My Review of "Moxie"
An enjoyable teen angst movie that tries to give us lessons in the process.
Moxie is a recent Netflix exclusive comedy that came out in 2021. It's got pretty much what you would expect from a teen angst movie but with some interesting lessons to boot. Behind everything is some pretty interesting characters but in a way there might have been a little too much going on. It sort of made it feel like a condensed TV series made into a movie.
The movie starts off with the main character Vivian. She's a typical movie teen. She withdraws from social life and likes to do things in the background. Along for the ride is Vivian's best friend Claudia. In a way Claudia represents the old Vivian throughout the movie. The two are best friends because they're both introverts that like to keep a low profile.
Along comes a new student by the name of Lucy. She's a new student but immediately falls out of popularity as she has conflicts with the school's quarterback Mitchell. Lucy seems to be the polar opposite of Vivian as she doesn't back down from confrontation and fights it head on.
Through a series of bullying situations by Mitchell over Lucy, Vivian starts to notice the inequalities that females of the school experience from their male counterparts. Frustrated she doesn't know what to do about it especially since it would require her to go outside of her introvert comfort zone.
This is until she finds some of her mom's old high school relics. She soon discovers that her mom was a rebel at her age and a very serious feminist. Vivian couldn't imagine this from the looks of her mom today but that's because her mom has gone through so much. Still Vivian doesn't notice these things because she's only focused on her own experiences at that moment.
When the football students make some sort of ranking of the females of the school Vivian finally breaks. She has had enough of the inequalities that are going on in the school and decides to create a feminist magazine. She distributes her little leaflet around the school. To her surprise her manifesto generates interest throughout the school as she's not the only one that notices the injustices going around.
From there on the movie really takes off and you see the relationships between Vivian and her friends build and disintegrate. It's kind of obvious where things are going to go but it's still a fun ride watching it. Each of the characters are grown organically throughout the movie and the pacing was really well done.
Again there are a lot of characters to keep track of in this movie and at times it seems as though this should have been made a TV series instead of a movie. It's as though they summarized everything and jammed it all into this one movie. Still the pacing was good so that it didn't feel too rushed however there were certain scenes where I was wondering what they were thinking.
There's a romantic relationship between Vivian and one of the characters. Throughout the movie I was thinking that her love interest was going to turn out to be a jerk. It was almost like the movie Hot Tub Time Machine where you think the bellboy is going to lose his arm. I don't know why I was thinking this way, it's probably because no one is really as nice is this character is.
Vivian's friend Lucy also has some family drama closer to the third act of the movie. I have to commend the movie makers to go that direction. It made her character a lot more interesting and authentic.
A lot of protest films often don't talk about limitations of their protests. This movie actually talks about how far is too far. Checking privileges and understanding how everyone is in a different situation. Not everyone can protest the same way as everyone else. I don't see a lot of that talk in many movies. Usually it's a binary black or white but this movie talks about the grey areas as well.
Overall, I thought this was a pretty well made movie. I had a great time watching it and I think it's very digestible to the general public. It ventures into some areas that not a lot of movies have gone while still remaining entertaining. I have to give this movie a 7.5 out of 10. It's a nice light viewing so if you have the time I suggest checking it out.
About the Creator
Brian Anonymous
I have tons of opinions that change constantly. I watch a lot of movies and play video games. There are some articles on my struggles with languages and dance as well.
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