Moxie (2021)

[Edgy MD]

A teenager trying to float through high school, with little interest in doing much more than check the right boxes for her college application, witnesses one injustice too many, and starts publishing an old-school, underground, photocopier-printed 'zine — reluctantly but courageously leading an awakening band of students taking aim straight at the patriarchy.

[fimg=500]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e9/f6/9e/e9f69ecad7b165666f7b587e86a98101.jpg[/fimg]

[Edgy MD]

A film with good intentions, Moxie comes with about 15% more realism and authenticity than your standard high-school coming-of-age drama. It is comparable to, say, 1990's Pump Up the Volume, in that the hero isn't quite sure what she is struggling against, only responding to a vague sense that things around her in the school are more than a little ****ed up, until suddenly in act three the ****ed-up-ness becomes a concrete force embodied in specific people.

Interesting side characters fail to develop, and engaging side plots fail to resolve as the movie struggles to find a consistent tone. Still, I found myself liking and rooting for the protagonist as she messses up as often as not as she tries to stop bitching and start a revolution. I think this is pretty representative of most youth movements, which are sustained and succeed not because of impeccable strategizing, but the rejuvenating effect of comradery and the celebration of minor victories.

It is notable that the hero draws inspiration from her mother's history in the Riot Grrrl movement. And one thing that might impress upon you as it did me is that movement produced a lot of empowerment and energy and the aforementioned comradery, but it didn't produce a whole lot of lasting music. The movement held Joan Jett up as a god/goddess, but they always seemed to draw less inspiration from her pop-punkery and more from discordant punk no-wavers like Sonic Youth. Bikini Kill's "Rebel Girl" becomes the soundtrack anthem as the feminist movement unfolds in the school's hallways, but I didn't get the "Oh yeah! This was a really good song!" vibe until it gets a contemporary reworking later in the film by The Linda Lindas, a successful contemporary band who appear in the film as middle schoolers which I guess they were back in 2020 when it was shot.

Another thing that feeds the film is that it is set against the nightly headlines of the then-unfolding #MeToo movement, so while it is adapted from a 2017 young adult novel, you can also see it as director Amy Poehler reacting to the times by reaching back to the 'zine- and Riot Grrrl-fed spirit of her own youth.

It is interesting, in that I guess the wrestling-with-tone problems that hampered the film is exactly the kind of effect that often hampers (or even cripples) social movements themselves.