Netflix recently released Amy Poehler‘s film Moxie as her second film in the director’s chair. Based on a book, Moxie is a story of 16-year-old Vivian (played by Hadley Robinson), voted “most obedient” in high school, who is inspired by her mom’s rebellious past and publishes an anonymous zine calling out sexism at her school. The roommates and I watched this last night and found it to be charming, but not very memorable.
Moxie is one of those feel-good coming of age comedies with a few elements of drama (particularly some of the horrific treatment these girls face). The characters were likable, the acting was surprisingly good for such a young cast, and the music was an ode to the Riot Grrrl era. The plot pushes forward a feminist narrative that the whole school gets onboard with in a sweet, yet predictable way.
I found that this was a story about a bunch of high-schoolers discovering their inner feminism (something that I definitely didn’t know back when I was that age), and showed the casual sexism that exists today in the properly infuriating way. It’s nice to see and is another commentary of women finding their power, but I didn’t think this film showed that in a unique way with their own voice. It reminded me of Booksmart, but in a version that tried too hard and was much more bland.
There were also a few things I didn’t love about the film. The villain of this show was SO sexist and unlikeable, it’s hard to imagine anyone being so one-dimensional and behaving this way in today’s world – although I could be wrong here and it does exist. The mother / daughter relationship between Lisa and Vivian seemed forced and distant. And some of the jokes in the dialogue were definitely clunky.
That being said, there was one really bright spot I loved about this, and that was the portrayal of Claudia, Vivian’s best friend played by Lauren Tsai. Claudia is a 2nd generation Asian-American who doesn’t “protest loudly enough” at the beginning of the film, leading to tensions between her and Vivian. Later, the film addresses this as protests being able to come in all forms, and shining a lens on the specificity of the Asian immigrant’s experience in the US and how it intersects with feminism. It was a unique take and something rarely shown, and comments on our performative-protest culture that many “woke” people live in today. It was probably my favorite storyline in the film, albeit a small one.
Have you seen Moxie yet on Netflix? If not, what’s your favorite coming of age film that you’ve seen in the last few years, and where should I watch it?
