Moxie, a Netflix movie adaptation of Jennifer Mathieu’s book of the same name, attempts to tell the story of a feminist revolution through the narrative of young girls challenging their high school’s sexist culture. Vivian (Hadley Robinson), an introverted 16-year-old, decides to take a page from her mother’s (Amy Poehler) feminist past and starts a rebellion, inspired by new-student Lucy (Alycia Pascual-Peña) calling out sexist jock Jason (Joshua Walker).
While the storyline of Moxie seemed great on paper and in the trailers, it unfortunately fell short in many ways. The movie missed key opportunities for intersectionality by only briefly touching on transgender and immigrant issues, along with overamplifying the voice of the white lead, Vivian, which consequently drowned out the voices of the POC supporting actors. By downplaying the importance of the issues faced by marginalized characters to focus on a simpler and broader message of “girl power”, the movie came off as endorsing “white feminism” rather than the empowerment of all women.
However, the saving grace of the movie was Vivian’s boyfriend Seth, played by Nico Hiraga. Sweet and respectful, Seth relentlessly supports Vivian and the Moxie movement, knows the names of all the American Girl dolls, and takes Vivian on a surprisingly romantic date to a funeral home. Hiraga was surprised to be cast as Seth because the character seemed “pretty built out for some white dude in Hollywood”, but nonetheless took the role in stride saying, “Okay. Hollywood, I see you”.
So, if you want a movie that breaks the mold of the typical cheesy high school rom com, Moxie is an entertaining watch, but don’t expect a groundbreaking feminist revolution as implied by the trailer.