Last month, streaming giant Netflix was forced to issue an apology following the poor promotion of a French movie called Cuties, which was scheduled to drop on September 9.
You can check out the trailer for Cuties below:Prior to the movie's release on the platform, Netflix US decided to tease audiences into watching the movie by attaching the following synopsis:
"Amy, 11, becomes fascinated with a twerking dance crew. Hoping to join them, she starts to explore her femininity, defying her family's traditions."
This ill-thought-out description was also accompanied by a movie poster that many argued "sexualized" the film's young cast:
Needless to say, Netflix US did a horrendous job in selling the coming-of-age movie to its subscribers, which is unfortunate because the film - which was written and directed by Maïmouna Doucouré - received an outpouring of positive reviews at the 2019 Sundance movie festival, and even won Doucouré the Jury Award for Directing (World Cinema Dramatic).
In fact, it is worth pointing out that the poster used to advertise the movie to the US audience is drastically different from the one used for international audiences (below):
Following the backlash, Netflix US apologized for the inappropriate material used to advertise the movie, writing on Twitter:
"We're deeply sorry for the inappropriate artwork that we used for Mignonnes/Cuties. It was not OK, nor was it representative of this French film which won an award at Sundance. We’ve now updated the pictures and description."
They even updated the movie's synopsis on their platform to better explain the meaning behind the film:
"Eleven-year-old Amy starts to rebel against her conservative family's traditions when she becomes fascinated with a free-spirited dance crew."
However, despite probably hoping that the heat would die down following the movie's release three days ago, the hashtags "#CancelNetflix" and "#CutiesNetflix" have continued to trend on Twitter, with many Netflix customers canceling their subscriptions:
Sharing a screenshot of her cancelation confirmation, one Twitter user wrote: "Despite global condemnation, Netflix still went ahead & released CUTIES! Yup, now we have soft core Pedo Porn on a mainstream media platform. Thats a deal breaker for me. Cant do much but what i can do is Cancel my Netflix subscription, maybe YOU SHOULD TOO! #cutiesnetflix"
However, despite the outcry to have the movie removed from the platform, Netflix is standing by the movies an the values it claims to portray, which it says makes a statement about the pressures young girls face growing up, in particular, surrounding female sexuality and social media.
In a statement to Variety, a Netflix spokesperson said:
"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."
In addition, Richard Brody of The New Yorker said that Netflix did themselves a disservice in the way they chose to promote the movie.
Brody also stated: "It’s children, especially poor and nonwhite children, who are deprived of the resources - the education, the emotional support, the open family discussion — to put sexualized media and pop culture into perspective."
No matter what you think of the movie (also, maybe try watching it before jumping on the cancel bandwagon), it seems that Netflix is standing by Doucouré and her movie.
