Barbie

BARBIE
2023 | Dir. Greta Gerwig | 114 Minutes

"Being a human can be pretty uncomfortable. Humans make things up like patriarchy and Barbie just to deal with how uncomfortable it is."


When Barbie suddenly experiences an existential crisis, she must leave Barbie Land and enter the real world to find the root cause of her troubling thoughts. Tagging along, Ken discovers patriarchy and returns to Barbie Land to reshape it into a world ruled by Kens. Barbie and her human allies must work together to save the other Barbies and restore Barbie Land while Barbie works out her issues.

Written and directed by Greta Gerwig, Barbie is a phenomenal film that thoroughly deconstructs Mattel's flagship fashion dolls. The narrative capitalizes on the original intent of the product as totems of girlhood aspirations, but also, on a deeper level, it recontextualizes the toys as symbols of the immortal ever-evolving nature of ideas. The inadvertent introduction of patriarchal notions into Barbie Land, an unexpected byproduct of Barbie's odyssey into the real world, serves to escalate the conflict brought on by Ken's unrequited feelings for Barbie and humorously places fragile masculinity under a microscope. However, not every idea featured in the picture works. A notable misstep is the corporate subplot featuring the all-male group of Mattel executives that doesn't quite add up to very much either comedically or thematically. All in all, for what could have been a shallow feature-length toy advertisement, Barbie contains a multitude of ideas and makes a stirring statement for female empowerment.

On a technical level, Barbie is truly marvelous. The fully-realized Barbie Land sets are a sight to behold, as are the meticulously-designed costumes for the various characters that authentically replicate actual Mattel dolls and playsets. Hilariously, Gerwig takes the opportunity to deliberately call attention to infamous poorly-received and discontinued products. The various song and dance numbers are very funny and executed with gleeful panache featuring incredibly clever songwriting and brilliant choreography. 

Margot Robbie is perfectly cast in the lead role as Stereotypical Barbie (despite what narrator Helen Mirren says in an audience-rousing one-off gag), giving an exceptionally engaging performance as the doll takes on both an emotional and metaphysical journey. Playing the dimwitted Ken to Robbie's Barbie in his funniest performance to date, Ryan Gosling makes for a superb absurd antagonist fully embodying misguided heartbreak and machismo. As frustrated everywoman Mattel employee Gloria, America Ferrera is particularly excellent, earnestly delivering one of the most entertaining but also one of the most upsettingly accurate monologues ever about being a woman. Standing out from the massive supporting cast are Ariana Greenblatt as Gloria's disaffected teenage daughter Sasha, Kate McKinnon as the wise and bizarre overplayed and worn-out Weird Barbie, Simu Liu as the charismatic rival Ken to Gosling's, Michael Cera as the awkward singular Ken friend Allan, and comedy legend Rhea Perlman as the ghost of Barbie's literal maker Ruth Handler.

Greta Gerwig's Barbie is a metatextual comedy masterpiece that both challenges and celebrates the monolithic toy line. Hilarious, touching, and delightfully weird, this film is a soul-nourishing tonal smorgasbord. Featuring a completely committed star-studded cast and spectacular production design, it's a fun and colorful nearly-perfect ride through and through that's more enlightening than preachy despite being the sort of movie that wears its progressive messages on its hot pink sleeve.


FRAGMENTS
- Barbie and Oppenheimer were released on the July 21, 2023 in the United States, creating the cultural phenomenon dubbed the "Barbenheimer" in which moviegoers opted to watch both pictures as a tonally-contrasting double feature, significantly benefitting both films financially

- Issa Rae also appears in 2024 Best Picture Academy Award Nominee American Fiction

- The Ken actors shared a group text, though Michael Cera, the one Allen, was not included naturally

- Ryan Gosling is a fan of Doctor Who and was elated when he learned co-star Ncuti Gatwa was cast as the Doctor while shooting Barbie

- Shooting on the neighboring soundstages, the cast and crew of Fast X would often visit and hang out on the Barbie Land set

- The use of Matchbox Twenty's "Push" as the song that the Kens would sing "at you" is straight-up ingenious




MCU CONNECTIONS
- Simu Liu (Xu Shang-Chi in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings)
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