If the handwringing means that more journalists and critics cover the movie, which in turn leads to higher initial viewership, that might just be a happy ending for this frankly ridiculous situation.
#Netflix movie cooties movie#
The good news is that this controversy will likely be forgotten about in a matter of days, with the movie itself being allowed to speak for itself on September 9.
Come what may, if publicity was the goal, well, everyone is talking about Cuties. That this controversy involves a French Senegalese Black woman mining her experiences is another issue, namely that folks want diverse voices and then proclaim their stories problematic if those stories don’t line up with their own ideas, but I digress. This won’t help Netflix’s image as a safe place for diverse/inclusive content any more than their pattern of hyping up such shows ( One Day at a Time, Tuca & Bertie, Patriot Act) and then prematurely canceling them. Future filmmakers who might sell their small-scale, coming-of-age dramas and comedies to the streamer might want some kind of promise that it won’t be sold in a way to ignite a firestorm of controversy. That said, I imagine this kind of thing won’t become par for the course for Netflix acquisitions. But to what extent is Netflix responsible for those now inclined, even incentivized, to look at every image, every spoken word and every written word and interpret it in the worst possible way? It is indeed unfortunate that the small-scale coming-of-age story has become caught up in this frenzy, although it’s certainly not the first movie to be sold as something bawdier or tawdrier than it actually is. It’s just as likely that the film was initially sold in a way, at least in terms of the poster art (even a cursory glance at the 75-second trailer would have told folks what the movie actually was), that would have theoretically appealed to the Netflix subscribers who watch shows like Dance Moms (which is not on Netflix), their hit Cheer docuseries along with oodles of teen/college dance movies available on the service. That’s different than other “nicked-by-controversy” flicks like Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody’s Tully (which was wrongfully portrayed as being a farce unsympathetic to post-partum depression) or Damien Chazelle’s First Man (which got embroiled in an entirely fabricated controversy arguing that it contained no American flags). Because Netflix movies can be viewed anywhere, as opposed to a theater, it’ll be that much easier for the merely curious to sample the film versus making an explicit trip to the theater.
The cruel joke is that, with Netflix having apologized and removed the poster from their official materials, the backlash is arguably a raging success, as everyone is now talking about an otherwise obscure Sundance acquisition and the film is now “news.” I cannot say for certain whether the film will debut to higher viewership numbers when it drops on Netflix on September 9, but it can’t hurt.
#Netflix movie cooties license#
The notion of a girl’s coming-of-age need not be defined by boys and men who might see that as a license to do harm.
Once again, it’s up to girls to protect boys and men from their own uncontrollable libidos. Maybe, just maybe, Doucouré’s (a Black woman, by the way) feature is intended for young girls who themselves are coming to terms with their sexuality and/or their potentially discomforted parents. Parents Television Council president Tom Winter condemned the movie in a statement by saying “the only motivation” for producing such a film is “to sexualize children and to fuel the appetites of those who would feed on the sexualization of children.” If I may, that such a motive could be the “only” reason for making a movie focusing on young girls coming to terms with the sexuality says a lot.
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