If you were lucky enough to attend Sundance this year, you might have watched “Cuties,” a coming-of-age film about a young girl rebelling against her conservative family by joining her neighbor’s dance group. Based on that description, and the acclaim the film received from the festival, you’d probably be excited to check out “Cuties” when it debuts on Netflix on September 9. However, if you didn’t know about the film’s history or the acclaim, then when you saw the poster for cuties and the description of the film on Netflix, you might have been a bit concerned by the content.
The trailer for “Cuties” was just released, accompanied by a new poster for the film and an official synopsis on Netflix. Unfortunately, that poster and synopsis went viral on social media for all the wrong reasons, as people saw the image of 11-year-old girls in scantily clad clothing and a description of the group as a “twerking dance crew.” This led to many people calling the movie “disgusting” and “gross,” especially with the rating of TV-MA, making it appear that the film is not meant for children due to its content.
Needless to say, the people who reacted that way weren’t mad at Maïmouna Doucouré’s film but instead, at the way Netflix decided to market the feature. And as such, Netflix has formally apologized.
In a statement, Netflix said, “We’re deeply sorry for the inappropriate artwork that we used for ‘Cuties.’ It was not OK, nor was it representative of this French film which premiered at Sundance. We’ve now updated the pictures and description.”
As mentioned, the film debuted at Sundance and received acclaim and the 2020 Directing Award. And as people pointed out on social media, the difference in how the movie was marketed in France versus the US is pretty telling:
Hopefully, the terrible marketing decision doesn’t detract from the feature, which is well worth your time, as we pointed out in our review from earlier this year. As mentioned, “Cuties” is set to arrive on Netflix on September 9.
