Now why would y all ask me to watch this knowing it would piss me off.
These Blush Bunnies present Moxie.
Going into watching this movie I had no idea what I was walking into First of all its
called Moxie. Moxie? Really? What does that even mean? Force of character determination or nerve.
Yea I d say they had some nerve with this one. But before I get into it. Let me set the scene.
Vivian is a high school junior with nothing going for herself. Raised in a single parent home,
her mother loves her to pieces and she and her best friend are inseparable. And I don t mean
to be funny when I say she has nothing going for herself. Shortly after we meet her we find out
that she has a paper to write, the topic being a cause you care about. This prompts her to ask her
mom what do 16 year olds care about? Then she says to her best friend I need something to write
about, what do I care about? And her friend, Claudia, is like uhhh Me. Like with all the
things going on in the world, you can t think of one thing that you care about? Chile. So Vivian
literally adds no value to anybody. That is until she latches on to the new kid in school. A black
girl. Afro-Latina by the name of Lucy Hernandez. Now it s important that I mention that she s black
because her race plays into the biggest problem I have with this movie. But I ll get to that in a
second. On Lucy s first day she has an encounter with Mitchell. Mitchell is the schools star
football player yet a huge disappointment to human kind. How can I put it? You know those
viral videos of food, that look like a burger or chicken or whatever, and then they cut into it
and its cake? Pretty on the outside, not at all what you expect on the inside. And lets pretend
we all hate cake. That s Mitchell. So like I said, it s Lucy s first day. The question
the teacher has for the class is what was the female perspective in the book The Great Gatsby.
Lucy is like listen why are we even still reading this book as a society? This old rich white
man has everything he wants except the woman he desires and we re supposed to feel sorry for him?
No. Lets read books about immigrants coming over here making the real American dream happen. Not
some old white man living it up to the crack of dawn. Guess who gets offended by her saying
this? Go on guess? That s right Mitchell. He starts going I like the book. Why do have to
all of that up? Stop talking when I m talking. You interrupted her! You self entitled little
ish. So now I m getting riled up. My blood pressure is rising. Vivian in the back admiring
from afar. Oh wow look at this girl standing up for herself. However must that be. Which I m
not saying that she can t admire her. That s not my issue at all. My issue comes into play when
Lucy has her next encounter with Mitchell. She s standing at the machine trying to buy a pop. Or
soda if that s the word you prefer but I say pop and that s the end of that discussion. But
she s standing there and here he comes getting in her face. Coming on to her, but like a jerk,
not like a guy you would actually talk to. And when she doesn t take to his advances, he flips
the script. Spits in her drink and makes it known that this is now how things will be. This is the
energy you will be getting. You have unleashed the dragon. Lucy does not back down and basically
lets him know she is not the one to be played with. So this is where my problem with Vivian
comes into play. And the movie as a whole. Oh wait a minute, wait a minute. I almost forgot,
I almost forgot. Principal Shelly. Principal. Shelly. Now the actress that plays her, Marcia
Gay Harden, she is great. Every time I see her onscreen she does her thing.
However comma. She was acting a little too good in the movie because she pissed me off. But that
was the whole point of her character. Nailed it. So Lucy goes to Principal Shelly to tell her that
Mitchell has been harassing her and Shelly tells her oh can you just say he s been bothering you
because if you say harassment then I have to do paper work and I ain t trying to do all that.
Girl what? What? She goes on and on about how he s the quarterback of the football team and
basically insinuating that he could never do such a thing. I m thinking to myself is this her son
or something? Why is she going so hard for him? And the fact that there are women in power who
dismiss claims like this from other women all the time is mind blowing. But Lucy is like girl, I
m not about to say that to convenience you. This is what he did to me. Then her comes Vivian just
ignore Mitchell, I know he can be annoying but it ll be fine. Lucy s like annoying? Is that how you
would categorize this? Thanks for the advice but no thanks. I ll keep handling my business while
you mind your own. Ok well she didn t say it like that but she wanted to. In the meantime there s
this list floating around composed of different categories who s the hottest, who has the best set
of maraca s. The best peach you get the point. And the girls of the school are sick of it. They
re tired of being objectified. So Vivian gets soooo inspired by all that has occurred. She
kind of brings it up to her mom to see what she would do and her mom was like back in my
day we were rebels. We fought for our rights and yata yata. Vivian goes on to make an anonymous
newsletter in the name of feminism. Calling out the man for indecent behavior. She calls for a
sign of solidarity if you will, drawing stars on your hands to show that you re with the movement.
And I have to say I m glad that Claudia pointed out that the stars weren t going to do anything.
Like ok draw the stars and then what? Many movements have this issue where they don t
go past the symbolism of the movement. It s like is this all we re doing? ok I m going back home.
So kudos to them for that. But the problem with Moxie is the perspective of whom this film is told
by. You have Lucy a smart, strong, outspoken young black girl who holds her own right? Then
you have Vivian. A timid, no life, adds zero value to the big picture white girl who comes
in and saves the day. Now, some may argue that Vivian makes for the better character arc because
there is growth to be had. I absolutely agree with you. However comma. It s pretty tone deaf
to have a supporting character in a film about a feminist movement and not speak to the plight of
what it means to be black in that space. Because the kicker about it is this happens all the time.
In real life and in film. The white savior coming in to make the change. Overshadowing
those who have already done the work. In this case Lucy has already made her voice heard,
she s told an authority, she stands on her own feet. Yet this story depicts Vivian as the hero.
The girl who didn t even have the courage to say she was the one who wrote the newsletter until the
end of the movie? And to be clear, I absolutely believe in sisterhood across the board. All
racial backgrounds. When its done in good taste. Watching this I immediately thought of the Jane
Fonda s, the Dolly Parton s, the Jessica Chastain s. And these are just women that came to mind
but the difference between these women and the protagonist in this film is that they stand 10
toes down. There is no unsure, timid, regretful energy. Towards the end of the movie she s mad
at her mom telling her I m not you and the only reason I did any of this is because you made me
think I could do it. And her mom is just like ok. These woman stand side by side in the fight and
they don t get discouraged because something didn t go the way they thought it would. And lastly,
they elevate the voices of those who have been silenced or ignored. Vivian did some of this
in her own way I guess but it didn t read well. If the writers felt it was absolutely necessary
to have a white female feminist protagonist, the way they could have fixed this is by either
giving her some sort of personality traits that showed that she truly was invested in this and it
wasn t something of a throw away. Like I need something to do with my time. I need something
to care about. Welp what do you know, look at here. You Know? Or they could have had Lucy
have a talk with her about it. Her feelings of being minimized because of her racial background.
Similarly to the way Claudia did. Claudia took the fall for the Moxie group and was suspended.
And she told Vivian like listen. This is not a win for me. You don t understand because
you re white and you have no idea what its like to be in my position. It would have been nice
for Lucy, Vivian s main inspiration, to have this same talk but they didn t thus dropping
the ball and losing me in the process. I mean the story goes on. More things happen but it was like
ehh. It was kind of lost upon me at that point. On the bright side there were a few things that I
did like about the film. I liked that they showed the ups and downs of friendship. Claudia and
Vivian had been best friends since like 4 years old but they had nothing in common. Sometimes you
grow apart from people when you find others that you share a common interest with. People that
really get you. It was interesting to see how they navigated their friendship after that became
apparent. There was one student, who only had a few lines but she was absolutely hilarious.
I wish they would have given her a bigger role. And lastly, if you don t watch this movie for any
other reason, it s worth a watch for Seth and Seth alone. You know that dream guy who has all of the
right qualities? He s good looking, charming, funny, supportive, respectful, values himself
as well as women, sensitive, yet knows when to put his foot down. That s Seth. I mean, he
really pulls at your heart strings through out the movie. Personally, I could do without the dates
at funeral homes that was a little creepy but other than that he s a catch. And he s the polar
opposite of Mitchell and it s obvious that it was done purposely. But it s like do guys like this
really exist? No like really do they? I m not asking for myself or anything. I m asking for
this person who wants to remain anonymous. But if you know of anybody, let me know, and I will uh
get the information to the anonymous person who is totally not me. Thank you. Have you guys
seen Moxie? If so what did you think? Do you agree with my critiques? Let me know down
below. To my blush bunnies who requested this movie If you liked it, just because I didn t
like the movie doesn t mean I don t love you. Quick update, the podcast- Blush Bunny Podcast
will have more episodes soon so make sure you re following on your respective platforms.
There I will post exclusive content that will not be on YouTube. Thanks to my Twilight video being
blocked and demonetized, you guys voted for a podcast alternative so I m making that happen.
Still working on getting it to all of the platforms you guys mentioned that you use.
To my blush bunnies that don t currently have an app that they can listen on, download the anchor
app from the link below. It s what I m using to distribute the podcast and it s completely
free for you guys to listen as well. I have no idea what I m doing with this podcast just as
with this channel but I ll learn as I go. Also, it s 2 A.M. while I m recording this video so,
I am sleepy. I am very sleepy. I don t know why I don t know why I did this to myself.
Oh my goodness, I can hear it in my voice. But anyways Enough about
my stupid choices. If you haven t done so already, be sure to click
like and hop on over to that subscribe button and hit the bell. Otherwise YouTube will never
show you my video s. As always. I m all ears. Until Next time. Bye.