Last modified on Wed 17 Mar 2021 12.10 EDT
A breezy tale of riot grrrl power passed down from mother to daughter, Amy Poehlerâs return to the directorâs chair (after 2019âs
Wine Country) is a winningly optimistic high-school romp with timely #MeToo-era themes. Adapted by screenwriters Tamara Chestna and Dylan Meyer from the hit YA novel by Jennifer Mathieu, it may lack the depth of
Booksmart, but itâs still blessed with enough post-punk energy to raise a smile, several chuckles and the occasional fist-punching cheer.
Hadley Robinson is Vivian, a head-down student (âItâs so nice not to be on anyoneâs radarâ) voted âmost obedientâ in the crass list compiled by high-school jocks, grotesquely ranking girls in categories including âbest rackâ and âmost bangableâ. Like the majority of her female schoolmates, including studious best friend Claudia (Lauren Tsai), Vivian accepts and even
WHAT IT S ABOUT:
A shy 16-year-old who is fed up with sexism and toxic masculinity at her school starts publishing an anonymous feminist zine that sparks a revolution at her school.
WHAT WE THOUGHT:
Becoming socially aware is a journey, not a destination, and
Moxie does a great job of depicting it through the lens of one girl who finds her voice. However, the film could have done a lot more to show other girls personal strifes in the school.
Moxie tells the story of Vivian (Hadley Robinson), a 16-year-old girl who just seems to be flying under the radar at her school. She and her best friend Claudia (Lauren Tsai) are introverts who seem to be okay just interacting with each other and doing their schoolwork. But then a chain of events changes Vivian s outlook. First, a new student, Lucy (Alycia Pascual-Peña), continually speaks up for what she believes in and challenges the most popular boy in school, Mitchell (Patrick Schwarzenegger). A college admissions essay then asks her
Moxie: Amy Poehler s high school comedy-drama is a lovely inter-generational letter irishtimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from irishtimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
At one point in Netflix’s new Amy Poehler-directed movie
Moxie, a group of teenage girls gather in a private room during a party to vent about the douchey boys at their school. One of them shuffles a deck of playing cards, realization dawning on her face.
“You know what I just realized? The king is worth more than the queen,” she says, with the air of someone discovering the greatest secrets of the universe. “Why? The queen is the best.”
That weirdly contrived wokeness bogs
Moxie down, even though it’s an otherwise sweet, empowering film about one girl gaining the self-confidence to stand up for herself and her peers. Poehler and the writers try to balance a wide range of issues, but fail to meaningfully integrate them into the story. That sometimes makes