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Posted in: Kaitlyn Booth, Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: barbie, barbie movie, Review, warner bros discovery
Barbie Review: The Universal Appeal of Breaking Outside of the Box
Barbie is a miracle movie because there is no universe where this should have been approved, let alone given the budget it got, and the fact that it all works so well is why this movie will live on for years.
Barbie is a miracle movie because there is no universe where this should have been approved, let alone given the budget it got, and the fact that it all works so well is why this movie will live on for years.
Director: Greta Gerwig
Summary: To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you're a Ken.
Whatever everyone thought a Barbie movie would be, it likely wasn't this. Well, you didn't think it would be this if you weren't paying attention. Mattel has shown that they are willing to take one of the most famous toys of all time and use her in ways to have important conversations. They also don't lack self-awareness with the Trapped in the Dreamhouse series that made fun of reality shows in the best possible way. So, in some ways, it isn't surprising that this movie made it to the big screen. Making shorts for YouTube and a web series is one thing, but Mattel and Warner Bros. Discovery being willing to throw so much money at this movie is another thing entirely. It was a risk that paid off because the result is a movie that will make you laugh and ugly cry directly into your popcorn, and it is a movie for everyone, even with all the pink.
Getting into why Barbie is so good takes a little bit of spoiling because the marketing has done an excellent job of hiding almost the entirety of the second and third acts of the film. So, if you haven't seen it yet, then go see it during National Cinema Day and come back to have a discussion. If you have seen it or don't care about spoilers, let's move on. Keeping it as vague as possible, Barbie is about how the patriarchy hurts everyone across the gender spectrum. It is about how patriarchy and the systems we have built around us force people into boxes they use to define themselves, whether by their job or their significant other. Overall, the film does a pretty good job of exploring these themes and many others in that "over-the-top" way that can only be emphasized by a movie featuring giant Barbie dreamhouses.
The entire cast is absolutely fantastic, with Margot Robbie being a perfect Barbie, but her comedic timing remains something that far too many people tend to underestimate. She is beautiful, and people tend not to look beyond that [I feel like there is a movie that is saying something about things like this], but she is hysterical under the right direction. Ryan Gosling is the same; people know he is a dramatic actor, so they look at that chiseled jaw and his intense eyes and give him leading man roles where he is serious or romantic. Gosling dives into the role of Ken, and once again, some of the funniest moments in the entire movie are given to him. His comedic timing is genius, and the script gives him much more to work with than you would have expected from a film like this. This is hardly a two-person show, and the rest of the cast is fantastic. America Ferrera and Ariana Greenblatt as human mother-daughter Gloria and Sasha bring a lot of heart to the film. Ferrera has a devastating speech about how hard it hits. The rest of the Barbies and Kens are all great, but Michael Cera steals every scene he is in as Allen. He is Ken's "buddy," and boy does he know, and he leans into it.
The script, though, is the thing that is the most memorable. From the moment this film was announced, it was the script from Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach that people were praising. It's intelligent, quick, funny, and hits you right in the gut when needed. It doesn't pull its punches and doesn't meander too much. It's not a hard film to comprehend, but it's not easy either. The nuances are there for anyone with basic literacy, but for the younger crowd, there is the comedy and Barbieland for everyone to see. Enough is going on, and the pacing is good enough that there aren't dull moments. Maybe that is because Barbie is one of the rare 2023 summer movies that clocks in at under two hours, and even at just under two hours, there were still parts that could have been cut. However, overall, the script, structure, and pacing are all very good.
One of the big things that makes the movie clunky is anything to do with Will Ferrell as the CEO of Mattel. His role in the film feels utterly perfunctory and only exists to get Barbie into the Mattel building for some on-the-nose statements about boxes and a pep talk. While he and his goons are around to occasionally do some physical comedy and get a laugh from the audience, they are still around too much, and the movie tries to make us care about them more than anyone would want to. The interesting part is our journey with Barbie, Ken, Gloria, Sasha, and the rest of the dolls. The implications of it all make the movie work, and it's a shame every time we have to go back to this minor subplot that never really goes anywhere or ends up meaning much to the overall movie. The movie's final message is a little muddled as well when it comes to Barbieland, and for such a smart script, it felt like a glaring point of contention that both Gerwig and Baumbach decided not to acknowledge. It's not a dealbreaker, but it does make you go "wait a minute" if you think about one aspect of the ending just a little too much.
Barbie is the kind of movie that movie theaters dream of, and there is a reason that it has become the cultural juggernaut that it is. It was the summer of pink and atom bombs, apparently, which is a weird combination, but it worked. The sets, the costuming, the acting, the script, all of these aspects of this film work so well that the minor flaws are easy to accept and move on. The fact that this thing came to be and exists in this world shows that there might be a glitch in the Matrix. It has been wonderful to see so many male presenting people wearing pink to this movie and after. It's just a color; it doesn't need to be gendered, and Barbie is the film to make us have that and many other conversations. Who would have thought?
Barbie
9.5/10
Barbie is the kind of movie that movie theaters dream of, and there is a reason that it has become the cultural juggernaut that it is. It was the summer of pink and atom bombs, apparently, which is a weird combination, but it worked.
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