Barbie

The way in which the 2023 film, Barbie, has managed to take over the world has been incredibly interesting to witness, as it feels like a special event in film history. Although people were extremely skeptical when it was announced, that changed once they saw that acclaimed director, Greta Gerwig, who had previously impressed critics and audiences with her work on Lady Bird and the 2019 version of Little Women, was going to lead the film, which increased the pedigree of the project quite a bit. With trailers that looked promisingly quirky yet satirical, a star-studded cast led by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling (literally picture-perfect casting choices) and its similar opening window to the recent Christopher Nolan film ‘’Oppenheimer’’ leading moviegoers to support both films collectively, which coined the term and craze ”Barbenheimer”, the movie had so much power heading into its eventual release.

In Barbieland, a matriarchal system where women hold all positions of power, stereotypical Barbie (played by Margot Robbie) loves her blissfully perfect life with all the other Barbies, while Beach Ken (played by Ryan Gosling) continuously tries to form a relationship with Barbie due to having no purpose outside of her yet is constantly dismissed. One day however, Barbie wakes up to find that things aren’t picturesque in her life anymore, with thoughts of mortality clouding her head. After being informed by Weird Barbie (played by Kate McKinnon) that she is being affected by the girl playing with her in real life, she heads to the real world to try and solve the problem (with Ken unknowingly tagging along). Upon arriving, she meets her owner, a teenage girl named Sasha (played by Ariana Greenblatt) and her mother, Gloria (played by America Ferrera), but upon discovering that Sasha now hates Barbie and everything she stands for, she faces an existential crisis, not helped out by the Mattel CEO (played by Will Ferrell) trying to force her back to Barbieland, and with Ken, after having adopted every toxic male trait from the real world, having converted Barbieland into a patriarchal system where the women have become submissive. With the mother/daughter duo backing her up, Barbie will need to work through her own problems, see the real good that can come from herself and her brand, and right the wrongs of her world in order to set things right.

Met with positive reviews from critics and grossing over a billion dollar at the box office (becoming the highest grossing film of 2023 as well as housing the biggest opening weekend for a movie directed by a woman), Barbie has turned heads for its outstanding production value, entertaining actors and its clever script and direction, but it does falter slightly in its delivery of its ideas, characters, and even overall narrative.

The idea for a Barbie film has been thrown around for several years now, with original ideas starting as early back as 2009 with various writers and directors being tossed into the pile and several acting choices being looked at like Amy Schumer and later Anne Hathaway. Eventually, Warner Brothers. Pictures secured the rights to the film and Margot Robbie got involved as a producer (as well as eventually getting the lead role), which led the film down the path that it took. The premise of a Barbie movie at first seems like it wouldn’t be able to do that much if it played itself straight, but this movie made a lot of effort to not only push the brand to new heights, but also construct a story that takes advantage of every common association made about the toy, whether positive or negative. The script handled by Gerwig and her screenwriter husband, Noah Baumbach, is very clever, mapping out several components to poke fun of and call out all the known controversies surrounding the very nature of Barbie, but also features just as much positive reception to result in a satirical yet constructive experience that tries to be welcoming to all audiences. The outline for this story contains a lot of fresh ideas that breathed new life into a popular but stagnant brand, dabbling with drops of identity, self-assurance, positive and negative stereotypes within pop culture, and even thoughts of existentialism to bring a sense of maturity to an otherwise goofy and even child-like movie. Gerwig’s direction is pretty solid throughout; having to balance a lot of elements and ideas that come across as very heavy-handed and hateful but is held back just enough to be mainstream and not like an attack on a singular group (more rather an attack on an idea). The actors all feel wonderfully led in presenting these self-aware yet likeably innocent creations, the visuals are bright, colorful and instantly give the film a unique identity, and it clearly comes from a person who grew up with Barbies but someone who also isn’t afraid to talk about the parts that they aren’t fond of, it’s a good showcase of her talents.

However, while the outline for the story is very strong and leads way to a lot of great ideas, you can feel the film starting to get lost in itself as it keeps going. The writing brings up a lot of themes about the importance of women, how they are treated in everyday life, and what it even means to be a women in modern day, and while its handled well with intelligence, it does feel a little preachy once it reaches the second act where it goes a little too cartoonish in places as a means of serving its ideas rather than for any logical purpose. It becomes so packed that it’s hard to determine what they’re even trying to say, the situation it goes down becomes a bit too predictable and expected for a film that from the outset is quite unique (it’s not really that new to hear someone say ”the patriarchy is bad”, because of course, it is)  and a good chunk of the dialogue just feels like a creative spouting their ideology to you rather than having characters state their own wants to you.

The characters don’t feel like they stand on their own and more just act as avatars whose entire purpose in the movie is just to form an identity, but considering the nature of the dolls, it does make sense and some interesting stuff does comes out of it. The idea that a doll acts as both a reflection of humanity’s greatest and also most shallow components is a nice insight, and even going further to say that they are a tool that people can inject their own insecurities into which in turn influences the world in a positive or negative way, is very creative, stands as the more interesting and original message the film brings up, and how the movie goes about showing this not just through Barbie, but also through Ken, shows the strength behind the film’s script and execution. All the pieces are here to create something truly profound, but something is missing within this framework to make it succeed as well as it could’ve. With that said, none of the roles are bad by any means, both Barbie and Ken have interesting element to them that match the doll’s traits and even means of existing, and the entire cast for this film is very entertaining. As a producer, Margot Robbie gets a lot of credit for the direction the film goes in, and she does very good as the main Barbie, being able to portray that blanket almost blindly hopeful sense of positivity that you need for a role like this, her ability to emote is very strong throughout the whole picture (especially during scene where she has to cry) and she’s just overall very likeable. A lot of the other actress playing other Barbies like Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, Alexandra Shipp, and Hari Nef do pretty good to stand out despite literally being the same person, as do most of the other Barbies, but most of them aren’t shown enough to really leave an impression.

The Kens do suffer a bit due to how much they are influenced by the commentary, but the acting is still good enough to make it work. Ryan Gosling does have this wonderfully naïve mentality to him that makes him pretty endearing when he gets the chance to be, his comedic timing is pretty good, other actors like Simu Liu and Kingsley Ben-Adir work well as other Kens, and his conclusion does feel like the right direction, but again, it could’ve used a bit more time to flesh out their own issues and wants in order for their narrative direction to feel more earned and not just as a means to push a message. For the supporting cast, they are acted pretty well, but outside of Rhea Perlman who plays a version of Ruth Handler (the co-founder and creator of Barbie), they aren’t used in the most interesting way. Michael Cera as Allen gets a few cute scenes but not much else, America Ferrera does a pretty good job acting wise (particularly during a speech she gives near the end of the film), but her purpose (along with her daughter) doesn’t get a proper conclusion and is instead rushed through really quickly, and Will Ferrell may not be as annoying as he could’ve been, but his routine is very tiring by this point and the character is so pointless, you forget he’s even in the film when it reaches the climax.

Easily one of the best elements of this film is the production value and how it instantly screams ‘’Barbie’’ in the best way possible. The look of the brand has always been distinct, but the level of detail that Gerwig, as well as production designer, Sarah Greenwood brings to making this world look and feel alive, while simultaneously looking fake and plastic is very impressive and visually memorable. It has a mixture of a modern theme park attraction, but also contains flourishes of a classic 1940s Hollywood musical through its artificial yet still physical nature. The set decoration by Katie Spencer and Ashley Swanson perfectly captures the vibe and even structure of a Barbie environment, the art direction is brimming with vibrant pastel colors that give off a subdue mood while still looking striking, costume designer Jacqueline Durran clearly had a lot of fun copying outfits from the various dolls, and even a lot of the cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto shows off these locations in a really great fashion, bringing a toy-esque energy that makes things feel natural yet unnatural at the same time.  Most of the soundtrack does have a very nice party energy to it that definitely helped in drawing a lot of people in. With a few song and dances numbers sprinkled throughout (all of which look and sound pretty fun), and a score by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt that matches the energy and flair of the film, it is able to capture the bright and lively aspects of the story and even some of the more quiet and thoughtful moments as well. Despite featuring a quirky light-hearted vibe, the film isn’t that funny most of the time. It’s not that it’s trying and failing to make you laugh, but a majority of the lines aren’t anything that creative or even that new. It’s done okay and there are a few cute visuals gags (that intro is pretty great), but it could’ve been a lot better

Barbie could’ve been a massive failure with different people at the helm and a different mindset going into the writing team (that Amy Schumer project sounded very cynical, stereotypical, pretty lazy and even pretty self-serving to herself), but in the world that we live in now where it can earn a plentiful amount of money during a period of nothing but box office flops, it can stand proud for what it has accomplished. Its enjoyably original, the directing and writing from Gerwig is smart, satirical, and thankfully positive while still being critical, the actors are very entertaining to watch, the visuals are very inviting, and it has enough heart and emotion underneath its quirky goofiness to make it more than just a silly popcorn flick. It can have dialogue that starts to feel a little ‘’inspirational social media post-y’’ at times, the characters are more message-driven than personality, and it is a little sloppy in its execution around the middle section of the film, but it is still entertaining and more than deserving of the hype it has received. Come on Barbie, Let’s Go Party, indeed.