Moxie has just received its first official trailer and release date from Netflix and looks set to liven up an otherwise typical high school drama with an explicitly revolutionary spirit.
Moxie is based on the novel of the same name by Jennifer Mathieu and has been directed by Amy Poehler. It follows Vivian (Hadley Robinson), a quiet girl who decides to stop keeping her head down and start challenging the culture of harassment at her high school. Inspired by her own mom’s (Amy Poehler) rebellious history as an activist, she starts a schoolwide zine called ‘Moxie’ to inspire other girls like her to start fighting back.
In the trailer, we see how blatantly Vivian's female classmates are categorised purely by their looks, being “ranked” for things like ‘best ass’ or ‘best rack’. Her mother, styled explicitly as a call back to the 1990s Riot grrrl punk feminist movement, tells Vivian over dinner that she ‘protested everything’ with her friends when younger. That's exactly the inspiration her daughter needs to hear to launch the Moxie zine and start talking back.
Moxie stars a range of talented young actors. Alongside Hadley Robinson are: Nico Hiraga, Lauren Tsai, Sydney Park, Josephine Langford, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Clark Gregg, Josie Totah, Alycia Pascual-Peña, Sabrina Haskett, Anjelika Washington and Charlie Hall.
Ike Barinholtz also features as a deeply uncomfortable teacher who’s clearly having some trouble adjusting to the new environment around the school.
Netflix’s summary for Moxie reads:
Fed up with the sexist and toxic status quo at her high school, a shy 16-year-old finds inspiration from her mother’s rebellious past and anonymously publishes a zine that sparks a school-wide, coming-of-rage revolution.
Moxie will be released on Netflix on March 3, 2021.
Moxie is just one of the huge number of films coming to Netflix in 2021. The streamer released a full schedule in early January, which you can find here.
