Back in 2018, YA Book club covered Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu. The novel follows Vivian, a high schooler who wakes up to the everyday sexism happening at her school and, inspired by her former-riot grrrl mother, anonymously spearheads a feminist movement amongst her classmates. While acknowledging that the book was not necessarily meant for us (grown women), we generally appreciated what it was doing, so when the film adaptation directed by Amy Poehler showed up on Netflix last week, we knew we had to cover it.
Mary: I just want to start by saying that the movie had a completely different effect on me than the book did, and I’m not entirely sure why. While reading Moxie, I felt like I was way out of its target demographic, like I was looking in on something definitely not meant for me. Watching the film adaptation I felt like I was reminiscing about high school, or what high school could have looked like for me. Unfortunately, I’m solidly in that place where I identify with Amy Poehler’s character, the mom, way more than any of the actual young people in the movie.
I guess what baffled me most about the movie was how much more effective it was for me personally. Is it because movies are a different sort of time commitment or was the movie actually that different in tone?
Emily: I agree with you and I don’t, Mary. I agree that I ended up liking the movie a whole lot more than I liked the book. But I still feel like I wasn’t the target audience for this movie. As far as teen stories go, this still skewed pretty young to me. Like it felt more High School Musical than Mean Girls. Which is fine. I like HSM and Mean Girls. But I think the unbridled optimism of the story, for better or for worse, felt so young to me. Like, I love the idea of spreading a zine around school and starting a feminist movement. But would this happen in real life? Probably not. I tried to write a zine in high school and I think two people read it. And if I had called for everyone to draw stars and hearts on their hands, no one would have done it. With that being said, I appreciated the optimism. And it was an enjoyable watch. It just didn’t feel real.
Kelli: Yeah, I agree with you both. It’s very optimistic, and very sweet, and it feels like it’s actually for teenagers — young teenagers who might not be as familiar with these concepts as we are. It’s one of those movies about high schoolers that is targeted more towards middle schoolers than actual high schoolers, because it’s an aspirational vision of what high school could be like. That being said, movies like To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before are in this same sort of camp, not meant for me and not necessarily realistic or high-caliber filmmaking, but enjoyable nonetheless.
Mary: Oh yeah, it’s definitely not realistic, and I’m not the target audience for it. But it is definitely more enjoyable than the book for me.
Emily: I guess we still haven’t answered the question of why the movie works better than the book? Maybe it’s because we’re not fully in Vivian’s head, and she’s more of a flawed character in this version than she was in the book. So because we’re not in Vivian’s head, we do have the room to identify with other people in the story, like Amy Poehler’s character. And speaking of identifying with characters, when Vivian had her outburst at the dinner table about fighting the patriarchy, I truly identified with that. That was me in middle school. And I don’t mean that in a good way.
Mary: Being in Vivian’s head is just too much teenage angst for me. I think taking a step back and having more of a third person perspective, or just a focus on Vivian instead of her entire inner monologue, helped a lot. And yes, I totally agree about the emotional outburst, Emily. That was definitely me as well.
Kelli: I agree that movie Vivian is a huge part of why this movie works better than the book, and I do want to give some credit to Hadley Robinson, the actress playing her. In the book, Vivian felt inaccessible to me even though we were in her head, and part of that was because I felt like her personality didn’t exactly shine through in her interactions with other people. She was just kind of quiet and shy and not particularly… interesting, not even inside her own head. Movie Vivian is funny, and a bit more self-possessed, and while she retains some elements of the book version of the character, she feels a lot more three-dimensional here… which might just be because she’s literally three-dimensional.
Mary: Can we talk about how much the principal sucks? As Emily said when we were texting about Moxie, “the misogyny is coming from inside the house.” There are so many women like the principal out there, women who buy into the patriarchy full force and work to stop other women from ever succeeding. It made me absolutely sick to watch her attempt to convince a student she hadn’t been sexually harassed. Not only is that just a bad thing to do (how can a person know if someone else was harassed if they weren’t even there? Shouldn’t we just trust women?) but it’s ILLEGAL. If a student comes to you, as an admin or teacher, with a complaint of sexual harassment or assault, you are required by law to take it seriously and report it. Wanting to avoid the paperwork isn’t a valid excuse.
Emily: The principal was another big change from the book to the movie. Because in the book, the principal was a man. I wonder if this was a conscious decision on the part of the film to make a statement that not all women are allies? And not all men are bad guys?
Kelli: I think that’s a good point — I had actually forgotten that the principal was a man in the book, and now that I’m looking I remember that it was actually Mitchell’s father. I think having the principal be a woman who isn’t even related to Mitchell makes things more complicated in a good way, because yes, there are a lot of women who also perpetuate rape culture, and often they are women in positions of power who achieved that power in the first place by cozying up to the patriarchy.
Mary: Oh wow, I forgot the principal was Mitchell’s dad. That completely changes things, doesn’t it? I think you’ve got a good point, Kelli, that some women get their power by “playing nice” with the systems men established and working within the confines of the patriarchy. The really depressing thing is I know so many women like this who would say they love other women but are completely willing to grind them down if it means getting a leg up. On some scale, I get not wanting to fill out the paperwork to file an official harassment claim, but like...you just can’t play with that stuff.
I also thought the soundtrack to Moxie was perfect. So much Bikini Kill. So much riot grrrl energy!
Kelli: YES! Re: why the movie works better than the book, the soundtrack is doing a LOT of work here, which I don’t think is a bad thing since music is central to this story. In the book, we get lyric excerpts from Bikini Kill songs and then descriptions of what the music sounds like and how it makes Vivian feel, but that’s never going to be the same as actually hearing it. Being able to see Vivian dancing along or getting angry or making art to this soundtrack of kick-ass girl music really sets the tone. In fact, I am listening to the soundtrack on Spotify right now. It also includes a lot of contemporary music along similar lines to make it less of an “I am a teen obsessed with the culture of times past” situation.
Mary: Also, the middle school girl band. <3 Love them.
Emily: The middle school girl band was a big highlight of the film for me. Again major goals for middle school Emily.
Kelli: Fun fact: that is a real band! They’re called The Linda Lindas and you can get more of them in the soundtrack playlist linked above. They have a song called “Claudia Kishi” and also a song called “Monica” which is about a siamese cat named Monica.
Emily: I love Claudia Kishi and cats.
Mary: THE PERFECT TOPICS.
Kelli: To go back to what Emily was saying about not all men being bad guys: the film does make some changes to Vivian’s love interest, Seth—mainly in his back story—but personality-wise, he is still the lowkey feminist boy of young Kelli’s dreams. I am on record as loving romance, and this really worked for me, even though the funeral home date scene kind of felt like it came out of nowhere thematically. But their relationship, and Seth in particular, really translated well here, in part because of Seth’s approach to being an ally. He is supportive without making it about himself.
Emily: I really liked Seth in this. I thought Nico Hiraga, who played Seth, was precious. The character is really walking a fine line because he’s almost too perfect. Like if I met a dude in high school who was this much of a feminist, I would be suspicious as hell. Like what is your angle here, dude? But because of what this movie is and because of the optimism of this movie, it didn’t really bother me that he was so perfect. I just kind of let myself enjoy the sweetness of it.
Kelli: For sure, and I agree that Nico Hiraga was adooorable. I also really loved the moment with their English teacher, which I don’t remember being in the book, but correct me if I’m wrong — when he’s reading the school’s stance on the walk-out, he acts like he’s going to enforce it because that’s what he has to do for his job, but then he flashes his palms and has little hearts and stars on them to show everyone that he’s actually down with the cause, and it really warmed my heart. Little moments of successful allyship like that are the parts that I like the most about this movie, or maybe just the parts that feel the most useful.
Mary: Yeah, nooope. I don’t remember it, and it didn’t really seem to fit with his attitude in the rest of the film tbh.
Kelli: Yeah, I think that for most of the film he is trying not to take sides or participate in anything potentially controversial because he’s a “stay out of my students’ business” type of person, and I think that moment was him making a choice to actually do something for once, which is why I liked it. It’s never too late to grow!
Emily: Yeah, I don’t remember that being part of the book either. Sorry for not re-reading the book to get all the details right, but what I remember of the English teacher in the book was not great. In the book, it seemed like he just let a lot of really offensive conversations happen in the classroom and really didn’t do much to redirect them. He definitely didn’t offer up any allyship in any kind of way. That I can remember.
Kelli: Another change I noticed from the book to the movie is that in the book, the mom’s boyfriend, John, is fully a republican, and we were kind of expected to understand and have empathy for Lisa’s decision to date him. Here, it’s more implied — at one point Lisa says “we don’t agree on a lot of things,” and Viv points out that John has an American flag on his car. What did you guys think of this?
Emily: I love that American flags have become sort of a stand-in symbol of Republicanism. Which is ironic, because, well, one could argue that a lot of Republicans don’t really have the country’s best interests at heart. But you know… what do I know. Anyway. I think in this current political climate, it would be really difficult for a lot of viewers to side with a relationship between Amy Poehler and a Republican. And I can’t imagine Amy Poehler wanting to play a character who’s dating a Republican. LOL.
Mary: Definitely. I think the film was trying to be subtle by not outright saying that John is Republican, instead letting that little American flag do all the work. It’s hard to say if John would be a gun-toting Trump fan or just like, a more low key Republican. I’d like to think he’d be nice, especially considering how hard he works to impress Vivian. We’re definitely meant to see Vivian as in the wrong during that dinner scene, acting out of teenage angst, but...she does kind of have some points? I felt split on it.
Kelli: I also think we should address the attempted intersectionality here, and whether or not it was successful. Both the book and the movie include many characters of color and address the importance of intersectional feminism, but at the end of the day, this is still a white, cis-gendered, able-bodied girl’s story.
Emily: Yeah… it felt a little half baked to me, and based on the way you phrased this, I’m assuming you agree, Kelli. I think the biggest issue for me is with Vivian’s friend Claudia (played by Lauren Tsai). There seems to be some weird subtle messaging here that Claudia can’t boldly support the cause because she’s Asian and she has strict parents. And Asian girls are supposed to be quiet and obedient. And, frankly, this is not great.
Kelli: Agreed. It also bothered me that when Claudia’s mom is speaking Mandarin, we don’t get any subtitles. It would be one thing if we were supposed to be watching the scene from Vivian’s perspective, but it was literally just Claudia and her mom, so why no subtitles? Sure, we get the gist of what’s going on, but failing to translate the Mandarin in an otherwise English language film only furthers the othering going on here.
I will say I think what the movie was trying to imply was not necessarily that Claudia’s mom would be mad if she wasn’t quiet and obedient, but rather that she didn’t want Claudia to get in trouble at school because a mark on her record might hurt her chances of getting into a good college. I think that’s why Claudia was like, “my parents sacrificed a lot to raise me here so that I would have opportunities” or whatever. Like, she can’t take risks in the same way a white character can. But still, it’s not a good look for the movie, especially since it lacked clarity.
Friend of BSG Gabriella Geisinger wrote about Moxie for Digital Spy, pointing out that Claudia’s mom is “reminiscent of the harmful tiger-mom stereotype” that we’ve seen in media far too many times. Gabriella also mentions that while the movie does include a visibly disabled character—a student who uses a wheelchair—they only get a couple of lines, and do not get to participate in the film in a meaningful way. Some of the representation here feels shoehorned in for the sake of showing “diversity” without actually engaging with the experiences of these individuals.
I did appreciate the handling of CJ’s transness, and the kiss Lucy and Amaya share — I felt like those parts were presented a bit more gracefully than some of the film’s other attempts at inclusivity.
Mary: Yay, Gabriella! I totally agree about Claudia. I needed more of a reason for her to be reserved. If she’s just quiet and shy? That’s fine. When Claudia said she had to do things her way and work behind the scenes for the movement, that hit me. Any big event or club needs someone willing to do the unglamorous dirty work of scheduling and making sure everything is squared away on paper, and Claudia seems passionate about that. However, the film blaming it on Claudia’s mom? And their culture? Not cool. I understand that there might be some truth that immigrant parents expect different things for their children, especially considering the sacrifices that come with immigration in general, but to discuss that with nuance and care would have taken more time than Moxie was willing to give. I needed more information about Claudia and her mom, and I really wanted to see more of their life together. That’s something that could be explored in a longer work like a book, but kind of falls flat and ends up othering in a movie.
Kelli: Right, and the book didn’t do that either because in the book, from what I remember, Claudia was white. Also, in the book, it took Claudia herself being assaulted for her to come around to Moxie’s cause, which I think we all found a bit unfortunate. The movie dropping that storyline and having Claudia figure out on her own that rape culture is not okay was a welcome change. It gave her more agency.
Any other thoughts? I gave this four stars on Letterboxd because I did genuinely enjoy it, and as far as teen movies go I think it’s a pretty good one.
Emily: I also gave it four stars. This movie was not meant for me but it was cute and I had fun watching it.
Mary: I didn’t think to rate it, but I agree with the four stars. It’s not my favorite movie I’ve ever seen, but I did really enjoy it. It’s fun and optimistic, and we could all use a little optimism right now.
