Film Robbie, you've done it again!
In going to the Barbie movie, my expectations were exceptionally high. I myself am a lifelong fan and have her in her many, many differing mediums, including dolls, magazines, clothes, and video games and am also perfectly aware of the often tall and shaky order of translating a pop culture fixture onto the big screen. Aside from how faithful it is in general to the source material, you have to take into account the casting, the script, the direction, the cinematography, the editing, the support from executives, the ad campaign, the marketability, and the budget. I wanted this film to deliver, and boy did it.
Regardless on if she's playing a well-received new interpretation of a beloved Batman villain, a disgraced figure skater, or a young actress from the 60s who died way before her time, Margot Robbie knows how to pull in audiences. I wasn't aware of her acting prior to the DC franchise, but she (like always) manages to provide a welcome presence.
Here she stars as the pink and pretty icon and gives a funny, believable, and surprisingly deep and sympathetic performance. What I thought was going to be simply two hours of fun fluff stretched out into something that could've ended within 45 minutes turned out to be so much more interesting and provided a healthy mixture of camp and over-the-top comedy and nuanced and realistic drama.
Also adding onto the joy of seeing the film is the always fabulous Ryan Gosling, who went back to his comedy roots in a slick and charismatic fashion (no pun intended?) as the surprise villain, as well as a myriad of wittingly-casted supporting roles in the form of working Mom America Ferrera, roughed-up veteran Barbie Kate McKinnon, President Issa Rae, Not-so-evil executive Will Ferrell, the secondary Allan doll Michael Cera, and the kind and ghostly Rhea Perlman. Furthermore, let's be thankful that Margot and Ryan, who actually look like the current day Barbie and Ken (specifically her with her comparable proportions, large eyes, and wide smile) were cast instead of the original casting of Amy Schumer, who barely resembles her and likely would have transformed the film into something far more raunchy and less marketable.
Aside from all the aforementioned checkmarks this movie was able to hit, it also gave me a little extra to take away from it, including many Easter eggs to consider (the bratty daughter and her friends were meant to represent the Bratz dolls to my surprise) and a fun game that allowed me to guess what featured doll/outfit is from what era. While plenty of them I did guess correctly, several I still missed.
While detractors may call the film anything from anti-man to a glorified product placing toy commercial, it means so much more to me and makes me realize why the franchise has lasted for six decades and counting. I recommend not just for Barbie fans or Robbie fans, but as an enjoyable film experience overall.
Film The Ken Movie
I expected Barbie to have a feminist message, but I didn't expect it to hinder the comedy by being so on-the-nose about it. As after a certain point in the film, the anti-patriarchy theme overtakes the film. Characters will quite often stop the flow of the plot to give a speech about the patriarchy or how hard it is to be a woman at an ill suited moment. However, I can see how the speeches can feel cathartic for women, as I'm definitely not the target audience. But if lack of subtlety annoys you, it's best to pass on this.
That's not to say there aren't funny moments. A lot of them revolve around either taking shots at the patriarchy/masculinity or referencing girl troubles. After a while though, because many of the jokes were cut from the same cloth, I got tired of them, and while I'm smart enough to know the film's not trying to say all men are stupid, it often feels like that it is with how preachy it gets.
The film does have great performances, like Ryan Gosling as Ken, who's easily the Breakout Character of the film due to how resonating and memorable he is. It got to the point where whenever he wasn't on screen, I got bored. It truly felt like the story was more about him than Barbie.
Specifically, Barbie and Ken's interactions with each other are rather minimal, which makes sense because the theme is more about them as individuals. Which is smart considering that seeing Barbie treat Ken makes her a bit unsympathetic, mostly because it's Ken's job (besides beach) to have his self-worth revolve around her. Even though I wasn't a fan of the Adaptational Romance Downgrade between Barbie and Ken, it makes sense for the story they wanted to tell.
Which leads me to Margot Robbie as Barbie herself. Robbie does her best but it's clear that she wasn't given much to work with as her own plot is undermined by how Out of Focus it is and needed more build-up for the payoff to work. It also doesn't help that so many other Barbies feel more developed than Robbie's Barbie.
It doesn't help that when the Barbies overcome the incompetent villains, the film tries to portray it as girl power, but it too is undermined as a result of the antagonists being of no threat whatsoever. It's not admirable or a worthy achievement when your hero overcomes a complete dunce of a villain. But it's more a minor issue at most since the film's more a comedy and the villains were Laughably Evil.
The same can't be said for Mattel. They should've cut them out entirely and use that time for Barbie's own arc. Will Ferrell's cartoonish acting is better suited for Barbieland than reality.
The film also tries to have it's own cake and eat it too. As they'll lampshade a flaw for laughs, but sometimes it came off as ironic, like if you realize that there's an issue, shouldn't you fix it?
All that being said it's a decent film, but at the end of the day, all I remember is I shouldn't shoot the message.
Film Fun
In one word, Barbie 2023 is fun.
In more words, Barbie is a a funny, suprisingly emotive, surreal trip through the idealistic Barbieland and the real life Los Angeles as Barbie has a crisis of faith and Ken learns about horses. I laughed basically throughout the film, from the girls destroying their baby dolls at the beginning to the bait-and-switch final line of the film. Good music throughout and a well cast film led to this being one of my favourite films of all time. the clothing choices were stylish and really fit the Barbie branding, feeling like actual clotehs from the toyline brought to life.
My only criticisms are slight. I thought the feminist speech Gloria made went on a little too long and was somewhat preachy (though I completely understand why she would feel this way, had a nice payoff with how it interacted with the other Barbie dolls and I would complain a lot if it was removed as the feminist themes and message is integral to both the Barbie brand and the film). In terms of nitpicks, I would've loved more time with the recalled Barbies/Kens and Midge, and I would've liked to see some of the previous Barbie voice actors play a Barbie.
Overall I'd give the film a 9/10. The ending was a little weird but I liked it, and aside from some various nitpicks, I thoroughly enjoyed it. As I've stated previously, Barbie is fun.
Also the cameo from the real Barbara Handler gave me such joy.
Film Deranged, direct, campy, introspective, fun, and powerful.
Barbie is an unhinged comedy that captures a child's playtime. It's a philosophical exercise framed around modern culture's most famous archetypal pair of Woman and Man. Barbie loves Barbie but sits us down to really talk about the issue. It's the silliest art and great at being both.
Barbie lives in Barbieland with Barbie, Barbie, Barbie, etc., and Ken, etc. And Allan. Barbieland is open, sunny, plastic, and a perfect woman's utopia. The Ken and Barbie we follow are not a couple, which is Ken's whole issue. Barbie worries about other things, like death...and then starts to exhibit flaws that remove her from the caricatured perfect doll she wants to be. With the advice of outcast Weird Barbie, who was played with too much, Barbie ventures into the real world to find who played with her and made her so messy. Ken hitches a ride, and the two discover a world where men are in power, to one's excitement and the other's dismay.
The film is a comic delight. Barbieland is pitch-perfect aspirational plastic camp, and we see the story get bizarre as Mattel learns Barbie and Ken are in the real world, turning them into outlaws. But the film is also a discussion about who Barbie is and what she's meant. The film treats Barbie as feminist and regressive in turn, and Ken's arc is a sympathetic breakdown where he tries to seize power in a world where he feels disenfranchised—essentially a less scary take on the "redpilled" man in our real world. The film validates Barbie's dismay at being seen as regressive, yet knows the concern is sound. The film shows that patriarchy is bad for Barbieland but understands the emotional repression of the Kens. Ultimately, they need to find who they are in a vacuum, and even though the film doesn't end up egalitarian since the Kens are still going to have to figure stuff out...well, aren't they? It's true the two metaphors of "Kens as real-world women" and "Kens as real-world problematic men" are directly at odds in the film's resolution, though. And the film can be unveiled and didactic but sometimes directness is most appropriate.
I also loved the soundtrack of many original pop songs in multiple tonal flavors. I can't name another pop soundtrack written almost entirely for its movie! And Ryan Gosling could seriously be an awards contender for the genuine depth and skill of his work here.
This is a complex, nuanced discussion of gender and the toys foremost at the center of the debate in children's media. It's the movie of the summer because it's good.
Barbie is important.
Film Barbie is one hell of a trip.
The Barbie movie is perhaps the trippiest (in a good way!) film I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen 2001: A Space Odyssey! In theatres! Where the impact is maximized! They do a lot of thing you would never expect to see in a $100m+ motion picture, and it’s all the better for it. The performances and the production design are stunning and the jokes are all on point. 10/10. Would see again.
Film What's your Barbie (movie)?
I went into this movie with only the most superficial knowledge of what I was getting into — that it was a comedy based on the iconic Mattel line of dolls, that it was a comedy, and that it had a pro-feminism message that wasn't just simple man-bashing humor.
What I got was... something else.
Yes, Barbie is a comedy. Yes, Barbie has a pro-feminism message. But unlike its namesake dolls, Barbie doesn't fit easily into a neat little box — this movie is, at times, an attack against rampant consumerism, a product-placement satire of consumerism, a man-skewering criticism of established patriarchal roles, a man-empowering affirmation of self-worth, a melancholic reflection of lost childhood, a family-bonding tale straight out of the Hallmark Channel, a quiet reflection of The Meaning of Life, and an action-thriller with genuine car chases and manic parodies of the same. It helps that the movie doesn't have a nicely-packaged resolution or an obvious moral, as some things are intentionally left open-ended, to be completed by the viewer.
The result is that Barbie (the movie) is much like Barbie (the toy) — what you get out of it depends on what you're willing put into it. If you're expecting a straightforward narrative and a passive experience, you'll enjoy the surrealistic humor and wacky shenanigans and talk about its Fantastic Comedy around the water cooler or the kitchen table. However, if you're more deeply invested in the movie, you'll come out of it for days pondering its deeper messages, trying to separate the comedy from the serious... and finding your own story as a result.
At the very least, Barbie is worth watching at least once, if only to see what you make of it.