It is likely that you have seen ‘Moxie’ being promoted all over your Netflix suggestions, or you’ve heard it come up in conversation, perhaps on Instagram. If you have not yet heard of it, it is a movie where a stereotypically shy, introverted, wallflower girl is inspired by her mother’s feminist activism and decides to start a movement in her own school, beginning as an anonymous rebellion called Moxie. In the meantime, she dates an idyllic male feminist, and tackles a wide variety of controversies or political issues, such as rape culture, homophobia, ableism and xenophobia. However, despite there being some notably great aspects of how they approached these themes, there were also areas where the topics felt awkward or underdeveloped, and other parts of the plot that were simply useless and cringe-worthy.
The Good
First, let’s give some credit where it’s due. Approaching feminism in a film that is also partially supposed to be a light comedy is a difficult move, and many parts of the movement that the main character, Vivian, starts to dissect complex issues in a simple way. For example, during her interaction with a new student, they discover together how the school jock is more than just ‘annoying’, and is instead a real threat to girls’ safety. We see this a lot in schools today where the typically white, wealthy, sporty, and popular men avoid accountability for their actions on account of their privilege, and the film really dismantles that idea.
When the girls unite at various points in the movie, and the ‘Moxie’ movement gains traction with people drawing symbols on their hands, solidarity is probably the main sentiment we feel. It serves a reminder of strength in sisterhood and the power of unity, when a group of marginalised people confront a systemic issue. This solidarity is also encouraged in the film in an inter-gender way, with her boyfriend representing a male feminist. It is rare to see a depiction of a conventionally attractive man in a film, playing a charming character, while standing his ground on feminism. I personally found that something quite refreshing to see, and hopefully that can permeate into viewers’ perspective of feminism, not as a movement to destroy the male gender but as an effort to achieve egalitarianism. Without spoiling the plot, we also see this boyfriend character diminish some typical features of toxic masculinity, and although the main audience of the film may not be male, it is helpful as a start.
The Bad
That being said, the flaws I saw in the film far outweighed the topics I felt were poorly addressed or far too cringy to take seriously, despite being crucial and not at all humorous issues. Part of the reason this happened in ‘Moxie’ is purely because of the desire to cover so many issues. Not even the pinnacle of directors could maturely discuss feminism, rape culture, immigration, racism, gender constructs, homosexuality and bigotry all in one go, and there are obvious gaps in the plot line where these topics aren’t executed enough. Leaving them at surface level, and throwing in some characters purely for representation—for example putting in a character in a wheelchair but only dedicating a few lines for her—is not a way to work through social stigmas, nor does it provoke worthy thoughts. At least to me, the appearance of so many themes were little shock moments where I was left hanging on a cliff of interest, and nothing ever came to fruition in their conversations, except possibly the topic of sexual assault.
We see this also in how the writers tried to tackle racism and homophobia. We have Vivian’s best friend, a person of colour, who is later revealed to be gay or possibly bisexual, as well as one of the other members of the Moxie revolt club who we are told is gay too. On top of that, the jock who is accused of sexual assault is referred to as a ‘straight white man’ quite a few times. This would suggest that a huge amount of his privilege, and ability to fly below the radar, is dedicated to his heteronormativity and whiteness—great! While I was watching it, I was searching for an unpacking of this privilege and super interested to see a dissection of systemic oppression, but no. The conclusion of the film discussed very little about race, and more importantly, somehow the main character was still a straight, white female with Eurocentric features. It is almost laughable that Netflix managed to make one of the most forcedly diverse films on the website, and continue to dedicate the most spotlight to the antithesis of these themes, with exception of her gender. Perhaps it was because Amy Poelher was the director and wanted an opportunity as the ‘mum’ character (a role she loves to assert) but many critics have suggested that Vivian’s best friend character, Claudia, would have been a far more interesting perspective on attacking misogyny, xenophobia and racism as a Asian immigrant. Having said this, if you watch the full movie, you will notice xenophobia as another topic left hanging there, not quite explained or sympathised with apart from in one or two scenes.
The Ugly and Useless
We then get to the parts of the film that make you cringe, and hear an epiphany of ‘girl boss feminism’ which has a tendency to lack intersectionality, and be more of a performative movement. For example, at one point Vivian is sitting at the dinner table with her mother and her mother’s new boyfriend, and with her boyfriend, Seth. Out of apparent frustration, Vivian slams the table, screaming ‘f*** the patriarchy’ as she storms into her room. Though some may disagree with me on this one, I viewed this more as presentation of her as emotional and irrational, because the scene was poorly scripted and it appears she is getting angry at two perfectly egalitarian characters. She then discusses how she is not her boyfriend’s property, despite the fact that he isn’t seen to treat her in that way in the film. To me, it miscommunicated feminism as a group of fuming, awkward and performative activists who are angry at all and any men, and I think the plot line would have thrived a lot better without it.
Some scenes are also plain useless and confuse the plot of the movie. For example, around half way through the movie, Vivian and Seth decide to go have a romantic moment in the late evening, in the middle of a funeral parlour and sit in the coffin. Apart from setting a strange tone for a comedy, the imagery is fairly disturbing—not much of a sweet scene, but more of a foreshadowing of a death that never happens. It is scenes like those that rendered the feel of the movie almost as cheap production; not bad, but also a bit sloppy in parts and it reduced it to triviality, which is not exactly the right tone for these issues.
Ultimately, it is worth a watch if you can afford some cringes at bad scenes or scripting, but do not expect to have a satisfying dissection of social issues, because it is very much lacking in many areas except for sexual assault and rape culture, which is still a valuable topic to cover and is rarely done so in the film industry.
