Movie Review // Cuddly Toys (2022)

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/cuddly-toys

Originally released in 2022, "Cuddly Toys" was available to stream via writer/director/editor Kansas Bowling's Patreon but after a while that was no longer true and it felt like this film wasn't available to watch in any way.   Now, in 2026, it has an official blu-ray release via Vinegar Syndrome and hopefully that will put more eyes on it because this is a film that everyone needs to see.   Even though this is about women, it is important for women to know what women are going through, perhaps even more now than ever given the current climate of the world (and the United States specifically, as I type this I'll just say: 62 million)

The brilliance in "Cuddly Toys" is that it is scripted by all accounts of the film- as there are a cast and crew- but it really blurs that line between someone being paid to say something and someone just saying it because they're a creepy man.  This is one of those films which might hit too close to home for some people and even more so it definitely should make you uncomfortable.  If you feel at ease watching "Cuddly Toys", you probably have bigger issues to unpack than what this film is about.

Everything about this film is what women go through just for being women.  It starts from a young age, but it never really stops.  Everything from plastic surgery, to abortion to sexual assault.  One of the scenes in this film is about those beauty pageants they do for little girls.  It's gross and no one should be subjet to living that way, especially as a child.  But even as you grow up, as a pre-teen and into your teenage years, there is always that chance you might get raped and killed simply because you are a woman.

I like to think of this film as being full of uncomfortable truths.  This film shouldn't leave you thinking that any of this is okay, but the fact still remains that is is the way society is.  It needs to change.  There is a scene where two girls are picked up by a truck and later on one of the girls details how she was raped and her friend was raped and killed.  They ended up using a defense that brought up a photo they had previously taken to justify the actions.  Do you know how many times a day on the internet some guy is trying to justify SA because a woman has an OF?

I feel like (and I really hope that) we are on the verge of some kind of power shift, at least within the United States, where women are in control and men are not.  I'm not someone who is a huge believer in the death penalty, but as anyone with a good heart will tell you: dead rapists don't rape again.   Is death too harsh a crime for someone who commits SA?  You can argue that it might be, but right now the only consequence seems to be that you get elected POTUS.  

As someone who is not a woman and doesn't have a daughter, I understand the importance of this film.   This has all been going on for far too long and the fact that Kansas Bowling made it in 2022 and it seems more important now than ever just speaks for how much worse things have gotten.  I really think that every woman needs to watch this film and then feel inspired to go buy some sort of legal self defense (like bear mace) but I also feel like men need to see this because as a whole men need to do better.  And if you're a man and your friend is a man and he's bragging about "scoring with this drunk chick", well, drunk people cannot consent.

While this doesn't feel like the typical educational film you might see in school, I think that's a good thing.  "Cuddly Toys" might feel like certain aspects of it are done for shock value, but I think it's more to engage the viewer and really make them pay attention to what is going on not just within the film but in real life.  This isn't going to be the type of film that you enjoy because it's about a subject matter which you should not find joy in.  But I think doing things only because we enjoy them has largely gotten us to where we are now.  

This film will slap you right out of your comfort zone and everyone really needs that.  I don't know if we need to go as far to just play this somewhere on a constant loop so that it makes watching it feel impossible to avoid, but I do think it should be shown in some college level classes for sure.   And, for me, how you feel about this movie and whether or not you want to watch it really says a lot about you as a person.   If you're not willing to watch this, it is likely because you think one of the things in this film is okay and that makes you part of the problem.