Moxie 2021 DVD Cover. Inspired by her mom’s rebellious past and a confident new friend, a shy 16-year-old publishes an anonymous zine calling out sexism at her school.
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Whatever the age, high school is high school. There are well-known children. There are many who wish to be well-known.
Those that are left out are a minority. These dynamics are especially toxic in “Moxie,” a high school where “rankings,” such as “Best Rack,” “Most Bangable,” and so on, are published on social media every year.
Vivian finds it irritating, but she doesn’t have the wherewithal to fight back. When a new girl named Lucy (Alycia Pascual-Pea) makes waves, first by questioning the summer reading list, then by standing up to the menacing cocky football-player bully, Mitchell Wilson, her cluelessness is challenged (Patrick Schwarzenegger).
When Lucy tells the principal (a soothing-voiced Marcia Gay Harden) about Mitchell’s abuse, she is told not to use the word “harassed” and to just suck it up and ignore him.
“Boys will be boys,” as the saying goes. Vivian and her best friend Claudia (Lauren Tsai) aren’t exactly “troublemakers,” but Lucy’s fearlessness inspires Vivian. Vivian’s mother (Amy Poehler) is a cool mom (though not the hideous “cool mom” Poehler played in “Mean Girls”), and Vivian learns about her mother’s punk-rock history one night.
The ‘zines are what catch Vivian’s eye. She chooses to release her own album, which she titles “Moxie.”
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