As for Poehler, she’s in her element as Vivian’s single mom, in search of a quiet life but whose rebellious spirit has not quite been quashed. In the “adult” roles, Ike Barinholtz is spot-on as out-of-his-depth teacher Mr Davies, whose answer to “women’s issues” is to leave the room, while Marcia Gay Harden’s forced smile perfectly suits the principal who appears to lack principles. Smart casting is key to Moxie’s appeal, most notably rising star Robinson (previously best known for TV’s Utopia), who hits a well-judged balance between sympathetic, stroppy and occasionally sanctimonious. A scene in which Claudia has to explain to her best friend that being the daughter of immigrants puts her in a very different position to Vivian strikes exactly the right note.
It would be easy to sneer at the diverse rainbow coalition whom Moxie imagines can suddenly put aside their differences, but the film is smart enough to acknowledge that middle-class white girl Vivian doesn’t have all the answers. There are scenes of wardrobe solidarity that slyly echo the shoulder-strap rebellion of Stick It, and Nico Hiraga is clearly cut from Twilight’s “Team Jacob” cloth as late-bloomer Seth, formerly known as “the shrimp”, now a buff yet sensitive skateboarder who displays a puppyish new-man devotion to Vivian. Photograph: Colleen Hayes/NetflixĪnyone with a soft spot for spiritedly rebellious high-school pics will find much here that is familiar, whether it’s the internecine intrigues of the Jane Austen-inspired Clueless, the thumbnail sketches of teen cliques so perfectly delineated in the Tina Fey-scripted classic Mean Girls, or the unpicking of sexual politics that harks back to the already heavily genre-reflexive Easy A. Nico Hiraga, Amy Poehler and Hadley Robinson in Moxie. Like the majority of her female schoolmates, including studious best friend Claudia (Lauren Tsai), Vivian accepts and even expects this kind of everyday sexism, thanks in part to the complacency of Principal Shelly (a smilingly dismissive Marcia Gay Harden) who sees it as just a bit of “fun”. Hadley Robinson is Vivian, a head-down student (“It’s so nice not to be on anyone’s radar”) voted “most obedient” in the crass list compiled by high-school jocks, grotesquely ranking girls in categories including “best rack” and “most bangable”. Adapted by screenwriters Tamara Chestna and Dylan Meyer from the hit YA novel by Jennifer Mathieu, it may lack the depth of Eighth Grade or the punch of Booksmart, but it’s still blessed with enough post-punk energy to raise a smile, several chuckles and the occasional fist-punching cheer.
A breezy tale of riot grrrl power passed down from mother to daughter, Amy Poehler’s return to the director’s chair (after 2019’s Wine Country) is a winningly optimistic high-school romp with timely #MeToo-era themes.