Netflix is known for having a vast and diverse library for people of all ages, but controversial films aren’t anything new to the service, either. This year alone has seen the release of the highly-criticized 365 Days, which prompted a petition to remove the movie from streaming due to its glorification of sexual assault, and plenty of additional flicks have garnered their fair share of pushback from subscribers over the years due to excessive sexual content or other extreme visuals.

Still, few movies have had such a controversial lead-up to a Netflix release as today’s Cuties, a coming-of-age story about a young Senegalese Muslim girl who decides that she wants to defy her family’s traditional values and join a twerking group. Director Maïmouna Doucouré states that the picture draws from her experiences as a child and also functions as an eye-opening look into how internet culture sexualizes young girls and teens,...