Think 21st century high school feminism with the 90s inspiration. We’re talking punk rock music, self-made zines, studded leather jackets and girls coming together to take a stand for each other! Moxie tells the coming-of-rage story of young females who want fair and equal treatment, representation, and recognition in their schools.
General Summary
The movie follows the shy, timid 16-year-old Vivian (played by Hadley Robinson), who ignites a feminist movement among her peers when she anonymously publishes a zine that calls out her school’s sexist status quo. She is inspired by her mother, Lisa (Amy Poehler), who was part of a feminist group back in her school days. She draws further inspiration from Lucy (Alycia Pascual-Peña), the new girl at school, who stands up against the bullying and misogynistic culture perpetrated by the school’s popular football captain, Mitchel (Patrick Schwarzenegger), and reinforced by the system.
The film is based on the coming-of-age novel Moxie, written by Jennifer Mathieu, and directed by Amy Poehler, who also plays Vivian’s mom. It was released on the 3rd of March 2021 on Netflix. It is set in a fictional leafy suburb, Rockport, Oregon, in modern-day America.
My Opinions of the Movie
Moxie is a great movie, but I thought that Lucy would be the lead protagonist because of her outspoken nature and lack of tolerance towards the bullying and misogyny; she stands up for herself, challenges the patriarchy within the school and even reports Mitchel for harassment. She is the main reason that Vivian started noticing her school’s sexist status quo. Inspired by Lucy and her mom’s feminist activist past, Vivian then starts Moxie, the zine. Therefore, there is no feminist story without Lucy.
Furthermore, for a movie about feminism, it seemed to focus more on Vivian finding her own voice, hence I feel that the focus was misdirected. Although feminism is explored throughout the movie, it is through the predictable lens of a straight white female character, as opposed to a person of colour experiencing these issues and refusing to ignore them. This ‘lens’ we are offered is a tad disappointing, especially in this day and age.
They also brought up the idea of intersectional feminism with the other characters like Lucy (a young, gay Hispanic woman) and CJ (a mixed-race transgender young woman) but failed to explore that more because the story centres solely around the straight white experience. So, seeing the story from another narrative, such as Lucy or CJ’s narrative, could have made it more inclusive, and even better.
Perhaps, however, telling the story from the chosen perspective carries across the message to the audience that activism can come from anyone and that one need not experience a hardship in order to decide they want justice or change for those who are victimised. We can and should advocate for others, which is a great lesson for humankind.
I also enjoyed Seth’s character (Nico Hiraga), who is Vivian’s kind-hearted love interest. It was really nice to see a male character who supported the feminist revolution in a subtle yet powerful way. He took a stand with the females at the school and joined them in their protests.
A key takeaway from the movie is that teamwork makes the dream work. It took girls in the school becoming a team in order for them to challenge their school’s status quo and stand up for themselves and each other.
Overall Evaluation
Moxie had a great, diverse cast; it was well executed; and as a teen drama, it played out really well. It introduces the idea of feminism to teenagers which I think is great because that helps create awareness and gets the conversation started amongst the teenage population. However, it did not utilise its cast at an optimum level. And for the more mature audience, namely people in their 20s, it was not so thought-provoking and could have done more in exploring feminism, especially intersectionality. It kind of played it safe if you asked me. The movie has a great choice of soundtrack as it features songs with a rebellious streak, which reflect the theme of the movie. It includes songs from feminist punk rock bands such as Bikini Kill and CSS.
It was a cute, pleasant movie and I quite enjoyed it. I think it’s worth checking out!