There has been a lot of controversies against Netflix for the French film Cuties. A lot of people took Netflix’s comment section by storm to stop streaming a film that portrays children inappropriately but no strict legal action was taken until now. This also led to the trending hashtag #CancelNetflix on social media.
Cuties is a French film about an 11-year-old girl named Amy who joins a group of dancers at her school called “the cuties”. It was released on Netflix on 9th September. The film won the World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award at Sundance this year, but its promotion has been embroiled in controversy.
Now, this matter has been dragged to the criminal court in Texas. The grand jury handed up the indictment and Netflix is charged with the promotion of “lewd visual material depicted by children.” Allegedly, Netflix promoted visuals which depict the lewd exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child who was younger than 18 years of age at the time the visual material was created, which appeals to the prurient interest in sex, and has no serious, literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
Even though the dark powerful clouds of controversies and criminal cases surround Netflix, it still defends the film by calling it “a powerful story about the pressure young girls face on social media and from society while growing up.”
The Cuties controversy has sparked a debate between two groups of critics who have different views on this movie. One group calls it a “depiction of sexual exploitation of pre-teens,” while the other group is saying that it “promotes paedophilia.”
Now we have to see if Netflix is convicted or not. Even if it gets convicted, no one will go to jail but they will probably have to pay heavy fines. In this world where we are trying to talk openly about everything that was considered a taboo before, we need to decide whether this film is a “bold depiction” or just an “inappropriate attempt” to gain the attention of the audience.
You can watch Cuties here, or read our review here.