The point of the movie -- which I think Doucouré knew would be controversial but didn't realize how controversial -- is that none of the cultures Amy lives in knows how to deal with teen girls, they all view her with some degree of disgust and contempt
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The problem is that no one else sees it that way, especially adult men What she was aiming for was to trigger that polarized reaction, which she wants to critique -- which she put onscreen in the form of the two security guards
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Either the outraged, shouting "This is TRASH!" from Guard #1 or the leering, drooling "This is traaaash" from Guard #2 But either way it's a dehumanizing reaction, it's letting the "HOLY SHIT TEEN SEX" scandalousness override any feeling of empathy you had for the girls
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(And I guess the controversial thing it's saying, which the people angriest at the film would angrily deny, is that Guard #1 hates/disrespects the girls as much as Guard #2 does That the impulse to "GET THAT SHIT AWAY FROM ME" precludes actually empathizing or helping)
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I dunno It may well be that this movie just shouldn't exist, because inevitably the provocative scenes will be taken out of context and shared as clips (a real and legitimate concern, like I've said repeatedly)
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And it may be that I'm primed to be more sympathetic to Doucouré's choices because of all the people saying the movie is worthless garbage and obviously just "softcore porn" or titillating sexploitation like a true-crime story
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I think there's a good argument this movie shouldn't be on Netflix, that it should be harder to get to -- the kind of movie that in the old days only got released in festivals and small screenings, that today maybe should only be on a niche subscription service for "art films"
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Hell maybe they should just have screenings for women only or whatever, maybe I as an adult man shouldn't be one of the people allowed to see it because it's not for me I'm fine with all of those arguments, honestly, I remain a lot like Guard #1 in my reaction to it
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But I do get Doucouré, I think, as someone who was damaged similarly by a repressive conservative culture, and who's pretty fucking pissed that the religious conservatives are riding this moral panic to another victory in the culture wars I totally get why she did it this way
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One of the reasons the moral guardians came after her for being a degenerate was her saying in early press for this movie that her feelings remained "mixed" about this issue That this movie was partly a response to her mom, who is still the mom in this movie
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That *still* at the age of 35 her mom calls her up and gives her shit about not wearing hijab, about wearing skirts that are too short, about "dressing like a whore" She wouldn't say this, but I do get the feeling this movie is a big "FUCK YOU MOM, THIS IS WHAT IT WAS LIKE"
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Like she's about my age and we didn't have TikTok and smartphones and so forth when we were Amy's age But even so, there was some fucking shit going down among preteens in the 90s You just want to shake them and say "You didn't protect me from jack fucking shit"
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The scene where Amy is fucking practicing twerking when she's supposed to be praying and nobody can tell because her hijab covers her whole body Which people called needless blasphemy and trolling No, it's the whole point of the whole movie in one visual metaphor
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End of conversation
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