Better In Your Head?--MOXIE

 

Spoiler Alert: based on a YA novel.

THE BOOK-Written by Jennifer Mathieu, released 2013

THE MOVIE (stylized as "MOXiE!")-Directed by Amy Poehler, written by Tamara Chestna & Dylan Meyer

THE STORY-Activism is family tradition for Vivian Carter. Sixteen and stymied by mandatory pep rallies, unpunished in-class harassment, and non-stop sexualizing of the female students, Viv takes inspiration from her mother's Riot Grrrl past and creates a zine: Moxie.

MIND THE GAP-The Riot Grrrl subculture sprung up in the Pacific Northwest during the early 1990s. Before social media saturation, before digital playlists, before blogs, DIY print fanzines and personalized mixtapes (as in the actual cassettes) spread the good word. Before long, anyone with an affinity for the punk/alternative scenes knew about Riot Grrrl. The ethos, the sound, the look...the secret was out. Soon enough mainstream music publications like Rolling Stone and Spin picked up on the movement, exposing Riot Grrrl to slings and arrows its participants were scarcely ready for. This isn't to say that well-meaning journalists can't try and do such a rowdy coterie justice...they just probably shouldn't.

Moxie is a Feminism Starter Kit, and doesn't masquerade as anything deeper. Such books should always be written, always be published and always be read, even if the message within is curled at the edges and washed out in the center. Girls and women are beaten down, in ways both subtle and spectacular, and told to bear the bull. Don't raise a fuss, much less a fist. Don't rock the boat or roll your eyes. "Don't" for long enough and she'll realize--such silence is dangerous. 

Viv's cool boyfriend Seth wears a sleeveless Sonic Youth shirt in the book. That he doesn't in the film is just one of several dismaying changes made by the screenwriters. Behold:

--Locale moved from Texas to Oregon

--Zine title inspiration altered

--Impetus for/execution of several rebellious acts by Viv and friends revised

--Student body robbed of viral glory

--Painfully-cliched dinner table rant added

--Addition of scenes at a funeral home that were so bad they made me wanna get married

Okay, some changes worked. Lucy is no longer a bubbly Latina, she's a brash African-Dominican, played by living fireworks factory Alycia Pascual-Peña. She's in a class by herself, unfortunately. Entrusted with the role of Moxie Queen Viv, Hadley Robinson is passable. The rest of the cast floats in the delta between poor and mediocre. 

Viv's mother, played by Amy Poehler, explains to her daughter the flaws of her own high school feminist group: the internecine bickering, the ignorance of intersectionality, calling their meet-ups "powwows." To which Viv says, "Yikes." Really, kid? Fraught friendships, covert racism...and it's the casual use of a colloquial term that provokes the alarmed exclamation? 

Art reflects. Art directs. Art connects. Art, to a degree, protects. Take a breath, resist psychic death. Do not justify your adrenaline to an avowed opponent. A baby rebellion is still a rebellion, baby! 

BETTER IN YOUR HEAD-Girls together outrageously, loud, proud and drawing a crowd, is a hard phenomenon to pin down. (Or up.) The film lacks real menace, and takes the focus off of Viv early on. Posse power is the point, yes, but getting to know Viv Carter made it easy for me to root for her, and thus, root for the Moxie movement. 

Soundtrack is crazy, can't lie. And the ending! "Alala," indeed, girls.