Moxie (2021) is a teenage comedy-drama available on Netflix. While there have been films covering sexual harassment and the illness of patriarchy in the society, I don’t remember seeing any film that had dealt the problem at a teenage school level in a simple way. Directed by Amy Poehler, Moxie fills that gap and was entertaining too. Gets a Mangoidiots rating of Ripe. Go for this one, you will like it.
In Rockford Port high school, a 11th grader Vivian (played by Hadley Robinson), an introvert starts to notice how her female friends are disadvantaged at every avenue, the school principal turning a deaf ear to their problems. Instead of remaining silent, she decides to do something to make everyone in the school aware of the problems faced by the girls. She secretly starts a (Maga)zine that educates and raises the issues like double standards on dress codes, scholarships going to the male football captain and so on. The zine becomes popular, turns into a movement and lands her and friends in trouble.
The story was not unique, there were many cliche moments, but still I enjoyed the movie a lot due to the convincing relationships that are shown between the important characters. I liked the dynamics that play out between Vivian and her single mother Lisa (played by Amy Poehler), they are friends yet there are secrets, Lisa was the inspiration for Vivian to have her head high and yet she doesn’t know it till the climax. Similarly likable was the teenage love forming between Vivian and Seth (Nico Hiraga), the couple comes out cute. The strong friendship between Vivian and Claudia (Lauren Tsai) is of admiration and deep affection.
The principal character could’ve been more powerful than what was portrayed, there were only two jerks shown, few key moments happening at the convenient time for the protagonist but highlighting them will be nit-picking for a feel-good comedy film that I liked.
Moxie (2021)
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