I'm slightly uncomfortable with the level of hate people are directing at this film, even though it's mostly Netflix's marketing's fault The movie is a satire by a Senegalese-French woman and former refugee based on her experiences, and it's not pro-child sexualizationhttps://twitter.com/Independent/status/1296407318016532481 …
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(I know nobody clicks through anything these days, so here's a screenshot of the Rotten Tomatoes page The movie isn't saying the Cuties dance troupe is a good thing! It's saying it's FUCKED UP that this is the only "escape" she has from her horrible home life!)pic.twitter.com/7GDCihZF3C
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The problem is the whole problem with satire, of course -- how do you sell a movie like this without to some degree pretending to be what you're making fun of Going full Joke Explainer and turning the trailer into a lecture on what the point of the movie is usually doesn't work
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And, of course, you can't make a movie about young girls forming a twerking dance troupe without actually putting young girls in a twerking dance troupe This is what Richard Kelly said about SparkleMotion in Donnie Darko, that he *hated* having to cast and direct that part
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That it was important to put that element in Donnie Darko because it really was something about Hollywood he despised that made his skin crawl But that meant that for that part of the movie to *work* he had to cast actual tween girl dancers who were "credible" as such
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And interact with all the pushy stage moms who saw this movie as just an audition for their daughters' dance skills -- which it was, that was the whole benefit to being in the movie from their POV -- that he was trying to satirize and attack Huge moral headache for a director
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It sounds like Maïmouna Doucouré had positive intentions, and the people saying "Everyone behind this movie should be thrown in jail!" aren't helping the discourse But still, I dunno, it's a complicated questionhttps://www.cineuropa.org/en/interview/390968 …
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This is a raw topic after all the discussion of Shane Dawson and his shameless sexualization of his tween audience (which he defended as "satire") I think it matters that Maïmouna Doucouré is a woman herself, and this movie is rated TV-MA and not intended for children to watch
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Even so I admit I kind of cringe at the stuff the reviews say she had her actors do for the sake of the story (at one point one of the girls finds a used condom and blows it up like a balloon, not knowing what it is until too late)
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So I do feel like Netflix's marketing team stepped in it here by launching a campaign that feels so much like it just straightfowardly is what is being satirized (uplifting tween twerking crews as "empowering") But the concept is inherently problematic no matter what
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