Moxie (2021)

March 3, 2021 11:55 AM

Inspired by her mom's rebellious past and a confident new friend, a shy 16-year-old publishes an anonymous zine calling out sexism at her school.

Directed by Amy Poehler, who also plays the main character's mother. Based on Jennifer Mathieu's 2017 novel. Here's a trailer. It premieres on Netflix today.

posted by box (7 comments total)

The kindness of this really carried it. I do feel like it was more well-intentioned than good, but it was also satisfying. There were some good performances (especially from Hadley Robinson) but I do feel like a lot of characters were kind of short-changed (like why was Clark Gregg even in this?) and I would've liked to have seen more interaction between Viv and her mom.

I'm glad it turned from it just being Viv's story to being a story about all these young women and about finding a sense of community. I do think it would've benefited from not being so focused on Viv, though.

I wonder if there were cuts that fleshed some more of this out (I haven't read the book). It was approaching 2 hours, which is a bit long for a movie of this sort, so I wonder if some things were cut for time.
posted by edencosmic at 8:08 AM on March 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

I really enjoyed this movie! Clearly Amy Pohler has some good friends because there is no reason for Marcia Gay Harden, Clark Gregg or Ike Barinholtz to take such tiny roles in a Netflix movie aimed at teenagers. I am so glad the movie doesn’t try to explain or justify the villain’s actions. He’s an asshole and he doesn’t get a redemption arc, or sympathy for having shitty parents, he’s just straight up villain. At first I thought he was a bit over the top, but then I realized the character is just the embodiment of right wing twitter. Also, the middle school band performing Bikini Kill was EPIC! Those kids were great!
posted by pjsky at 1:59 PM on March 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

pjsky, that's my friend's daughter's band! Coincidentally, my friend was the editor of a popular fanzine in the 90s so I thought that tied into the movie quite nicely.
posted by cazoo at 2:35 PM on March 4, 2021 [8 favorites]

The reviews are pretty all over the place (e.g. Bitch, which liked it despite its flaws; Salon, which is mad because it's not as good as Clueless or Mean Girls (and, like, no shit, most movies aren't), and Time, which hated it.

I think the reviewers who don't like it are missing something important--while the audience for this movie is, to some degree, teenagers, it's also, maybe mostly, people who were teenagers in the '90s, many of whom are parents today.

Most kids these days don't care about Netflix, or movies, let alone a Marcia Gay Harden cameo or The Julie Ruin on the soundtrack.
posted by box at 3:47 PM on March 4, 2021 [2 favorites]

cazoo - tell your friend The Linda Lindas have a new fan!! Thanks for the link. Also, the more I think about the movie, the more I like it and I'm totally going to draw hearts and stars on my hand tomorrow and see if anyone at the arena where I'm getting a drive through covid vaccination catches the reference. ;) #moxiegirlsfightback
posted by pjsky at 4:43 PM on March 4, 2021 [3 favorites]

"it's also, maybe mostly, people who were teenagers in the '90s, many of whom are parents today."

Yeah as a former 90s teen who wrote a 'zine about injustice in her high school, THIS HIT ME IN ALL THE FEELS really hard. I legit got weepy! And I really liked Amy Poehler's speech as the mom about how they protested everything and did it badly and weren't intersectional enough, but she was glad they did it. I feel the same! And it felt good to see a movie about teenagers doing the same things today, but in a much more intersectional and aware way than we did back in the 90s. I'm proud of those kids, man. And I'm proud to be part of the moms who will stand by and say, "Yeah, if you've gotta tell the school administration to fuck off, you do that, and I am 100% behind you."

It's weird to be less and less the radical out in front protesting shit, and more and more the mom who comes in in a skirt suit and heels and says, "I have a law degree and I will fuck you up for messing with these kids' First Amendment rights." But I'm so excited to get to be THAT mom for THESE kids, who are so amazing. SO amazing. And it's nice to see a movie about that changing of the guard. Really lovely, honestly.

But kids today are so much better than we were in the 90s. They're amazing. They'll do so much better than we did. And I will be proud to be the parent showing up to glare at school administrators and town leaders and US Senators on their behalf so they can speak their piece.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:16 PM on March 4, 2021 [5 favorites]

I watched this last week and felt really conflicted about it. I felt very pandered to, which I didn't like. Some of the high points of the movie that were obviously meant to carry a lot of emotional weight I felt manipulated by, or I just couldn't buy, like the teen band playing songs that were popular when I was their age, that made no sense (I see above that this is a real band and am only more confused why they play riot grrl stuff). And I did not believe the implication that the bad guy kid was going to see any real punishment. But I did really love Amy Poehler's character, and the character of the boyfriend, and the community of girls, and the emphasis on community in general.
posted by joannemerriam at 11:10 AM on March 29, 2021