Cuties somehow flew under my radar while I was at Sundance 2020. And after watching the film’s spirited new trailer, I regret that I missed out. This movie looks like it’s full of personality, style, and most importantly, heart. Now I get the impression that the film’s writer-director Maïmouna Doucouré is someone to watch out for.
Cuties (aka Mignonnes) is a French coming-of-age movie and filmmaker Doucouré’s feature debut. The story focuses on an eleven-year-old Senegalese-Muslim girl named Amy (Fathia Youssouf), who becomes enamoured by her neighbours’ dance clique. Take a look.
Cuties trailer:
Cuties tells the type of story we’ve watched many times before – a young and rebellious girl is torn between respecting her family’s antiquated values and being true to herself. The difference here is how Doucouré approaches the tale with such specificity that the movie crackles with vibrancy. Or so I’m assuming.
We’ve all been misled by trailers that don’t deliver on what the film they tease us with. But based on Cuties’ early buzz, I think this movie will deliver on the trailer’s promise. Cuties currently holds a respectable 82% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I can’t wait to finally catch this movie when it arrives on Netflix next month.
Cuties synopsis:
Eleven-year-old Amy lives with her mom, Mariam, and younger brother, awaiting her father to rejoin the family from Senegal. Amy is fascinated by disobedient neighbour Angelica’s free-spirited dance clique, a group that stands in sharp contrast to stoic Mariam’s deeply held traditional values. Undeterred by the girls’ initial brutal dismissal and eager to escape her family’s simmering dysfunction, Amy, through an ignited awareness of her burgeoning femininity, propels the group to enthusiastically embrace an increasingly sensual dance routine, sparking the girls’ hope to twerk their way to stardom at a local dance contest.
Cuties arrives on Netflix on September 09th, 2020.