OK, I just watched the trailer for Les Mignonnes. It looks like a coming of age film centered around a group of girls in a poor immigrant neighborhood, focused mainly on the disconnect one girl experiences between her religious Sudanese family and the European culture she's trying to integrate into.
The dance bits and the shopping for sexy clothes seemed to be simply plot points and certainly not the focus of the film.
The Netflix trailer is exactly the same- I mean, it's the same trailer.
Based on the trailer, this looks to me like a film about girls trying to navigate the transition into puberty and womanhood. The movie was made by a woman, and the story is told from the point of view of the kids- but as adults, we look at this and are scandalized by behavior we, as adults, encourage at the same time.
I mean, how horrifying (for the very same reasons) is American pageant culture? Does anybody remember seeing the clip of JonBenet Ramsay singing "Do you want to touch me?"
The reality is that girls that age don't yet understand sexuality, but are starting to realize that it is a useful tool in their arsenal. At the same time, there are adults (and older kids) perfectly willing to take advantage of that naiveté and budding sex drive.
That this film portrays that experience in an unflinching manner should be lauded. A quick perusal of youtube clips mentioning Cuties seems to be nothing but a ton of sanctimonious slams against Hollywood libertines- never mind that it's a film made halfway across the world from Los Angeles.
I agree that it's a difficult subject, but at the same time, it's real. from what I can see, it isn't promoting pedophilia at all- in fact, shining light on the subject does just the opposite. That said, yeah, a 50 year old man going to watch this by himself has a skeeviness factor to it. I'm not too likely to watch it, but mainly because I hardly watch anything on TV at all.
Personally, I'd lump this in with films like Beasts Of No Nation or Johnny Mad Dog in spotlighting how terrible we are as adults at creating safe environments for kids.
