Cuddly Toys

7/29/2026

A searing and unforgettable indictment of how far we have not come in our male-dominated society for creating a safe space for young women. Oftentimes at the mercy of a patriarchal society that transacts in their exploitation, young women are expected to navigate systems and institutions that routinely minimize their fears, dismiss their experiences, and normalize their abuse. Writer and director Kansas Bowling, with a cast of 100 actresses, tackles customs and conventions that have systematically oppressed young women -- castigating those conventions with shocking recreations of molestation, sexual assault, gaslighting, and psychological abuse that left me shaken long after the film ended. Using an early 1970s public school educational aesthetic, Bowling (as a satirical version o