#Médina El Aidi-Azouni

[adamwatchesmovies]

Cuties (2020)

The controversy surrounding Cuties (French: Mignonnes) is doubly-frustrating. Firstly, Netflix shouldn't have advertised it like it did. Secondly, because it threatens to turn audiences away from this nuanced and emotional coming-of-age story filled with excellent performances.

Eleven-year-old immigrant Amy (Fathia Youssouf) is often left on her own while her mother Mariam (Maïmouna Gueye) deals with her two younger brothers and absent father. At school, she spots a group of disobedient girls called “The Cuties”. They dress like the women they see in music videos and are obsessed with an upcoming dance competition. In her quest to fit in with them, Amy grows increasingly distant from her family.

French writer/director Maïmouna Doucouré (in a spectacular debut) knows what she’s doing because she draws from real life. Amy’s new friends Angelica (Médina El Aidi-Azouni), Coumba (Esther Gohourou), Jess (Ilanah Cami-Goursolas), and Yasmine (Myriam Hamma) are only imitating what they see other women do. Is it their fault music videos so frequently zoom in on belly buttons, breasts, and arched backs? What did you expect them to do? Cuties deliberately makes you uncomfortable with long shots that show them practicing their moves as they prepare for the big show. It’s so creepy I kept thinking the police were going to barge in and arrest me. That’s the point.

And then suddenly the girls pause their obsession with adulthood. They giggle as they theorize how babies are made, have gummy bear-eating competitions, and demonstrate the importance of friendship by sharing their insecurities. You get a glimpse of what their childhood SHOULD be like. It’s not their fault they’re dressing and acting inappropriately. They don't know better, which makes you think long and hard about what responsibilities we have towards this next generation of women.

Like we’ve seen so often before, Amy’s misbehavior is caused by what’s happening at home. Her strict Muslim aunt whose little comments about what society expects of women, the lack of supervision, and more than anything else, her absent father’s actions. You so desperately want Amy to turn out OK but she keeps making all of these bad decisions and mistakes. Hopefully, she learns from them in time. If not, you don’t know what you’ll do.

The performances are so natural Cuties often feels more like a documentary than a drama. All the details are perfect. The jokes the girls tell, the way bullying is portrayed, the way they react to big issues, or ignore them completely because they’re too young to understand what’s happening. It’s addressing the issues we face here and now but this story is universal. It'll remain truthful even after we finally figure out at what age it’s appropriate to give kids smartphones and internet access.

Maïmouna Doucouré has made a film that's often uncomfortable and difficult to watch. Trust in it. Stick with it. In the end, the emotions converge, and Cuties leaves you enlightened and elated while still melancholic. This one will be hard to forget. (Original French version, September 9, 2020)

[moviemosaics]

Cuties

directed by Maïmouna Doucouré, 2020

[pocoyoterrorism]

[whatamigonnawatchtoday]

Mignonnes (Cuties)

2020. Coming of age Comedy Drama

By Maïmouna Doucouré

Starring: Fathia Youssouf, Médina El Aidi-Azouni, Esther Gohourou, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas, Myriam Hamma, Demba Diaw, MaÏmouna Gueye, Mbissine Thérèse Diop, Mamadou Samaké, Bilel Chegrani, Jean-Paul Castro...

Country: France

Language: French

[futuri-newhd]

Cuties (2020) คิวตี้ สาวน้อยนักเต้น

https://is.gd/DXzxpU

หนังซับไทย, หนังดราม่า, หนังตลก

2020, Cuties (2020) คิวตี้ สาวน้อยนักเต้น, Esther Gohourou, Fathia Youssouf, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas, Maïmouna Doucouré, Médina El Aidi-Azouni, Myriam Hamma

[moviethaihd]

Cuties (2020) คิวตี้ สาวน้อยนักเต้น

https://is.gd/dnVs59

หนังซับไทย, หนังดราม่า, หนังตลก

2020, Cuties (2020) คิวตี้ สาวน้อยนักเต้น, Esther Gohourou, Fathia Youssouf, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas, Maïmouna Doucouré, Médina El Aidi-Azouni, Myriam Hamma, สิงหาคม 2020

[genevieveetguy]

Cuties (Mignonnes), Maïmouna Doucouré (2020)

[tctmp]

Drama

[doomonfilm]

DOOMonFILM : Cuties (2020), Léon: The Professional (1994) and the Revolution of Desire

Cuties (2020)  directed by Maïmouna Doucouré written by Maïmouna Doucouré starring Fathia Youssouf, Médina El Aidi-Azouni, Esther Gohourou, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas and Maïmouna Gueye trailer : https://youtu.be/M0O7lLe4SmA 

Léon: The Professional (1994) directed by Luc Besson written by Luc Besson starring Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman and Danny Aiello trailer : https://youtu.be/jawVxq1Iyl0

[pocoyoterrorism]

[chicagoindiecritics]

New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: MOVIE REVIEW: Cuties (Migonnes)

(Image courtesy of Netflix)

CUTIES (MIGONNES)— 3 STARS

For this critic, there are two telling scenes among many that stand out in Migonnes, now better known as Cuties, that typify its challenge and its caution. They are not among the headlining, fire-branded clips of its maligned Netflix marketing. Nevertheless, the jarring tension is ever-present.

In a scene in the first half of the award-winning French film, one of the central 11-year-old girls finds an open and very likely used condom in a public park. She doesn’t know what it is and inflates it to create a pretend boob to impress her friends for laughs. One of her peers immediately stops her and explains in quick fashion the disgustingness of what she’s touching. The puffed-up confidence in the initial girl is quickly erased with mortification. In a reply of shock and embarrassment, all she could muster to say was “How was I supposed to know that. It’s not my fault I didn’t know what it was.”

No, young lady, it sure wasn’t your fault. Scenes like that one and many others completely devoid of adult supervision, positive influences, and honest coming-of-age education typify in a dramatized fashion the challenges and dangers of gender definitions, self-image, sexual freedom, and dozens more that often engulf teenagers. Cuties is a movie that 

The second scene comes later. Moving like a moth to deadly fire all movie long, our main character Amy, a Senegalese Muslim immigrant to France played with bracing emotion by Fathia Youssouf, has fully embraced the devil-may-care lifestyle of a local clique of fellow girls that call themselves “The Cuties.” In trying to earn attention and prove her presumed worth for their shared dance competition goals, Amy has lashed out and committed acts that even the hardcore original Cuties define as wrong and too far. They kick Amy out of the group and it enrages her further.

That was a telling turning point. For the wildest girls that throw caution to the wind, even they had their limits and lines in the sand. It is very likely that their collective limits will exceed those of the domestic audiences watching this film at far earlier moments than this late collapse. If even reading those two scenes is too much, welcome again to challenge and caution. That is the honest reality examined by Maïmouna Doucouré’s film. 

To rewind, Amy comes from a transitioning household of poverty and tradition. Her mother Mariam (Maïmouna Gueye) is raising three children alone while hurt internally by the move of her children’s father to take another wife and exit the parental picture. Mariam’s anger creates a wavering seesaw between despondency and strictness where the differing religious and cultural implications loom large in Cuties. 

LESSON #1: HOW TO BECOME A WOMAN— Amy’s familial elders insist on teaching her how to be a woman, which on some level entails preparing food, remaining clothed and pius from external evils, and maintaining a demure personality of complete obedience. Who deems that to be the right or wrong way to that adulthood? Is that fair and free femininity? How often does that forced ideal create oppression and objectification instead of true freedom and, most of all, choice. Where is that correct benchmark? Welcome again to challenge and caution.

LESSON #2: THE WRONG FRIENDS ARE THE WRONG INFLUENCE— Compared to the rigidity at home, The Cuties, led by an accommodating apartment neighbor named Angelica (Médina El Aidi-Azouni), look attractive and fascinating to Amy. The truth is they are plastic bullies who are ruthless and rule-less with little to no social boundaries. Initial silliness quickly turns more deviant. Their peer pressure first against Amy and then to later include her is sexualized with taboo mischief and attention-seeking thirst for male crushes. Those aren’t good friend choices, but a lonely and jaded newcomer like Amy doesn’t see that or know better.

LESSON #3: THE ACT OF EMULATION— What these girls are superficially pretending to be with their fashion choices, body image, language, and behavior is a warped theory of what their unguided and uninformed selves think a superior woman needs to be. The ease of digital access to adult content shows these youths that the more a woman is sexualized, the more successful they are. The rest is emulation not all that far removed from girls in the 1980s channeling an attitude and practicing Madonna’s bold dance moves as a chance for self-expression. Content choices and ratings notwithstanding, dancing counts as engagement and skill-building practice with choreographic detail. Could dancers use that skill for better things? Of course, but in Cuties who or what is there to offer alternatives?

LESSON #4: THE INVASIVE DANGERS OF SOCIAL MEDIA— Back then, the audience for your little MTV concert was yourself in a mirror or, at most, a slumber party group of your besties. Today, it’s the wide-open and unfiltered outlets of social media like TikTok or Instagram on an internet crawling with privacy-invading eyes and predatory presences. The risks are exponentially worse. You are watching, but who else is? How secure is your privacy and, for that matter, your dignity or innocence? Welcome again to challenge and caution. 

The film does not discount such dangers in the slightest, quite the opposite in fact. For a film that rarely leaves the shell-shocked and world-absorbing face of Youssouf, the increasing and desperate failures from her difficult situations and culture clash confusion flesh out a valuable and compelling tale of staunch social warnings. There are lines between provocation and expression. Cuties is far more the latter than the former.

If your ruffled feathers ask what kind of monster could make what the rumors say this movie is, pause that fear-mongering to watch and listen to the filmmaker herself. Maïmouna Doucouré, winner of the directing award for World Cinema at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, researched this for a year-and-a-half. She is your essential perspective and necessary context. This is not my lifestyle to judge nor yours. Projecting your ideal here of what is explicit or exploitative is out of place in allowing her to tell her story. It’s pure and rank bias when you do that.

LESSON #5: WHAT ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO DO ABOUT IT— When it comes to Cuties, if you don’t like what you see of these errant kids left to their own wiles and devices, your gut is accurate and working. If its imagery bothers you, it’s supposed to. Check your gaze and your privilege. Now, look past the fictional take and target the very valid and present potential problem in our own settings and lives off the Netflix couch. If you don’t want that, prevent it with education. If you don’t want those sexualized elements to be goals, don’t make them so appealing and desirable to the uninformed. Adjust those expectations or create better ones. Shake your head, change your stance to empathy and honesty, and act accordingly to our daughters and children. Get there and you have made it precisely to the point that is being hammered home.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#908)

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[floatingbook]

Maybe do some research and don't just trust Netflix short and misleading synopsis? I haven't seen it because it hasn't come out in France yet, but it's a french film written and directed by a French woman, Maïmouna Doucouré. From the interviews I have see on tv, it a film about growing up as a young teenage girl in a poor and religious neighbourhood in France, on dealing with increasing sexualisation of girls, especially through social media. The young actresses said that they had realised how sexualised they were and how important it was not to grow up too fast; the director seemed to hope that it would provoke a prise de conscience on this hypersexualisation of young girls in France, as well as the hardships of navigating between an ultra-liberalized society and strict religious traditions in the home.

Taken from Wikipedia: "Eleven year old immigrant girl Amy (Fathia Youssouf), originally hailing from Senegal lives with her mother Mariam (Maïmouna Gueye) in one of the Paris poorest neighbourhoods in an apartment along with her two younger brothers awaiting for her father to rejoin the family from Senegal. Things turn swiftly as Amy is fascinated by a disobedient neighbour Angelica's (Médina El Aidi-Azouni) free spirited dance clique called Cuties, a hiphop troupe which has contrasting fortunes and characteristics to Mariam's traditional customs, values and traditions."

Maybe don't rush to smother all dialogue just because some men misunderstood the plot of a film? Isn't it established that Netflix sucks at presenting synopsis? Should subjects like hypersexualisation, feminicides, rape, homophobia, not be dealt with in movies just because some perverts or homophobes or wife-beaters might show up in the cinema and be turned on? Are we to stay silent?

And for your information, here is the French poster for the film: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/96/Cuties_poster.jpg

😐

[filmstopia]

Cuties (Original title : Mignonnes) – Official trailer 2020 – Netflix

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/RZbdGI

Cuties (Original title : Mignonnes) – Official trailer 2020 – Netflix

Amy, an 11-year-old girl, joins a group of dancers named "the cuties" at school, and rapidly grows aware of her burgeoning femininity - upsetting her mother and her values in the process. Directed by: Maïmouna Doucouré Cast: Fathia Youssouf, Médina El Aidi-Azouni, Esther Gohourou

[tellusepisode]

Cuties (2020)

Opening at September 9, 2020 on Netflix

“Mignonnes”

Comedy, Drama |

Eleven-year-old Amy starts to rebel against her conservative family’s traditions when she becomes fascinated with a free-spirited dance crew.

Available on Netflix September 9.

Director: Maïmouna Doucouré

Writer: Maïmouna Doucouré

Stars: Fathia Youssouf, Médina El Aidi-Azouni, Esther Gohourou, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas, Myriam Hamma, Maïmouna Gueye, Mbissine Thérèse Diop

►Cast

Fathia Youssouf…Amy (as Fathia Youssouf Abdillahi)Médina El Aidi-Azouni…Angelica (as Medina El Aidi)Esther Gohourou…CoumbaIlanah Cami-Goursolas…JessMyriam Hamma…YasmineMaïmouna Gueye…MariamMbissine Thérèse Diop…La tanteDemba Diaw…IsmaëlMamadou Samaké…SambaBilel Chegrani…Walid C.Canelle Brival…Sweety SwagJean-Paul Castro…Frère AngelicaHakim Ferhi…Vigile laser-game 1Michael Perez…Vigile laser-game 2Bass Dhem…El HadjToma Roche…Présentateur concoursNathalie Afferie…La CPE (as Nathalie Afferri)Séverine Ragé…La prof de mathsMalcolm Mathias…Elève compasThierno Sadou Diallo…Bébé MariamJade Ciette Jocolas…Doublure AmyZakaria Sylla…Doublure bébéSamba Diarra…Doublure bébéGeorgia Martin…Doublure Yasmine canalDjibril Trabelsi…Garçon parcThéo Ganame…Garçon parcMorgan Freguin…Garçon parcHakim Faris…Surveillant collègeNouamen Maâmar…Jury concoursLinda Ben Lakhdar…Jury concoursStéphanie Boucher…Jury concoursSylvia Zegrour…Caissière supermarchéDalila Abdi…Mère YasmineAssa Gassama…Prêcheuse taalim (voice)Ibrahima Doucouré…Voix exorcisme (voice)Mélinda Hassani…Enfant jeuEliott Melin…Elève récréationCoumba Doucouré…Seconde femme drap blancVincent Vidal…Copain Walid C.James Adam Tucker…El Hadj (voice)

The post Cuties (2020) first appeared on TellUsEpisode.net.

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[specialchan]

Opinion on "cuties" via /r/islam

Opinion on "cuties"

I stole this part from wikipedia, but it summarizes the show

Eleven year old immigrant girl Amy (Fathia Youssouf), originally hailing from Senegal, lives with her mother Mariam (Maïmouna Gueye) in one of Paris's poorest neighbourhoods in an apartment along with her two younger brothers awaiting for her father to rejoin the family from Senegal. Things turn swiftly as Amy is fascinated by her disobedient neighbour Angelica's (Médina El Aidi-Azouni) twerking clique called Cuties, an adult-style dance troupe which has contrasting fortunes and characteristics to Mariam's traditional customs, values and traditions.

I was wondering what y'all thought of the show?

Submitted August 20, 2020 at 07:20PM by popeshayman via reddit https://ift.tt/34iCUNS