I watched the video and I feel like he's done what everyone who has gotten angry has done and taken the dance clips to use them as rage bait and critique. Like I said above the way the scenes were shot were to purposely make people uncomfortable. I don't completely agree with the choice of casting but this is also not the first time children have been cast to play in movies with sensitive material. If the director, parents, and crew made sure the children were comfortable and explained to them what they would be doing then that is the child's and parents choice to go ahead with filming.
I think its disingenuous to only use the dance clips to critique the film when so much of the commentary comes from how the girls end up in those situations. The only clip outside dancing that he showed was the religious meeting and nothing else that sets up the story and I think that's probably what annoys me the most about the critiques of the film. I do agree there is some merit in being angry about the girls age and the dances they are doing but I also find it odd that if people find them so disgusting then why are they spreading the scenes if not just for rage bait?
It is just weird to demand Netflix remove content because its inappropriate but then re-post it yourself to other sites.
I understand where people are coming from on the age thing I really do, but at the same time it just reminds me of the controversy around this video:
People were so angry that young girls were cursing and talking about such serious topics. There was questions on whether or not the girls knew what they were saying, how could parents let their kids be in a video like this, why the creators couldn't have used older girls, etc. But missed the entirety of what the girls were saying about how if you truly want to protect girls then you should be changing the dangers of society that harm them. That is the same thing Cuties is doing and once again people are focusing on the girls age and getting mad instead of receiving the message to change the things about society that leads young girls into these situations. People focus on the elements of these medias meant to shock them and not the messages they deliver.
As I said before if the director, staff, and parents explain to the girls what type of film they'll be making and the girl and parents went ahead with filming that's their choice. Children are more capable of understanding topics and wanting to make a difference than we give them credit for as adults but we'll say the adults are using them no matter what. Heck Greta Thunberg is a teenager and is perfectly knowledgeable about her activism but people accuse her of being a puppet to her parents.
There's also former child celebrities like Mara Wilson (Matilda) who are calling out people's (mostly politicians) reaction to the film as hypocritical because they say they are concerned for children but are not listening to victims like herself of predatory sexualization as a young star. Basically, what i'm trying to say is the attack that the girls in the film need to be protected is a deflection of adults taking actual responsibility.
If you really want to stop child sex trafficking and sexual exploitation don't go after Netflix go after Pornhub which has routinely posted child porn and made money from it while the victims begged them to take it down, reduce homelessness of lgbt youth b/c a lot of them turn to prostitution after being kicked out, hold social media sites accountable for hosting cp and being vessels for traffickers to find and sell youths.
So I get where you are coming from but I just think focusing on the girls age and not what the film was pointing out is wrong with society misses the point and is just a deflection of actually putting in the work to truly protect girls. Also, sorry this is so freaking long lmao
...you said girls that age are innocent and normally don't understand what is going on and that it is hinted at in several scenes in the movie. So you are going against that point now? That these girls knew what they were getting into just because some adults may've explained it to them. The main point is that this is an exploitation of those girls, even if what they were doing was explained to them. These girls were not being protected in the slightest and I take issue with any pedophilic content that is out there, not just this film.
The scenes are meant to make us feel uncomfortable? But they are definitely a pedophiles dream...so what does that do for protecting these girls? As I said, a lot of the commentary videos came from people who didn't fully watch the film, but Wubby did watch the film. Which is why I trust his judgment a little more on the matter, but I'm not going to watch the film myself and endorse something like this? Normalizing pedophilia is fucked and if kids are dumb and ignorant at the age of 18 and unable to make smart choices, what makes you think that these girls are able to do that?
I'm sorry, but its exploitation-plain and simple. No matter how you slice it and these girls were the victims of it as were multiple children celebrities, not just the actress who played Matilda. I can't remember his name, but I know a young man was also a victim to this shit and tried speaking out about Hollywood's pedophile issue in the past.
This movie may have a message but it's also a pedophiles dream and there is nothing stopping it from getting into the hands of pedophiles and we have no idea if these girls will be protected in the end because the fact that this was filmed, edited, produced, and released alone tells me they weren't protected.
I can't believe people are out here calling this art-no offense. I also made a point and have seen others do the same but this film is essentially the equivalents of saying you want to show how messed up animal abuse is and then you go and film yourself actually abusing animals to show how bad it is...you can't preach against pedophilia and children's safety being the message of this film and then go and film this movie.