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Barbie
A near brilliant screenplay by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach and some truly extraordinary production values are the real stars of 2023's Barbie, a splashy and colorful look inside the world of the most famous doll in the world that provides a balance between a feminist statement and the ultimate battle of the sexes.
Margot Robbie and at least dozen other actresses play the title role, but Robbie plays "Stereotypical" Barbie, the Barbie archetype that we all think of in the one piece bathing suit driving the pink sports car and living in her Malibu dream house. Barbie has the perfect life including the perfect boyfriend, Ken (Ryan Gosling) and there are a dozen of them too. Barbie has a crisis of conscience that is so serious that when Barbie takes off her high heels, her feet become flat. Barbie learns the only way to resume her perfect life in Barbie World is to travel to the real world and find the little girl who owned and abused her.
While Barbie is out looking to resume her perfect utopian life, Ken decides to ac company in order to find the real meaning of his life, hoping to find out he is something more than Barbie's boyfriend. Barbie's journey leads her to Mattel, where they want to take control of her again while Ken's journey takes him to Century City, changing his destiny forever.
Gerwig and Baumbach put a lot of thought into this imaginative look into an institution that everyone on the planet has fleeting knowledge of and actually brings up a couple of thought provoking questions. Just like Barbie in this movie, I found myself wondering if Barbie empowered women or did she set the women's movement back a hundred years since Barbie's life was nothing like the life of real woman. All woman don't have everything and aren't what they want to be. This movie reminded me of a T-shirt I saw once that said "I hate Barbie...that bitch has everything." Gerwig and Baumbach have decided to remind us that she doesn't.
Director Gerwig was clearly afforded a huge budget for this epic and it's all up there oon the screen. Eye-popping production design, art direction, and set direction which all have a definite through line (pink), not to mention some stunning costumes (of course). Robbie lights up the screen in the title role and Ryan Gosling is electric sex on legs as Ken. And that is Gosling doing his own singing on the homoerotic production number, "I'm Just Ken." Also loved Issa Rae as President Barbie, Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie, Simu Liu as Asian Ken, and Will Ferrell as the President of Mattel. I have to confess I actually screamed as the opening credits began and the words "A Mattel Production" flashed across the screen. And the silly prologue went a little longer than necessary, but this has to be seen to be believed.
A near brilliant screenplay by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach and some truly extraordinary production values are the real stars of 2023's Barbie, a splashy and colorful look inside the world of the most famous doll in the world that provides a balance between a feminist statement and the ultimate battle of the sexes.
Margot Robbie and at least dozen other actresses play the title role, but Robbie plays "Stereotypical" Barbie, the Barbie archetype that we all think of in the one piece bathing suit driving the pink sports car and living in her Malibu dream house. Barbie has the perfect life including the perfect boyfriend, Ken (Ryan Gosling) and there are a dozen of them too. Barbie has a crisis of conscience that is so serious that when Barbie takes off her high heels, her feet become flat. Barbie learns the only way to resume her perfect life in Barbie World is to travel to the real world and find the little girl who owned and abused her.
While Barbie is out looking to resume her perfect utopian life, Ken decides to ac company in order to find the real meaning of his life, hoping to find out he is something more than Barbie's boyfriend. Barbie's journey leads her to Mattel, where they want to take control of her again while Ken's journey takes him to Century City, changing his destiny forever.
Gerwig and Baumbach put a lot of thought into this imaginative look into an institution that everyone on the planet has fleeting knowledge of and actually brings up a couple of thought provoking questions. Just like Barbie in this movie, I found myself wondering if Barbie empowered women or did she set the women's movement back a hundred years since Barbie's life was nothing like the life of real woman. All woman don't have everything and aren't what they want to be. This movie reminded me of a T-shirt I saw once that said "I hate Barbie...that bitch has everything." Gerwig and Baumbach have decided to remind us that she doesn't.
Director Gerwig was clearly afforded a huge budget for this epic and it's all up there oon the screen. Eye-popping production design, art direction, and set direction which all have a definite through line (pink), not to mention some stunning costumes (of course). Robbie lights up the screen in the title role and Ryan Gosling is electric sex on legs as Ken. And that is Gosling doing his own singing on the homoerotic production number, "I'm Just Ken." Also loved Issa Rae as President Barbie, Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie, Simu Liu as Asian Ken, and Will Ferrell as the President of Mattel. I have to confess I actually screamed as the opening credits began and the words "A Mattel Production" flashed across the screen. And the silly prologue went a little longer than necessary, but this has to be seen to be believed.