Character page for the 2020 film Cuties.
open/close all folders
Amy's family
Amy Diop
- Played by: Fathia Yousouff
The film's protagonist, Amy is a Senegalese-French 11-year-old girl brought up by Muslim culture. She becomes interested in joining a dance club lead by girls her age - namely the Cuties - dedicated to twerking after witnessing her neighbor Angelica's dance moves. She becomes torn between traditional values and Internet culture at this point.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Amy starts out as the Cuties' punching bag, being ripped on them for her physical inferiority and nonconformity.
- Ambiguously Bi: She's shown attempting to seduce teenage boys along with the rest of the Cuties after joining them, but she has no problem filming the group performing sexual dance moves and even joining them in doing so, and also engages in suggestive physical contact with their behinds during the dance montages.
- Break the Cutie: Rather an ironic title given she's initially rejected by the Cuties. At the beginning of the movie, we see a close-up of Amy crying, and it gets worse from there on when it's revealed that her mother is struggling with a polygynous husbandnote . Then we see her suffer further pressure when she's relentlessly bullied by the Cuties for not living up to their expectations of culture. At the end of the movie, she's shown crying again before the dance contest even ends when a sudden drop of wedding confetti that was stuck in her hair triggers memories of her mother, making her realize she didn't have to conform to this Internet trend in the first place.
- Competition Freak: Her eagerness to perform in the dance competition reaches extremes as she resorts to unapologetically pushing Yasmine into the river to steal her spotlight.
- Corrupt the Cutie: Rather ironically since the corrupted "cutie" eventually becomes a "Cutie" herself. Once she discovers the edgy dance troupe, her mindset experiences a major change in morality as she begins to rebel against her aunt's beliefs regarding the evils of promiscuity. After developing a friendship with Angelica, Amy begins to conform to the Cuties' rituals by dressing in scantily clothing and incorporating sexually suggestive age-inappropriate dance moves into the choreography. She gains acceptance by the troupe, however she leaves them in the end after realizing she was being corrupted by them from the start, thereby deconstructing this trope.
- Cosmic Plaything: Throughout the whole movie, Amy the Troubled Child spends a majority of her screentime having to suffer the trauma of her mother having problems with a polygynous husband, is berated and subject to Corporal Punishment by her aunt for going against family traditions, gets mocked and bullied by the Cuties (on top of that, she has to go to school with a bruise on her forehead caused by Jess pelting her with a rock), only to realize that she went through all that All for Nothing in the end. The movie makes her suffer in various ways beyond her will.
- Crossdresser: Amy starts tying knots with her brother's t-shirts so they ride up like crop tops.
- Daddy Issues: Her father marrying another woman while still in a marriage with Miriam contributes to Amy's troubles.
- Disproportionate Retribution: She stabs a boy in the hand with a compass as retaliation against him smacking her butt in class. While what he did was wrong, Amy's resort to such violence was completely unjustified.
- Exact Eavesdropping: Amy hides under the bed to avoid getting caught wearing skimpy clothing, and overhears information about her father marrying a second woman while her mother is on the phone.
- Extreme Doormat: When she's being mocked by the Cuties, her only response is to remain silent rather than reporting the bullying to a nearby adult. And her constant victimization only furthers her desire to gain approval by the group.
- Fille Fatale: Amy adopts a precocious fashion sense in her striving to gain popularity among the Cuties.
- First Period Panic: Amy doesn't know how to react when she has her first menstruation. Her mother however tells her that it's a natural part of becoming a woman.
- Fish out of Water: Amy gains an interest in the titular Cuties dance group and is eager to join them, but she is mocked for her homely clothes and "flat butt," showing that she lacks experience in their culture. That is, until she makes an effort to dress more maturely (to say the least).
- Foil: Amy and Angelica bond over being neighbors who are similarly conformists of rituals. However, Amy's culture is Islamic while Angelica's is Internet popularity. In addition, Angelica is a sweet Genki Girl when she gets along with Amy, while Amy is a mellow Troubled Child. Until the ending, where Amy becomes just as cheerful as Angelica.
- Goofy Print Underwear: When Amy is pantsed by a gang of bullies on the schoolyard, she is revealed to be wearing underwear with depictions of lions.
- Hates Their Parent: After (accidentally) discovering that her father is marrying a second woman, Amy instantly develops a passionate grudge against him, going as far as to toss a phone out the window when his voice is heard on the phone. Justified as the news was causing Amy's mother grief too, and Amy was sticking up for her mother.
- Horrible Judge of Character: After her first encounter with the Cuties being a less-than-pleasant one and even being pelted with a rock by one of them when she tried eavesdropping on their routine, Amy still wants to befriend the Cuties in a twisted way of gaining approval, eventually conforming to their peer pressure.
- Karma Houdini: Despite all the abuse she receives both emotionally and physically, Amy faces no consequences for stealing money from her financially struggling mom, stabbing a boy in the hand with a compass, and nearly drowning Yasmine to take her place in the dance contest. At most she feels regret over her entire succumbing to peer pressure as evidenced by her visible tears during the contest.
- Lack of Empathy: Before the final dance-off, Amy carelessly shoves Yasmine into a river to steal her spotlight in the dance contest, nearly endangering her life as she can't swim. Amy shows no remorse beyond being slightly surprised, and just walks off to the contest with no concern for Yasmine's wellbeing, leaving her abandoned with no one to help her as she flails about in the canal.
- My God, What Have I Done?: For some reason, when a piece of wedding confetti that was stuck on her hair suddenly falls in front of her, it triggers this reaction from Amy during the dance competition, where she suddenly cries and becomes petrified in the middle of their dance routine, perhaps due to the realization that the audience was booing them or that she had abandoned an important family event just to dance—it's never made clear. As a result, she runs away from the competition altogether to go home.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Her full name is Aminata, but only her mother calls her that.
- Peer Pressure Makes You Evil: "Evil" might be too strong a word as she isn't even portrayed as a Villain Protagonist, but Amy does a lot of questionable or immoral things while trying to gain the approval of the Cuties, including stealing money from her mother, dressing in provocative clothes, and shoving Yasmine into a river to take her place in the dance competition.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: She steals her cousin's cellphone, some money from her mother, gets into a fight with the rival dance crew that she initiated (even if the other crew sort of started it by calling them names), and in one instance, she even gets away with nearly drowning Yasmine. And yet when other characters finally call her out for the way she's acting, it's never portrayed as getting her just desserts but rather we're supposed to see it as a tragic turn of events for her.
- Sixth Ranger: Becomes the Cuties' fifth member when Angelica warms up to her and convinces the other three girls to let her join. Jess, Coumba, and Yasmine are reluctant at first, but after Amy proficiently records the group's dancing routine, they let her in, apologizing for their past bullying. However they kick her out and return to their original resent once Amy posts a sexually explicit photo of her genitalia to the Internet, an act which even the Cuties themselves find disgusting. Then they welcome her back after Yasmine fails to appear for the final dance-off, letting Amy take her place. She officially parts ways with the Cuties (albeit off-screen) once she has triggered memories of her mother during the dance-off and starts finding her purpose in life as a youth with a childhood to enjoy while it lasts.
- Team Mom: Amy plays the role of a Parental Substitute to her little brother Ishmael and her unnamed baby brother whenever their mother isn't around. She's shown roaming the store and streets with them without their mother or aunt present and decides the number of cereal pieces he gets to have for breakfast (presumably so he doesn't waste it all, as their family is rather poor).
- Took a Level in Cheerfulness: The movie ends with Amy, after leaving the Cuties, joining neighborhood kids in a game of jump rope, rising high into the air with a huge smile on her face, being the poor Troubled Child and corrupt "Cutie" before finding age-appropriate enjoyment in youth the way an early adolescent girl would.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Joining the Cuties really warped her personality. She steals money from her struggling mother, stabs a boy in the palm in retaliation for smacking her butt, and on top of that, pushes Yasmine into a canal to take her place in the dancing competition.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Perhaps "Kindness" is a bit of a stretch given the cold actions she faces no repercussion for, but once Amy realizes that she was wrong all along about trying to be someone she's not, she ditches the Cuties and is shown engaging in a normal youth lifestyle, cheerfully playing jump rope in the neighborhood with other kids.
- Troubled Child: Amy is suffering the trauma of a mother going through a troubled phase herself with a polygynous husband, is subject to cultural abuse disguised as a family tradition, and is being bullied severely at school, all forming her desire to exhibit sexually precocious behavior. Eventually, she is subject to abusive ritualistic punishment when her mother and aunt beat her, splash water onto her, and try to "anoint" the promiscuous sin out of her, with Amy helplessly crying.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: On top of joining a dance troupe that promotes the sexualization of underage girls, she shares a photo of her pubic area online using her uncle's phone, trying to make up for her "little girl underwear" exposure at the school making her seem like Just a Kid underneath her newfound affiliation with the Cuties.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Once Amy overhears music being played behind a gate, she suspects it's the Cuties, by whom she became instantly intrigued at school after seeing her apartment neighbor Angelica is part of it. When she peaks through the gate, she's right, and suddenly the girls start chastising her, with Jess throwing a rock at her forehead. While it wasn't right for Amy to spy on them, the Cuties really made a Disproportionate Retribution by retaliating, as Amy meant no harm and was just eager to learn more about the dancing troupe after having missed the opportunity at school earlier that day (since the girls had been rushed back to class the moment Amy saw them on the yard).
- What the Hell, Hero?: She gets this reaction from the rest of the Cuties when she posts a picture of her private areas online to prove she's not a little girl after the embarrassing schoolyard incident where everyone saw her in her Goofy Print Underwear, an act they deem so repulsive that not only would they not stoop to such a low, but it also leads Amy to be kicked out of the Cuties.
Mariam Diop
- Played by: Maïmouna Gueye
Amy's mother who's struggling with a cheating husband as a result of their polygynous culture: she has no other choice than to go with it.
- Parental Neglect: She is dealing with her husband's second marriage, which ends up worrying her more about her wedding than about Amy's true feelings.
Mr. Diop
Amy's polygynous father who marries a second wife as part of his tradition. Only heard and never shown on-screen, let alone named.
- The Voice: Amy's father is mentioned a lot due to his decision in marrying a second wife, but we only hear his voice in one scene and it's through the phone. Even when the wedding finally takes place, we never get to see him.
Ishmael Diop
- Played by: Demba Diaw
Amy's little brother who usually serves as an Annoying Younger Sibling to her, but at times she acts protective of him in a Team Mom way.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: He mainly exists to act as an annoying kid brother to Amy and follow her around when she's minding her own business. It's established at the beginning when she's shown being followed around the house by him, much to Amy's annoyance.
- Cheerful Child: Has shades of this in his appearances, like when he eagerly informs his mom that he's going to wear Amy's clothes to the wedding (in payback for her wearing his) and attempts to create a swimming pool in the bathtub.
- Children Are Innocent: He and his baby brother are the only characters in the film who don't exhibit a mean streak, being Locked Out of the Loop regarding the Cuties' existence. Even when Ishmael causes a minor flooding by overflowing the bathtub, he did it with playful intent rather than harm.
- Flat Character: His personality isn't established beyond being a typical Cheerful Child and a nuisance to his older sister.
- Locked Out of the Loop: He doesn't know that his sister is part of the Cuties.
- Out of Focus: As a Satellite Character in the form of a younger sibling to the main character, he doesn't play any major role in the plot.
- Satellite Character: He doesn't play any significant role other than being Amy's Annoying Younger Sibling.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He creates a mild floor flooding leading to another room by overfilling the bathtub, but in his defense, he was trying to create a swimming pool.
The Cuties
General
The central point of the film, the "Cuties" are a dance group of preteen girls who dress proactively for their age and engage in a suggestive dancing move no other than twerking.
- Age-Inappropriate Dress: Despite being preteens, they wear very revealing and skimpy clothing intended for the 18+ crowd, with pants too tight and tank tops that expose their navels.
- Cool People Rebel Against Authority: Their popularity gives them a strong resistance to authority. Earlier in the film, they're shown messing around and falling in a grocery store, even stealing an item on their way out. Later they trespass into a laser tag joint and are confronted by a group of security guards asking for their parents' numbers so they can inform them of the trespassing violation, also going to call the police if they don't reveal. To get out of the place, the Cuties inform the security guards that they're part of a twerking alliance, using their precocious ways to annoy the guards and unblock the exit.
- Cute, but Cacophonic: Jess, Angelica, Coumba, and Yasmine all scream at the tops of their lungs when they're excited, which can get rather annoying after a while.
- Dirty Kid: For girls who are early in puberty, they have an unhealthy interest in dressing and dancing proactively. They go as far as to pressure Amy into taking pictures of a boy's private parts who was peeing in a urinal (she fails, obviously).
- Everyone Has Standards: As sexually charged as they try to act for their age, such as dancing to sexually explicit music, dressing skimpy, watching porn, and attempting to take photos of a classmate's penis, the Cuties are repulsed by Amy's decision to share a photo of her genitals on the Internet. Even the aggressive and foul-mouthed Coumba felt uncomfortable about it and admits that her parents would have punished her severely if she ever attempted anything like that.
- Flat Character: Aside from Angelica, none of them really have established personalities of their own, since Jess, Coumba, and Yasmine are always shown together as a group. They all exhibit equal levels of promiscuity, mockery of the inferior, and Valley Girl sass. Coumba seems to be the more naive of the group, judging by her mistaken perception of a condom as a balloon, but that's about it.
- Free-Range Children: They roam town unescorted with no adult in sight supervising their dance routines.
- From the Mouths of Babes: These young girls pepper their lines with unfiltered swearing and make lots of sexual references.
- Girl Posse: Their initial role has no purpose other than to ostracize Amy for being inferior to their fashion and dancing abilities. Angelica is established to be the leader, being the first introduced member when she's shown ironing her hair in her apartment laundry room and dancing suggestively to a pop song. Jess seems to be the Alpha Bitch who dishes out the most amount of cruel remarks to Amy regarding her "homely clothes" and "flat butt". Becomes Deconstructed when they accept Amy as part of the group.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: They seem to stick together seeing how they embrace their closeness as a Girl Posse, never being seen apart from each other at school, and going out to a laser tag joint and blowing their parents' money on their favorite clothes, overall having a fun time together.
- Ironic Name: Their name would imply that they're, well, cute young girls. But despite their ages, their sexually precocious fashion and dance choreography is a conscious effort on their part to appear Hotter and Sexier.
- Karma Houdini: Their parents are oblivious to their affiliation with a provocative dancing alliance, letting them roam freely, and on top of that, aren't even shown on-screen through the entire movie. Their school also seems to let them wear inappropriate clothing on campus (in an ironic sense of Adults Are Useless, they're only disciplined for being late to class). They never face punishment for pelting Amy with a rock, messing around in the middle of a store (aside from the clerk yelling at them to get them to stop), shoplifting, and just narrowly avoid being reported to authorities when they're caught trespassing into an arcade (they annoy the security guards with their mature behavior to get off the hook). And of course, their proactive dancing squad is never discovered (or at least not discouraged) by any of their parents (says Amy's, but she was just a Sixth Ranger).
- Kids Are Cruel: The Cuties are introduced as a typical junior high Girl Posse who make tasteless comments about Amy's physical appearance and outcast her as a wannabe. It becomes deconstructed as Amy is finally accepted by the group.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: Despite their cattiness towards Amy and resistance of authority, they become more likable once they accept Amy and utilize their time as Heterosexual Life-Partners who show they can get along with the newcomers when they set their minds to it.
- Only One Name: None of their last names are revealed.
- Ping Pong Naïveté: Despite their expertise in a mature dance move, they think people with AIDS use condoms, not knowing that the contraceptive's purpose is to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (and pregnancy).
- Protagonist Title: The movie's title is named after the dance troupe.
- Took a Level in Kindness: They become friends with Amy and let her join the group after being impressed by her filming skills.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: These girls are only at the start of puberty and already have the desire to dress in nightclub-esque clothing and dance suggestively to Intercourse with You anthems. In addition to that, they're keen on attracting older boys four times their senior, who obviously want nothing to do with them. Perhaps most shockingly, when the Cuties are examining a (off-screen) pornographic video, they discuss whether or not it's rape based on the woman's facial expressions.
- Vague Age: While Amy's age is canonically given as 11, and one of them can be heard saying they're 12 in an indistinct group chatter during the webcam chat scene with an older teen boy, they claim to be 14 and in high school when a group of older boys they meet at the park ask how old they are, but Amy corrects them by saying they're all 11. To add more confusion, they're shown attending a big school with boys who already appear to be post-pubescent (the only potential logic for this is them either attending a school which combines middle and high, or the high school age of enrollment being lower in France).
- Valley Girl: Being a Girl Posse, they speak in a stuck-up, sassy voice and use slang.
Angelica
- Played by: Médina El Aidi-Azouni
The leader of the Cuties who is apartment neighbors with Amy. The latter becomes influenced to join her twerking alliance after witnessing her dance moves in the laundry room. Despite being a bully to her at first, the two develop a friendship after Angelica begins to feel sudden remorse over Amy's insecurities.
- Bespectacled Cutie: A cute, giggly, squeaky-voiced Asian Genki Girl who wears glasses.
- The Cutie: Downplayed. Angelica's affiliation with a sexually precocious dancing squad shows that she's not so innocent, however, Angelica becomes a sweet, giggly Genki Girl upon befriending Amy. Adding to it are her squeaky voice and glasses.note
- Fan of the Underdog: Despite participating in her friends' bullying of her early on in the film, she becomes quick to befriend Amy out of remorse for her low social status.
- Genki Girl: Once she begins spending time with Amy, she's shown to be very hyperactive and playful, jumping on a bed, giggling, and childishly proclaiming her love for the bed.
- Angelica: I! Love! This! BED!
- Foil: Amy and Angelica bond over being neighbors who are similarly conformists of rituals. However, Amy's culture is Islamic while Angelica's is Internet popularity. In addition, Angelica is a sweet Genki Girl when she gets along with Amy, while Amy is a mellow Troubled Child. Until the ending, where Amy becomes just as cheerful as Angelica.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: After she gets on better terms with Amy, the two start engaging in friendly activities like having a gummy-bear eating contest, a pillow fight, and exchanging fears. Angelica also has a special way of getting Amy's attention while she's grounded: by tying a plush animal to a rope and hanging it outside her bedroom window, lowering it to reach and tap on Amy's window. They also share strong chemistry during the laundry room scenes, with the two sitting in an open washing machine alone together expressing sorrow for one another's negative experiences at school earlier that day, with Angelica eventually teaching Amy how to dance.
- Sibling Rivalry: She very frequently comes into conflict with her older brother due to using his phone as compensation for not having her own.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Initially Angelica is portrayed as a stuck-up Alpha Bitch picking on Amy with the rest of the Cuties, however she levels off on this once she begins to feel sympathy for Amy's suffering, eventually developing a Heterosexual Life-Partners bond with her.
Jess
- Played by: Ilanah Cami-Goursolas
The blonde Token White girl of the Cuties.
- Disproportionate Retribution: While it wasn't right of Amy to spy on her dance troupe in the middle of a routine, throwing a rock at Amy's forehead to get her to stop was certainly not a good way to respond.
- Kick the Dog: She puts further scars on Amy's Butt-Monkey status by throwing the rock at her forehead.
- Token White: Angelica is Asian, Coumba is black, and Yasmine is mixed, making Jess the only white member of the group.
Coumba
- Played by: Esther Gohourou
The (other) black girl of the group.
- Ping Pong Naïveté: She participates in twerking, showing off in suggestive clothing, and watching pornographic videos with her friends, yet she blows on a condom she found in the park thinking it's a rubber balloon.
- Soap Punishment: Following the condom incident, the other girls wash her mouth out with soap, although there's much debate as to how disciplinary this was, as they could have been ridding her mouth of the germs she contacted with.
Yasmine
- Played by: Myriam Hamma
The curly-haired, mixed-race girl of the group.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: It's unknown whether she survived after being pushed into the river by Amy. She's never seen or mentioned after the scene, but she is shown flailing about for help as she can't swim. However she does hold onto a lifebuoy for support, but it's unknown how effective it was.
