Travis Leamons // Film Critic
Rated PG-13, 114 min.
Director: Greta Gerwig
Cast: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Kate McKinnon, America Ferrera, Ariana Greenblatt, Issa Rae, Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Rhea Perlman, Michael Cera, and Will Ferrell
Writing a review in the box office afterglow of BARBIE’s impressive opening weekend performance seems futile. You don’t need my critique to persuade or dissuade you from deciding if it is worth dressing up in pink and hot fashions to see Mattel’s prized doll on the big screen. Its monetary success is confirmation. So, instead of masquerading as a shill, I can offer my thoughts as a heterosexual male who, as far as I can ascertain, is anatomically correct.
As far as looks, Barbie (the doll) would seem to be man’s epitome of the female body. Curvy, but not too curvy, demure, thin, and legs that go for days. But Barbie was more than a toy model. She was a model for change. Over the decades, Barbie’s message has been misconstrued. Life in plastic should be fantastic, yet the progressive doll, which showed young girls that women could own a house, have successful careers, and be fully autonomous, started to have a negative impact on culture.
BARBIE (the movie) briefly acknowledges the negative impact she has had on young girls with passing generations, but director Greta Gerwig has a bigger picture in mind. How best to reclaim femininity? First: have the prized doll go through an existential crisis. Second: acknowledge femininity is more than a social construct.
For the reclamation project, we need our all-American doll in human form. Gerwig’s choice to have Australian Margot Robbie was right but not at all inspiring. Looks alone, Robbie would have been at the top of the call sheet after 2013’s THE WOLF OF WALL STREET. Her elaborate turns as Harley Quinn and Tonya Harding give her the nuance to pull off playing both “Stereotypical Barbie” and Thoughts of Dying Barbie. Robbie is good, but Ryan Gosling is sublime as the mindless Stereotypical Ken. His commitment to the absurdity of his character – and playing it like it’s the most important thing he’s ever done in his career – far exceeds his talent as an actor. Considering both leads have struggled to reach stardom (whatever your definition of a Hollywood star is nowadays), BARBIE is the perfect “dream car” vehicle for them. The only one who can challenge Gosling’s comedy chops is Kate McKinnon, who plays the scene-stealing “Weird Barbie” (aka What Happens to Barbie When You Play With Her Too Hard).
Every day in Barbieland is a rerun. The days are bright and shiny. All the Barbies are happy and energetic. They rule in work and life. The various Kens spend their lives pining for attention from the various Barbies. But while they’ll get a friendly “Hey, Ken!”, the Kens are left waiting for a kiss that will never be reciprocated. It all changes when Stereotypical Barbie (Robbie) begins to have strange thoughts. To regain her sunny disposition, she must venture into the Real World to find the human playing with her, whose negative thoughts are disrupting her easy, breezy conventional life. Tagging along is one of the Kens (Gosling), and together they set forth to California to find her “owners.” Stranger in a strange land humor ensues for Barbie and Ken. Barbie was set on returning to her personal oblivion, and now her feelings have shifted to uncertainty. Ken, meanwhile, discovers with his limited time in the Real World another type of existence than being subservient.
Patriarchy.
With the help of Gloria and Sasha (America Ferrera and Ariana Greenblatt), Barbie returns home to find her idyllic world has changed. Ken preceded Barbie and has turned it into Kendom, a patriarchal society where men rule and Barbies are now maids, housewives, or girlfriends.
Having the original Barbie as the one who causes a ripple in the time-space continuum affecting Barbieland makes sense with the aspirational concept Mattel was aiming to achieve (along with profits) when it launched Barbie in 1959. Even better is having the toy manufacturer not being totally free from blame in Gerwig’s colorful satire. She flies just close enough to the sun to inflict jabs at Mattel and Hollywood studio mentality but not draw blood or alienate fans. It’s kind of miraculous with what she was allowed to do.
A soft satirical comedy full of loud fluorescents and pink hues with nods to THE LEGO MOVIE (and how Everything is Awesome!), BARBIE is a rarefied blockbuster where its explored theme of femininity in a patriarchal society cuts both ways when masculine ideology is brought over to make a dreamland into a nightmare, albeit for a short interval.
I’m sure a segment of the population would acknowledge Ken’s changes as justified. However, his newfound knowledge of patriarchy is an infantile facsimile of male superiority. When he acknowledges patriarchy wasn’t what it thought it was, it draws to a topic of conversation worth having outside the film-going experience.
Many conversations will be had about Gerwig’s comedy. Some thematic in nature, others about its impressive visuals (Sarah Greenwood’s production design and Rodrigo Prieto’s colorful photography are incredibly conceived and conceptualized), and few about Ryan Gosling’s comic brilliance. The dream houses, the costumes, the journey to and from Barbieland accompanied by music from Tame Impala – part of a pop-friendly soundtrack featuring Lizzo, Dua Lipa, and Billie Eilish, among others – cannot be understated.
BARBIE is a party. It’s a cotton candy ride that is satirical until it turns serious. But it never veers from what it was destined to become: a pink, progressive programmer phenomenon.
Grade: B+
