Moxie is fun fare. Alexa & Katie scores.
Amy Poehler's Moxie delights as a standalone homage to teen feminist films with heart. Alexa & Katie goes deeper with a storyline on teen anxiety fueled by not knowing what's next for them.
Moxie launched on Netflix earlier this month. It’s directed and co-produced by SNL’s Amy Poehler and tells the story of a group of girls at a fictional high school, who, sick of being pushed to the side, harassed, unheard, and living like 2nd class citizens in their own school, ignite a counterculture in their school, fueled by the arrival of a zine, titled “Moxie” that recounts the injustices that the girls encounter at the hands of the administration and the powerful jocks. (Patrick Schwarzenegger is superb as the movie’s villain, Mitchell).
Some of the reviews online point to this “feminist 101” movie not really landing with the Gen-Z audience in a way that feels authentic. Gen Z is aware of their place in history, how to harness and wield a social media platform to protest and fight back against injustices.
Amy Poehler, as Vivian’s (the protagonist) mom is from a generation of women who grew up looking to smash the patriarchy, listening to Sleater-Kinney and Bikini Kill. She was an original riot grrrl and while vestiges of her former life are smattered across the house, her daughter is searching for her place in the world, or at least to prove herself substantial enough for a college to admit her. This is not a cynical comment. It’s reality and it’s what I imagine a lot of kids face, on the precipice of college applications and that daunting “what do I want to be when I grow up” moment when they are 17 or 18 and don’t know that but are expected to know that.
It’s also very true that parents of high schoolers and high schoolers with those parents are looking for the edge that will propel them to academic college glory. The underlying message being, “You must succeed. You must surpass me.” but also mixed in confusing same breath messages, “You must be happy. You must seem OK.” How do kids deal with all this pressure?
Coincidentally, I watched an episode of Alexa and Katie (also on Netflix) last night with my kids that dealt with a similar idea of kids being on the verge of adulthood, applying to college and the toll on mental health that needing to know that answer to “What do you want to do with your life?” likely takes on 99% of kids applying to colleges.
Alexa, a cancer survivor, saddled with survivor guilt, feels that because she is alive, her life needs to have purpose, and to be extraordinary. Kate, the yin to Alexa’s yang and her more level-headed best friend, lives with an anxiety disorder and suffers from panic attacks. She also sees a therapist and that’s normalized on the show. She decides pragmatically to focus on a business major in college so she can make sure she can always support herself even though acting is what makes her heart happy. A panic attack ensues and by the end of the episode, she decides to apply to NYU’s Tisch School.
Both Alexa and Katie, while they exist inside the sitcom-verse with manufactured laugh tracks (or maybe I imagine that), give you feels because while they have access to great writers, beautiful sets, exceptional lives, and story lines wrapping up neatly into 30 minutes, the show very poignantly hits on a very stressful, real moment for kids at that point in their lives.
How the show handles Katie’s dealing with her panic is thru the aid of her friend. She tries breathing exercises and a few other techniques but this doesn’t help her entirely. Similarly, when Alexa, frustrated by not knowing what that thing that makes her heart sing is, talks to her parents, her parents give her some pretty good counsel. Living is enough. The message to teens in both cases: This is too much for you to handle on your own. Reach out to a friend, to an adult. That’s a really important message. Especially in light of COVID-19, a pandemic which has seen an increase in anxiety and depression in kids’ ages 11-17. (highest rate of increase in anxiety and depression of any demographic)
For Moxie’s Vivian, her introversion and her desire to ignite and spark change thru words, protected by the anonymity of her zine and the fact that no one knew she was its author because she wasn’t quite ready to own that part of her self, felt sincere. Her sudden belonging to a group of strong girls represented by different colors, athletic abilities, body types, and across social milieus, think: John Hughes’ Breakfast Club, feels like standard high school movie fare but it’s been updated to 2021 context to make sense.
I enjoyed Moxie. It may not be a critic’s darling but it kept me entertained and had some very telling moments, i.e. the football team owning the school, the girls’ soccer team, equally as successful, if not more so, not getting uniforms or attention except from the 15 moms who show up to games, and the administration falling complicit to maintaining the status quo because of its convenience.
Of note: The ratings scale at the beginning of the movie, where boys rate girls based on misogynist titles, “most bang-able” “best ass” - Unfortunately versions of these ratings exist even off screen where girls are rated on a scale of 1-10 by boys in their class. I experienced this very thing with a loved one and was shocked, repulsed and disgusted all at once. One my first reactions being, “Well I hope girls get to rate the boys too!” I know that wasn’t the most mature reaction. I can own that. What I can’t own is Gen Z females feeling like being rated has any home in their universe.
If Moxie teaches us anything it’s that perhaps a contextualized feminist message is still a pertinent one for our kids in 2021. It also just makes me miss Amy Poehler. I enjoy the Xfinity commercials and The Golden Globes are always better when she’s a cohost but any opportunity to see her do her thing, I generally show up for.
RIPs: Not to get too mushy in this post, but George Segal, who played patriarch “Pops” on the The Goldbergs, and Jessica Walter who starred on Arrested Development most recently and as Amy Poehler’s ex’s (Will Arnett) mom both passed away this week. They will both be missed.