that the actors were of age. That's not the case with Cuties, in which the actresses are clearly pre-teens. It's whole lot tamer, but it's also a lot different than all of the shows and movies in which 18-25yos are playing sexed-up teens, IMO.

Yeah, it's hard to view a lot of the shows like that as being a big problem when you know all the actors and actresses are in their mid 20s. That's also the argument for why a movie that really wants to make it's point that over-sexualization is a bad thing has to use actors of the correct age. That's why I feel they could've done without a lot of the cringey moments and avoided the reasonable backlash.

 

[holy]

Yeah, that's the sort of shit I had in mind (although I have never watched Euphoria) but as for the rest of your post, I mean, I get it, but then what? You never make a movie about the subject? Whatever we may think about art as a public service, the truth is it's a lot accessible and palatable than an academic paper. I'm not familiar with Netflix's advertising campaign (which may very well be worthy of criticism but also is not really the business or department of the filmmakers) and I only became aware of the film after the outrage had already been produced.

The subject is fine, the execution is what people are pissed about. It feeds into the feeling that people get that the ‘art superseding every other facet of life’ crowd are lowkey creeps who don’t understand boundaries. Not helped by people like the co founder of Sundance being a child sex abuser.

Kids do all sorts of inappropriate shit with each other. Doesn’t mean it should be visualized and documented by grown ass adults for mass consumption by other grown ass adults.

 

[kihei]

Such as? I may just be out of the loop, but I feel like there have not been many scandalous films out the last few years.

There have been a few this decade that would qualify that I can think of:

A Serbian Film (2010) You don't want to know
Nymphomaniac (2013) and The House That Jack Built (2018), both by Lars von Trier: The former for unsimulated sex, cruelty to women, and a rather in-your-face abortion scene; the latter for cruelty to children, a decapitated breast and a duckling that gets one leg cut off (swims in circles).
Love (2015) by Gaspar Noe: lots of unsimulated sex and, to top it off, a penis ejaculating in 3D. Now that's a movie with a real climax.
I Love You, Daddy (2017) by Louis C. K.: combination of the story line (17 year old girl with 68 year old guy} and general ill-will to Louis for his creepy sexuality.

Haven't seen them, but I guessing that one or more Human Centipede movies might fit the bill, too.

 

[ORRFForever]

Kids do all sorts of inappropriate shit with each other. Doesn’t mean it should be visualized and documented by grown ass adults for mass consumption by other grown ass adults.

Well said.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

The subject is fine, the execution is what people are pissed about. It feeds into the feeling that people get that the ‘art superseding every other facet of life’ crowd are lowkey creeps who don’t understand boundaries. Not helped by people like the co founder of Sundance being a child sex abuser.

Kids do all sorts of inappropriate shit with each other. Doesn’t mean it should be visualized and documented by grown ass adults for mass consumption by other grown ass adults.

Have you seen it? I certainly wouldn't call it an art film. It's conventional as hell. I also have no idea what the co-founder of Sundance, whoever he is, has to do with this movie and why I should care in relation to this french film. I just don't see your gripe. The film doesn't celebrate its sexualization at all. You can criticize for going about in an clumsy or hacky way about it but I think casting malevolent opinions about it to the makers of the film doesn't hold up, at least to me. I'm also not sure what the adult gripe is about. Is an 11 year-old suppose to direct this film? I don't think the film will change much of anything at all, but if it can help educate, shake up some misguided adults, why is that bad? I could be wrong, but I'm really getting the sense that you have a far more graphic idea of what the movie is like than how it actually is.

 

[Ceremony]

Good thread, this.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Lol bruh you can’t read, that ain’t my fault. Acting like you don’t know what Sundance has to do with anything, I’m not going to go over the most basic of premises with you.

Your carbon copy Domestic Violence (sick name btw) already proved he can’t research worth a damn and had to stop, now you come pick up his slack and expect me to keep repeating myself? I know you art buffs love yammering on but it’s not really my style.

That co-founder of Sundance you mentioned is some pedophile who works in Mormon filmmaking (lol) and hasn't been involved with Sundance in...27 years. What am I supposed to do? Stretch out a non-existing link to indulge some dumb stereotypes of artists having no moral when it's in the name of art? Because a couple of idiots are to go on that tangent, whether artist or recipient, I have to take it seriously? That's absurd. There's no link between that guy, Netflix and even less, modern French cinema. You made that absurd point. Why did you do so? Every horrible deed made by someone involved in art should extend to everybody else across all eras?

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Yeah, Domestic Violence had to step away because I didn't understand what the point was here... You haven't seen the film (you skimmered through to get to the twerking scene), and bleedblue doesn't seem to have a serious problem with it, he just likes to endorse other people's points and then let them go.

So basically, the problem became the intellectuals, the art buffs, the French, and that guy who cofounded Sundance. Nothing much to do with the film.

Which isn't that, you know, more problematic than actually sitting down and watching the film?

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

What are you saying about me here?

That I couldn't follow through with you. Maybe it's my English that's too weak, just couldn't get where you were going... No worry, I don't think you were ill-intented at all.

 

[bleedblue1223]

That I couldn't follow through with you. Maybe it's my English that's too weak, just couldn't get where you were going... No worry, I don't think you were ill-intented at all.

Fair enough. For the record the post I liked, that you are probably alluding to, I liked it because the movie was very shallow in my view. If it was a real critique on the culture, it would show how adults in our society encourage this behavior, but I didn't really see adults in the film do that. I think what the film set out to do was great, but I don't think it was very effective at it, and I think the way it went about doing it in some ways wasn't good either.

 

[holy]

(second time that song/username gets me fire from dump rap fans)

Dump rap fans, eh? At least make sure your insults make sense.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Fair enough. For the record the post I liked, that you are probably alluding to, I liked it because the movie was very shallow in my view. If it was a real critique on the culture, it would show how adults in our society encourage this behavior, but I didn't really see adults in the film do that. I think what the film set out to do was great, but I don't think it was very effective at it, and I think the way it went about doing it in some ways wasn't good either.

I think the phone she steals from her cousin (?) is shown as a facilitator, the adults responsible for the dance contest too. The adults in her life are shown as opponents to that problem only to point to another one: her rigid traditional upbringing. That's where this film is brilliant to me. You have the obvious problem (oversexualization of kids) that's used to brush a wider and really pertinent portrait of the whole problem: these kids are stuck between two worlds, one too permissive and one too rigid, and both are taking their childhood from them. It was gutsy to go for the twerking scene, but I think it's even more to make this parallel, as I posted before elsewhere, the shot with the two dresses might have lacked in subtelty, but it drove the point home.

 

[Jussi]

When did I say I skipped to the twerking scenes? I got through the whole movie, sub par plot and all. Don’t speak so ill on my name unless you really want the smoke.

And yeah it seems regular people were for the most part upset with the objectification of young girls. The kind of people who post on the entertainment section of a hockey forum seem to not have a problem with it, which isn’t really shocking.

One of you is named Domestic Violence and the other gets off on reading Live Laugh Love articles that upset him. You guys aren’t normal. You are special.

Considering this is based on the directors own life experiences, you're basically saying her experiences we're sub par... What's next, criticizing Schindler's List of unrealistic plot?

 

[Jussi]

I think the phone she steals from her cousin (?) is shown as a facilitator, the adults responsible for the dance contest too. The adults in her life are shown as opponents to that problem only to point to another one: her rigid traditional upbringing. That's where this film is brilliant to me. You have the obvious problem (oversexualization of kids) that's used to brush a wider and really pertinent portrait of the whole problem: these kids are stuck between two worlds, one too permissive and one too rigid, and both are taking their childhood from them. It was gutsy to go for the twerking scene, but I think it's even more to make this parallel, as I posted before elsewhere, the shot with the two dresses might have lacked in subtelty, but it drove the point home.

I think the biggest plus of this movie was the emotional reward Amy got with her mother at the end. Her mother got upset with her to the point of slapping her, yet after Amy realizes what she's doing, her mother is there with open arms hugging and loving her.

 

[GKJ]

Folks,

Let's try to keep things on-point here and try to keep this open, given the content of the movie may not be that wholesome.