So... I watched Cuties.
Anyone who tries to use the argument that this movie's message is that sexualizing children is wrong; respectfully, that's bullshit. This movie is steeped in the sexualization of young girls. It is glorified and celebrated.
There are constant closeup shots of the bodies of tween girls in skimpy outfits. Tween girls twerking; grinding on each other; humping each other; slapping each other's asses; miming fellatio. Tween girls lying about their ages to flirt with boys or talk dirty with boys on Omegle, and both times freaking out on the girl who exposes their true ages.
This movie has a scene where a tween girl gets caught using a phone she stole from her uncle, and begins to undress to seduce him into letting her keep it.
A scene where a tween girl posts a picture of her vagina on Instagram.
A scene where a girl blows up a used condom as you would a balloon, then sticks it in her shirt to pretend she has a huge rack.
A scene where a girl's leggings get pulled down during a fight, revealing her panties.
At one point, the main character gets called up to the front of the class to solve an equation on the board, and a boy slaps her ass, then says it's her fault for posting nudes online.
There is an entire music video featuring closeup shots of girls' boobs, butts and crotches while they twerk.
There's probably even more that I've left out because my brain is trying to block it out.
Aside from the constant barrage of child sexuality, this movie is also steeped in toxic femininity. Girls constantly bully each other and get into fist fights. We're meant to sympathize with these characters and want the protagonist to befriend them, but they're just so trashy and scummy.
From a technical standpoint, this movie was poorly edited. Scenes abruptly end and often don't flow into each other. The Cuties go from bullying the main character to being besties with her pretty much randomly because the editing is so choppy. There's no real ending. Poor sound mixing.
I feel like CAP Alert clutching my pearls over here, but this movie was seriously gross and I feel like I should be on a registry for watching this. If the true message really is supposed to be the dangers of sexualizing young girls, it's very muddled due to the pervy camera angles and shots of tween girls humping each other. This movie was made to titillate pedophiles and normalize children dressing/acting like whores, plain and simple.
