The saga of controversial French coming-of-age drama Cuties continues to roll on, and if Netflix hadn’t released an incredibly tasteless poster to publicize the upcoming debut of their newest acquisition, then the movie would have probably just been quietly dropped onto the streaming service to little fanfare.
Instead, the company have issued a public apology for their PR mistake, and Cuties has gained only negative headlines as petitions have been launched to have it removed from the schedule, with a social media movement also encouraging customers to cancel their subscriptions entirely. This clearly wasn’t what Netflix had in mind when they picked up the award-winning drama, and with the movie still set to arrive next Wednesday, if the furor doesn’t die down, then there’s every chance it could yet end up being pulled.
Tessa Thompson defended Cuties while also criticizing the questionable marketing tactics, only to be attacked by Twitter users for her opinion, even though the Thor: Ragnarok star has seen it in full and the people hurling abuse in her direction have not. Director Maimouna Doucoure, meanwhile, admitted that she’d been getting death threats despite having nothing to do with the poster, which is definitely not what the young filmmaker had envisaged when she picked up the Directing Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
Now, in further bad news for Netflix, the Turkish government has ordered that Cuties be blocked in the country, after the broadcasting watchdog flagged it for censorship reasons. And something tells us they won’t be the only one to do so.
Whoever designed and approved the poster will no doubt be fearing for their job at the moment, as the acclaimed drama has inadvertently turned out to be an absolute lightning rod for controversy. Let’s just hope this all dies down soon and doesn’t negatively impact Doucoure’s career.