Barbie (2023)

Starring: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, Simu Liu, Will Ferrell, Michael Cera, Alexandra Shipp, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, Helen Mirren, John Cena, and Dua Lipa
Grade: A

“SUBLIME!”

Summary

In a parody of the opening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, a narrator (Mirren) describes how since the beginning of the time, since the first little girl has ever existed, there have always been dolls. Unfortunately, they were always baby dolls. The girls who played with them could only pretend being mothers. This practice continued until the existence of Barbie (Robbie). In place of the famous monolith, a huge version of Barbie appears, and the kids are in awe, prompting them to destroy their baby dolls.

Barbie can be anything. She started out as a woman in a bathing suit, but she transformed into different versions over the years. She looks different, has different occupations, different clothing, etc. If Barbie can be anything, women can be anything. This evolution in Barbieland has reflected onto the real girls of today in the Real World. Girls grow into women who can achieve anything they set their mind to. This is all attributed to Barbie. The narrator states that thanks to Barbie, “All problems of feminism and equal rights have been solved”. At least, that’s what the Barbies in Barbieland think.

In Barbieland, Barbie wakes up in her pink Dreamhouse and the day couldn’t be better. Everyone is happy, and everything is perfect. She greets her neighbors, showers in a shower with no water coming out, opens a toy box with clothes in it and the clothes appear on her, and she has her breakfast by acting as if she’s consuming the toy food. Like a little girl’s imagination, Barbie floats down from the top of her house to her car as if a child picks her up and places her there. While driving her convertible down the street, she greets her neighbors Skipper (Erica Ford), Barbie’s pregnant friend Midge (Emerald Fennell) who was discontinued by Mattel because a pregnant doll is “too weird”, and hundreds of other Barbies, with some even seen doing construction work. At the Pink House, Barbie sits in with President Barbie (Issa Rae) and all her advisors and they all speak love and positivity to each other, with Journalist Barbie (Ritu Arya) even asking how President Barbie is so amazing. Immediately after this, Journalist Barbie is given the Nobel Prize for Journalism. The Nobel Prize for Literature goes to Writer Barbie (Shipp). Moving along, Barbie is in a courtroom watching Lawyer Barbie (Sharon Rooney) make an impassioned speech about corporations having no free speech rights, so any claim on their part to exercising a right is their attempt to turn a democracy into a plutocracy. As the other Barbies cheer for her, Lawyer Barbie makes it known that she’s bothered by their argument, but she has no difficulty holding both logic and feeling at the same time and “It does not diminish my powers. It expands them”. This gets another round of applause from everyone and a wink from Barbie. While driving, Barbie also greets a pilot Barbie and astronaut Barbies.

Enter Ken (Gosling).

You see, Barbie has a great day every day. Unfortunately, Ken only has a great day if Barbie looks at him. On the beach, Ken greets Barbie, and she reciprocates. He’s happy, though he’s immediately perturbed after all of the other Kens greet Barbie and she does the same, including Rival Ken (Liu). All the other Kens and Barbies start greeting each other too including Mermaid Barbie (Lipa). There’s also Alan (Cera). There aren’t any multiples of Alan. He’s just kind of there. Ken gets Barbie’s attention, and the entire beach while he’s at it, before running into the water to attempt to surf. Since it’s hardened plastic, he bounces off it, flies into the air, and hits the shore. Barbie and another help an embarrassed Ken up, only for Rival Ken to start talking trash to him for all the other Kens to see. They argue who can “beach” each other off better between them, and they decide to go about it right then and there until Barbie breaks up the argument. The toy ambulance shows up, and they take in an overdramatic Ken to check on him. Dr. Barbie (Hari Nef) says he’s fine. Next, he explains how his occupation isn’t surfer or lifeguard, he’s just “Beach Ken”, so he was out of his element with the surfing. Writer Barbie, who apparently doubles as a nurse, says Ken has already healed, so he’s relieved. Then, he asks Barbie if he can come over that night. Even though she has a big blowout party with all the other Barbies planned at her house, she passes it off as no big deal and invites Ken to come along. At the party that night, everyone is there. The Barbies all dance with each other and Ken tries to play things cool on the side. He doesn’t join in until he sees Rival Ken dancing alongside Barbie. Once he jumps in, Barbie greets him but exits to greet some other people, so the Kens keep the dance going. Right away though, Rival Ken pisses off Ken with a comment about how he can’t flip like him.

All the Barbies dance together and talk about how awesome the party is, and Barbie is loving every second of it. Out of nowhere, she asks the others, “You guys ever think about dying?”.

Everyone stops. The music stops, everyone stares at her, and Barbie wonders why she just said that. She recovers by adding that she’s just “dying to dance” and everyone goes back to smiling and partying. Barbie puts a smile back on, but it’s a noticeably uneasy one.

Once the party is over, Ken attempts a kiss on Barbie, but she just stands there and smiles. She says he can go, but he wants to stay over since they’re girlfriend/boyfriend, though he’s genuinely not sure what they’d do. She politely asks him to leave, so he asks if this is because of Rival Ken. It’s not, as she assures him Rival Ken is just a friend. Barbie adds that this is Barbie’s Dreamhouse, not Ken’s Dreamhouse. Plus, it’s girls’ night and all the other Barbies including President Barbie are waiting for her. Ken notes that every night is girls’ night, which she only confirms, adding that this is a forever thing. She runs into the house to party some more with her friends and Ken says to himself, “I love you too” because he can’t help but be madly in love with her. Eventually, Barbie goes to sleep and lets it be known to the others that she’s definitely not thinking about death anymore, though the smile leaves her face once she says it. The next morning, Barbie wakes up and everyone is happily greeting her from their houses just like every other day. However, this time Barbie isn’t as happy as usual. She looks groggy and a bit uncomfortable, and the wake-up song that accompanies her during this starts to include a few lyrics that reflects her inner feelings about death. When she gets ready in the morning, she starts to react to certain things she did not before like smelling her bad breath, thinking the shower water is too cold (despite no water actually coming out of the shower head), her waffle being burnt, and her toy milk being somehow expired. When she floats to her car from the roof, she actually falls to the ground this time, though she’s fine. At the beach, the other Barbies ask Barbie to run to the water with them. She takes off her shoes, but her feet fall flat-footed on the ground, which she’s not used to since they’re always in the perfect stance for heels. Because of this, she falls down. Once Basketball Ken (Kingsley Ben-Adir) spots her with his binoculars, she quickly goes to sit on a bleacher.

All the other Barbies go to talk to her, and she talks about how she fell and she’s embarrassed. Writer Barbie is weirded out by this because “Barbie doesn’t get embarrassed”. When Barbie explains how her heels are on the ground and she’s no longer on tiptoes, Dr. Barbie takes a look and starts dry heaving at her flat feet. The others scream, and Basketball Ken starts dry heaving as well, but Lawyer Barbie tells him to stop, so he apologizes. Barbie tells them about all of the other strange happenings that have happened to her this morning, so Writer Barbie says she’s malfunctioning. Now, she has to visit Weird Barbie (McKinnon). Apparently, she used to be the most beautiful Barbie of them all, but one kid played with her too hard in the Real World and completely fucked her up. Now, she’s fated to an eternity of making other Barbies perfect while falling more and more into disrepair herself, according to Dr. Barbie. Though anxious about meeting her, Barbie goes to the Weirdhouse to meet Weird Barbie, who greets her while doing the splits on her second floor and flipping down to her. After some initial awkward pleasantries, Barbie shows off her flat feet, which Weird Barbie has never seen before. She questions what led to this and after some prying, Barbie admits she’s been having thoughts of death. This she has heard of and realizes Barbie or someone else has opened a portal. Because of this, there’s a rip in the continuum that is the membrane between Barbieland and the Real World. If Barbie wants to be perfect again, she has to crossover to the Real World to go fix it, or she’s going to get worse. Once Weird Barbie points out Barbie’s cellulite on her thigh, she worries Barbie even more by talking about how she will start to get feelings of sadness, and she’ll get mushy and complicated.

There is only one way to solve this. Barbie has to go to the Real World and find the girl who is playing with her, something that Barbie was unaware of, but Weird Barbie knows. Weird Barbie explains that the girl who is playing with Barbie is sad, and her thoughts, feelings, and humanness are interfering with Barbie’s “dollness”. Barbie can’t believe this girl would be sad because she’s under the impression that the Barbies fixed everything so that “All women in the Real World can be happy and powerful”. Piling on, Weird Barbie says it takes two to rip a portal, so Barbie was a part of this in some way too. Despite Barbie wanting things to be exactly as they are currently and not seeing how she could have played a part, Weird Barbie adds that regardless of this fact, the two are becoming intertwined. Barbie has to help this little girl to help herself. While holding up a high heel and a sandal, Weird Barbie gives Barbie two options. She can either go back to her regular life and forget any of this ever happened, or she can know the truth about the universe. Immediately, she chooses the heel, with an annoyed Weird Barbie saying she needs to choose the other one. Barbie argues that she’s technically Stereotypical Barbie not Adventure Barbie, and she’s fully on board with forgetting any of this ever happened. Weird Barbie refuses this and tells her she has to go with the second option and fix the portal herself on account of Mattel making the rules. She still doesn’t want to but is scared into accepting once Weird Barbie brings up cellulite again. Finally, she’s down to go through the portal, though this was just a part of Weird Barbie’s speech it turns out.

The way to get to the Real World is to drive a car, then a speedboat, then a rocket ship, then a tandem bike, then a camper van, and then a snowmobile, which will land her in Los Angeles. There, she will have to don neon and rollerblades and “enter the country of California”. Barbie asks how she will find the girl, but Weird Barbie just says she will know. To get back, Barbie will have to the same thing but in reverse order. If she doesn’t fix things, what’s ugly and weird will only get worse. With Weird Barbie telling Barbie that she will end up looking like her, which makes Barbie yell and then apologize. Everyone has a going away party for Barbie, and Rival Ken brings up to Ken how she’s going without him. Lying through his teeth, Ken assures him he was asked to go, but he wanted to stay. Rival Ken thinks he’s scared, and she didn’t want him to go, prompting Ken to get defensive. Following this, Barbie says her goodbyes to her friends. They all talk about how she’ll see all the good work they’ve done for women in the Real World and how there’s a great chance every woman she encounters will thank her with a big hug, putting Barbie’s mind at ease. She drives off and sings to herself. Emerging from the backseat is Ken, who joins in on the song. Barbie freaks out and flips the car, though it lands perfectly. She tells Ken to leave, but he can’t because he made a double bet with Ken and can’t look uncool in front of him. After some arguing, she relents since he brought his rollerblades, but she won’t let him sit in the front seat.

It’s off to the Real World!

They go through the trek exactly as Weird Barbie described it. Eventually, they get to Santa Monica in their rollerblades and neon outfits, but Barbie notices something is off. People are staring at them, men are hollering at her, and she feels like there is an undertone of violence from the people around. On the other hand, Ken is comfortable and is happy with the environment and its people. Feeling the need for feminine energy, Barbie goes over to a nearby construction site. Since this is the Real World however, it consists of men who quickly shout pickup lines her way. As a response, Barbie quickly states that neither her nor Ken have genitals, though Ken denies this to the strangers once she leaves. As the two continue, Barbie is seeing things as being very male-dominated in the Real World. Ken agrees, seeing it as a complete reversal of Barbieland, and he cracks a smile because of it. Barbie sees a billboard of the Miss Universe pageant and assumes it’s the Supreme Court. Right after, some guy smacks Barbie on the ass. She turns and punches them, and her and Ken are immediately arrested. When the cops hit on her, she takes Ken to get new clothes. They get some cowboy-looking attire from a clothing store but don’t pay for it, prompting the worker to chase them. With this, Barbie and Ken are arrested again. Following this, Barbie ponders how to find the little girl and sits down to think. This bores Ken, so Barbie tells him to go on a walk to give her some time. Ken ends up walking through the city and sees businessmen, guys working out, and the respect he gets just for being male. He starts to really like what he sees. He walks into some sort of corporation and sees how a guy treats his female assistant and mimics him from a distance, admiring the male behavior of the Real World. Ken sees a montage of commercials, the Presidents and their faces on money, and pictures of Sylvester Stallone, and he’s loving what the Real World is offering men.

Back on the park bench, Barbie goes deep into her own mind and gets visions of the little girl, Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt). We see her as a kid playing with Barbies with her mother Gloria (Ferrera), but she’s now a junior high school student and is very unhappy with life. Because of it, she has become noticeably distant from Gloria. Coming back out of these visions, tears fall down from Barbie’s eyes, but she feels much better. She looks around and notices all of the other people in the park, each responding to each other with different emotions, and it makes her smile. She turns to see an old woman next to her on the bench and tells her she’s beautiful, and she confidently agrees with Barbie, which makes her laugh. Ken comes running back to Barbie, as they both have come to their own conclusions about their next step. Barbie says the girl is at school while Ken excitedly exclaims “Men rule the world!”. Barbie asks what Ken says, but he dismisses it and says they should go to the school. They start walking, though Barbie looks back at the old woman as they walk away. At Worldwide Mattel Headquarters in Los Angeles, worker Aaron (Connor Swindells) gets a call from FBI Agent Dan (Ray Fearon) who tells Aaron that two of their dolls have gotten loose and gives him all the details, demanding Mattel’s help on the matter. Apparently, this has happened before, as Aaron tells his coworkers about Skipper and how she turned up at some family’s home in Key West. She asked to babysit the kids and then tried to take their toddler surfing. They were able to straighten it out and keep it under wraps, but this is a much bigger problem. Aaron goes straight to the top floor and greets executive assistant Gloria at the front desk. She’s working on new designs, all of which were recent costumes of Barbie. She refers to them as “Irrepressible Thoughts of Death Barbie”, “Full Body Cellulite Barbie”, and “Crippling Shame Barbie” before he stops looking through them.

He goes in to talk to the top brass, but Gloria is adamant he can’t go because they are in the midst of a special idea session, and no one is allowed inside. Aaron goes inside anyway to see the CEO (Ferrell) of Mattel with his board consisting of all men. The CEO talks to them about things like female empowerment, dreams, and female agency and what they are trying to do with their products only to be bothered by Aaron’s interruption. Aaron insists on sending his message, so they compromise on a whisper. Aaron whispers it to one boardroom guy, and they transfer it all the way to the CEO, who faints momentarily. Getting up, he talks about the potential disaster that could occur if people found out about their dolls coming to Los Angeles from Barbieland as life-size versions of themselves. Secretly listening in from outside of the door is Gloria, who is rightfully shocked about the possibility. As the CEO flips out, Aaron asks if Barbieland is an “alternate reality or a place where your imagination…”, but he’s cut off as all the board members say “Yes”. The CEO says this is a job for the box, and no one rests until the doll is back in a box. As Barbie starts to feel anxiety for the first time, Ken is feeling confident and manly. They both approach the junior high school, but everyone is still looking at them because they’re still dressed like cowboys. Ken leaves Barbie be to go into the library to find books on trucks while Barbie goes to find Sasha. She spots her, but another girl stops Barbie and basically says Sasha is popular and isn’t going to give Barbie the time of day. Barbie doesn’t buy it and goes in any way to greet her. She introduces herself as Barbie and comes off as a crazy person. When she’s called a bimbo by Sasha’s group, she counters with how Barbie can be anything, from a lawyer to a Nobel Prize Winner. She jokingly asks if she’s getting a big hug from all of them for being their favorite toy, but Sasha tells her they haven’t played with Barbies since they were five years old or so.

Barbie doesn’t understand why their experience with the toy has been so unpleasant, so Sasha’s friends encourage Sasha to own her. With this, Sasha goes on a rant about how Barbies have been making women feel bad about themselves since they were invented, and how she represents everything wrong with our culture, pointing to stuff like sexualized capitalism, and unrealistic physical ideals as prime examples. Barbie argues they are so much more than that, but her clothes don’t help her argument. When she does concede she’s technically Stereotypical Barbie, Sasha piles on with how she set the feminist movement back 50 years, she destroys girls’ innate sense of worth, and she’s killing the planet with her glorification of rampant consumerism. Barbie starts to get emotional as she tries to explain her goal of making girls happy and powerful, but Sasha counters that she was until Barbie showed up to remind Sasha of her existence. After Sasha calls Barbie a fascist, Barbie excuses herself as she cries. Ken leaves the library with a bunch of books about men (and one on horses) before running into an adult female outside of the building who asks what the time is. Immediately, he’s happy to see she respects him. After saying he doesn’t know what the time is, he asks this random woman why Barbie never told him about patriarchy. Following him confusing the hell out of her, Ken goes to some random corporation and asks for a “high-level, high-paying job with influence”. The businessman he talks to tell him to get an MBA and potentially a PhD. Ken asks if being a man is enough, but the guy thinks it’s the opposite right now. Annoyed, Ken doesn’t think they’re doing “patriarchy” very well, but the guy laughs it off, saying they’re actually doing it very well. They just hide it better now. After failed attempts at getting a job as a doctor and “beach”, the latter which he doesn’t understand isn’t a position, Barbie is seen crying outside the school.

Workers from Mattel show up in an unmarked black truck and sternly ask for Barbie to come with, so she does. Ken shows up in time to see this but decides not to follow because he trusts Mattel. Instead, he decides to go back to Barbieland to tell all the Kens what he’s learned. School is done for the day, and Sasha is picked up by Gloria who got off work early because the Barbie crisis. When Sasha gets in the car, she sees Barbie going into the Mattel vehicle, so she assumes she got arrested and is happy about it. Once she explains to Gloria how the woman thinks she’s Barbie, Gloria realizes the news is true and gets out of the car to chase them, though the Mattel vehicles drive away. Barbie is taken to the top floor of Mattel Headquarters and meets the board. She wants everything back to normal, so all the CEO asks her to do is to get back into the life-size toy box they have in the room. She suggests they get Ken first, but they aren’t worried about him. Actually, as this is happening, he’s traveling back to Barbieland by himself. With this, Barbie decides to go in the box. Before she does, she just wants to talk to the woman in charge, only to come to the realization that only men run Mattel. The CEO gets defensive and brings up how there have been women CEOs, with one of them he can’t remember and the most recent being in the 90s. Even so, he still argues women are the foundation of this “very long phallic building”. Plus, they have gender-neutral bathrooms, all the men who are there love women, and he has a mother and an aunt. He also adds that some of his best friends are Jewish. He demands she get in the box and calls her a Jezebel, which freaks out the others for some reason. Then, they demonstrate for her and call the process “easy”, so she goes inside despite her reluctance. However, when they start to close the ties around her wrists, she slips out of the box and asks to use the bathroom to make sure her hair is perfect first. The CEO agrees to this, so she looks to escape.

The chase is on!

Now, Barbie has to figure a way out of this mess while fulfilling the job she set out to do to get things back to normal. At the same time, a new and improved Ken has made some serious changes to Barbieland in her absence, and she’s in for a big surprise when she gets back.

My Thoughts:

To my genuine amazement, Barbie was actually one of the better movies of 2023, dispelling most of the preconceived notions many, myself included, had about the film and knowing ahead of time that very little in the film was geared towards me or compelled me from the outset as a viewer. It’s a testament to great filmmaking, an intelligent voice, and pure artistry, with a cast and crew fully behind the idea that they had carte blanche in turning what could have been a lazily produced, extremely commercialized, surefire money-maker movie about the world’s most famous doll into what was instead a contemporary and culturally significant phenomenon that will be remembered by generations as one of this decade’s defining cinematic experiences, with it arguably having the potential of aging like other cinematic events such as Goodfellas or Titanic. In a perfect fusion of star power, a director with a vision, an attention to detail throughout every portion of the production process, and an immaculately curated and multifaceted screenplay consisting of elements and references pulled from technicolor musicals to the Bible, Barbie subverts all audience expectations of what we thought it was going to be. Actually, it aligns seamlessly with what Margot Robbie said in her interview for The Hollywood Reporter in that Greta Gerwig’s triumph is very much giving audiences “The thing you didn’t know you wanted”.

Sometimes, the popularity of a movie can yield an internal battle in the head of the viewer, especially for those that watch as many movies as I do. It’s not that one wants to be problematic or divisive, but there is a bit of a joy in going against the grain of what is popular. Is it a sense of superiority? Ego? Sure, it could be. With a film like Barbie, there was always going to be a sharp divide of people that didn’t want to like it or criticize it because of certain themes, plot points, characters, or what they thought the movie was going to be, regardless of if they have watched it or not. More than likely, these types of people aren’t the target audience for a movie like Barbie, but what it may not get credit for is that though the film’s content may not be geared towards male-centric audiences with how things play out, it’s not that black-and-white. Barbie is done well enough that anyone can find entertainment value in some aspect of this production. It’s all about the effort of going out of your way to see it. Even so, everyone can admit that going into a film and knowing you are not the target audience can result in one of two things. You can walk in begrudgingly with a secret goal of wanting something to fail because of what you think the movie may be, or you can walk in with an open mind because you know the content of the movie may not be your cup of tea, but you’re open to a new experience and perspective. As a film critic, the goal should always be the latter because simply put, not everything is made for you specifically. It’s about the artists creating art and the viewing audience deciding if they like it or not. It’s no secret that Greta Gerwig’s Barbie leans to a more female audience, so the characters and themes align with this idea, which is fine. You can’t really expect anything less with a movie adaptation of a doll that everyone on planet Earth associates with womanhood, but then, the controversy came out as the money started pouring in.

Some were turned off by the takedown of themes like patriarchy in everyday society, the focus on the uphill battle women face in every facet of life, and the mocking of what it is perceived to be masculinity in general. Admittedly, I was a bit weary of this as well, mostly because so many movies have touched on such topics in a groan-inducing, one-sided way that can’t help but piss off even the most understanding of people. At first glance, Barbie looks like it’s going to be this as well. What no one saw coming is that it may be the first movie to do it correctly. In fact, the expertly written screenplay by Gerwig and partner Noah Baumbach is done so well that it forces even the most close-minded person to be open-minded. You just have to be the one brave enough to make the leap in turning it on. In doing so, it will become apparent that most of the criticism regarding the content of Barbie is surface level. It’s so much more than what you think it is. Yes, the film honors the Barbie IP as you would imagine, with a lot of the production design, characters, and references being exactly what Barbie is and should be, but this is a tenth of what the movie is. It teases the audience with what they may think Barbie will be about and keeps this part of the fandom interested, but it also subverts the expectations that come along with the name by being an imaginative and thought-provoking exploration of existentialism, societal norms, the problems with patriarchal or matriarchal-focused societies, sexism, unrealized potential of one’s self, finding out one’s identity within a society that seemingly has predetermined roles, empowerment of women and men, and what it means to not only be a woman, but also what it means to be a human being.

Margot Robbie continues her hot streak as the A-Lister everyone wants to work with by playing one of the most famous female characters ever. When the project was announced, the immediate thought was, “We’re doing movies on toys now? Yeah, that’ll be an easy skip”. Then, Robbie was cast. Attracting big name stars is huge in determining the trajectory of a movie like this. As soon as one of the biggest stars in Hollywood was cast in the titular role, I couldn’t help but take notice, as this is how important star power can be for a film to get a chance. Considering her current value, Robbie would not sign onto a movie like this unless this script had potential, which is why her signing on officially made me realize this was going to be huge, with Ryan Gosling’s addition only confirming it. I’m glad she did too because I had zero interest in seeing Amy Schumer’s idea for Barbie, as she was in talks to play the role in a previous version of the screenplay. Margot Robbie couldn’t have been a better choice. She’s already an absolute bombshell, but she exemplifies the look and aura of Stereotypical Barbie. Getting her to play the role of the iconic toy was a match made in heaven, and it set everything else into place. She sets the tone gracefully and does a great job with her performance, aligning exactly with the goal of the film. At first, she plays the exuberant Barbie as charming and aloof as can be, mirroring the mindset of a little girl playing with her toy without a care in the world. She’s greeting all her friends, she doesn’t have a care in the world, and every day is a party. Plus, she doesn’t give any Ken the time of day. It’s not that she’s bothered by them, it’s just not a priority. It’s girls’ night, and it’s girls’ night every night. All days blend into the next and perfection and femininity is at the forefront, and she, along with all the other Barbies that rule Barbieland, love every second of it. It’s all about happiness and positivity.

Out of nowhere, to even her shock, Barbie asks her friends during a party if they have ever thought about dying. The whole party stops. Within seconds, it’s clear to the audience that no one in Barbieland has ever thought about something so dark, something deeper than surface level talk about clothes or partying. Even to the audience of families or young girls watching, the shedding of the label “movie about a girl’s doll” begins right with this line, and those who are tuned out initially start to pay attention a bit more. The line and the delivery of it is hilarious as well because of how unexpected it is, but it should be noted how this line in particular changed the perception of the movie for anyone who tuned in. Stuff like this is what I point to in regard to the genius of the screenplay. Gerwig and Baumbach do a great job in honoring Barbie and its history, but Gerwig in particular attached herself to this production because she wanted it to be much more than that. She had something to say.

Initially, Barbie expects a figurative as well as a literal hug from women when entering the Real World because she expects it to be similar to Barbieland, a parallel world where women rule every aspect of life comfortably much like men do in real life. Her positivity and naivety are played with as soon as she gets to Venice Beach after she is gawked at by everyone around her, expressing how she has feelings of anxiety almost immediately. It’s a real feeling women have to deal with just by existing and seeing it through the perspective of Barbie would make anyone turn their head and realize some of the persistent problems in society today. Following this initial shock where Barbie tries her best at getting used to her surroundings and continuously failing because of how different everything is (like getting arrested for stealing cowboy outfits that she would have never had to pay for in Barbieland), she finds solace in finding her way to Sasha, as she thinks that this young girl is the one in need of saving. With a renewed smile and a welcoming approach, an unimpressed and negative Sasha takes down the very fabric of the Barbie brand, echoing every criticism of the character’s existence in a span of a minute. With no regard for Barbie’s feelings, Sasha talking about how the idea of Barbie’s “perfectness” in doll form has ruined the self-esteem of generations of young girls and have only intensified their feelings of a lack of self-worth, despite her intention being the exact opposite. She even piles on some more with how Barbie’s brand glorifies consumerism and sexualized capitalism before calling her a fascist. Shocked and at a loss for words, Barbie is torn apart. What she thinks is a perfect world where she opened the doors for all women to become whoever or whatever they wanted is all just a fabrication, and she can’t see why she’s not helping just by being there.

This world is nothing like she had imagined (“Men look at me like I’m an object, girls hate me, everyone thinks I’m crazy, and I keep getting arrested”).

If anything, her existence and presentation has evoked cynical views in even the youngest of girls, as Sasha sees through what Barbie is presented as. Barbie isn’t a sign of hope to her, but rather what’s wrong with society in general. This is only magnified with the Mattel board, as though the group talks about their goal of empowering women and looks to be relatively honest behind closed doors, it ironically consists of only men. They simply don’t get what women are going through. No matter how much they dress up the idea or try to understand it, they can’t see it through a woman’s perspective because they just aren’t women. Now, arguing that their efforts will never be good enough really isn’t fair, but it serves the purpose of what the film is trying to say in general without being in-your-face about it, so I give it a pass as it’s just a way to make a point in an amusing way.

The dynamic between Barbie, Gloria, and Sasha is written and defined very well. This isn’t just a movie from the perspective of one woman and her experience. These three, their interactions and reactions to each other, and what’s going on represents three perspectives of women today. Sasha is a jaded young girl who sees the disadvantages of being a woman and her outlook on life is entirely negative, exemplified by her telling line of “Women hate women. Men hate women. It’s the only thing we can agree on!”. Barbie is too positive and is completely unaware of the troubling aspects of womanhood because she’s never had to experience it on account of being considered perfect and living in her own fantasy land. Unfortunately, the Real World is nowhere close to the perfection of Barbieland. When faced with this reality, she almost falls apart until Gloria helps her realize, while explaining to little girls across the world watching, “You have to try. Even if you can’t make it perfect, you can make it better”. Moments like these are exactly why Gloria is the woman in the middle. She doesn’t hate herself or anything, but darker thoughts are creeping in because life isn’t as good as she thought it would be at this stage. She’s aging and she wants to bring back those feelings of happiness that she had when she was younger, when she still had hope. Additionally, she is aware of her loosing this connection with her daughter as Sasha gets older. Gloria’s desperate attempts to try to strengthen their relationship falls on deaf ears until Barbie gives up and blames her for everything that has transpired, inspiring Sasha to stand up for her. She doesn’t do anything necessarily wrong as a mother either. This is just something that you see time and time again, as this struggle is commonplace in the relationship between mothers and raising a strong and independent daughter. At some point, they just stop listening to you, and it’s making Gloria feel awful about herself, which Sasha doesn’t take into account because she’s just a kid. Even when Gloria says she has a daughter that hates her, Sasha doesn’t stop her nor denies her statement in the presence of Barbie.

Again, this screenplay covers so many things and is more human in its storytelling aspects than most mainstream films out there. Considering this is a movie about toys, that’s saying something. Anyone paying attention to it as they watch will feel a connection to at least something in the story, and that I guarantee.

The irony is not lost on me that Ken steals the show, but this is more of a testament to Ryan Gosling as a performer. No matter who you are or what you think of Barbie in general, everyone will come out of the movie with one shared opinion: Ken was fantastic. In a fully committed, hysterically goofy role that challenges the image of someone like Gosling, he shows out in arguably the comic performance of the year. He’s laugh-out-loud in every scene and seems to be reveling in the world Gerwig created for him to interact with. His rivalry with Simu Liu’s Ken is uproariously funny by itself (I cackle anytime I think about him screaming “WHAT?!” when Rival Ken says he can’t flip like him), but that’s just a small sliver of the humor Gosling generates out of playing the tough role of the co-star in a movie about a Barbie doll. His road to enlightenment once he realizes the power of men, highlighted by him asking for jobs in the Real World that he’s nowhere near qualified, as well as having this thing for horses, was phenomenal. It was a very amusing way to shine a light on what patriarchy is in today’s society and what it means to be a man in the real world. Even as a massive Sylvester Stallone fan, there’s no way you don’t laugh at the images emblazoned on the screen of Stallone wearing a fur coat that seemingly inspires the new look of Ken upon going back to Barbieland. Simply put, Gerwig’s handling of this side of her feminist tale was genius and consistently funny at every turn. Additional ideas of the Mojo Dojo Casa House and the hilarious gag of Ken deadpanning putting on a pair of sunglasses on top of the sunglasses he was already wearing makes you want more and more of this emotional goofball, even if he did attempt to overthrow the government of Barbieland and everything it stood for.

The heart of Ken is just as layered as Barbie. It may be hard to notice because Gosling is so damn funny in the role and every scene that he’s in heightens the entertainment value tenfold, but Ken’s “B” story is about finding himself. Ken lives in a world where he’s not considered important or “Kenough”, but when he sees that it is possible for him to achieve more, he’s enthralled. He sees what he can be and tries to inspire the other Kens in showing what men can do. It’s a reversal of what women have to go through in the Real World, as they live in a male-dominated society but have to fight through this to find their own individual self-worth when they are born with the automatic disadvantage of their sex. It’s quite the spiritual awakening and seeing it through this reverse perspective, but also seeing how a man would go about things is admittedly hilarious. Greta Gerwig’s recurring gag of using “Push” by Matchbox Twenty in highlighting men being men had me dying laughing. How many women can point back to a time where they dated a guy or were pursued by a guy that played their guitar and sang something like this or “Wonderwall” as a way to seduce a woman? At the same time, how many men have done what the Kens did in this sequence and now look back at how cringeworthy it was? Come on guys, this sequence was genius. There’s a lot of stuff that you can’t help but laugh at and see the truth in like one of the tactics in tricking the Kens is telling them they haven’t seen The Godfather and how they want it explained to them, or doing the classic move of taking off a girl’s glasses like he’s the one who discovered her (“There, now we can see your beautiful face”). Then, there’s the power of women in general in making men extremely jealous and petty by just giving attention to another man, leading to the colorful battle sequence on the beach.

The thing is Ken isn’t a leader, which he later finds out considering he couldn’t even remember the day they were supposed to vote on the new constitution, but that’s okay. Going through this evolution is important for anyone to find out who they truly are. Maybe you are a leader like Barbie, but maybe you’re not. Ken had to go through this to find who he is. Though he still has trouble in the closing sequences, there is enough hope there that you’re happy to see him come to this realization with Barbie’s help, as admitting not knowing who you are is half the battle. He may have been “superfluous” like Gloria says, but he’s not. He can be more. He just needs to find out his purpose. It’s a part of life. When Barbie sits down with him, she even admits taking Ken for granted as a friend and that not every night had to be girls’ night. There is a mutual respect there. She may not love him, but she does care for him and can acknowledge her faults in their friendship. Sometimes, just hearing that is enough. Further encouraging him, Barbie explains how all the things “you thought made you you, aren’t really you”. With this, she comes to this realization for herself as well. It’s Barbie and it’s Ken. It’s women and it’s men. It shouldn’t be one or the other, or one firmly placed in the other. We’re in this together, despite going on different paths. However, we are individuals, and we need to find out who we are and who we will be first and foremost. It’s a call for equality through humor, and even though the joke is still on men, it’s a positive message that ultimately resonates. You’re not sure where you belong anymore? You’re not sure what you were made for? Well, it’s time to find out your purpose, with Barbie’s purpose being a call to arms for every young woman and man looking for a place on this planet.

That’s sweet.

Regardless, Gosling deadpanning the outrageousness of this character and his serious lack of self-awareness like when Barbie consoles him so he tries to kiss her because he reads the situation completely wrong during what should be a moment of self-reflection, helps earn Gosling’s Best Supporting Actor nomination. It’s an all-around performance that wins over the audience by tiptoeing the lines of Loverboy, innocent jackass, borderline villain, and someone who is worthy of a power ballad of the ages that practically invites you to dance and singalong with him. Even when he was sad, you can’t help but love the son of a bitch. When Barbie leaves him for girl’s night and to make himself feel better, he says, “I love you too. I can’t. I gotta go.” before sadly dancing away into the night, it’s impossible to ignore Gosling’s contributions to making Barbie an unforgettable cinematic endeavor.

Though I don’t mind the role of the CEO and the allegory of him and Mattel team consisting entirely of males, Will Ferrell was awfully unfunny in the role. There was a time when Ferrell couldn’t miss, but that period of time is long gone. As the CEO, his manchild antics, random outbursts, and attempts to be this sort of foolish leader was unamusing and bordering on dull. Anytime the film transitions back to his character’s exploits, you’re desperately waiting for them to go back to everyone else. Never would I have thought that Ferrell would be one of the least funny elements of a mainstream comedy, but here we are. When Barbie was riding a serious high of momentum, it almost stopped in its tracks when Robbie’s Barbie crossed paths with him and the overly-dumb chase sequence that followed. Thankfully, Kate McKinnon’s Weird Barbie and Michael Cera’s show-stealing Allan make up for Ferrell. The random inclusion of Barbie creator and Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler in the middle of the chase sequence was tonally out of place too. The significance of her inclusion is understood, though the viewing audience has no idea who she is until the closing scenes of the movie, but placing her initial introduction in the middle of a chase sequence so the pace comes to a screeching halt doesn’t make sense. You can tell she’s important with how Rhea Pearlman carries herself, but the lack of anything signifying who she could possibly be and why her meeting Barbie in the middle of a chase would be confusing for any viewer. The same could be said for the irrelevant and oddly placed scene where the unknown old lady is called beautiful by Barbie to which she concurs. It’s not touched on before or after, and Barbie watches her as she leaves, but there is no explanation for why it happens or what it leads to regarding the plot.

Greta Gerwig actually refused to exclude this scene in particular when executives asked her to, and I still don’t understand why because it does nothing. She argues that the lone scene epitomizes the heart of the movie, but there are so many other scenes that can be related to the “epitome” of the movie that this moment could be removed entirely, and it wouldn’t change a single thing. It’s such a weird hill to die on. Every bit of the movie reinforces the point Gerwig is making with this one interaction. It only further shows why it’s redundant in the grand scheme of things.

Lastly, there’s the polarizing speech from America Ferrera in a scene that can be looked at as the sole reason for her Oscar nomination. It’s delivered well by Ferrera, and the lines are written with an emotional core that many women may resonate with. At the same time, this particularly whiny, cringeworthy, overdramatic scene was exactly the fuel for the other side of the coin that saw Barbie as this male-hating, super-powered feminist propaganda film. Opening with how “It is literally impossible to be a woman” is about as overblown as it gets, resulting in a “Hear we fucking go!” response from anyone who’s not a child as she says it. Again, Barbie isn’t this champion of propaganda (it’s a feminist movie but that’s not a bad thing), but this scene in particular, arguably the defining moment of the film, does not help the argument against it. With that being said, women who are going through trying times will appreciate the intentions of the message no matter what. Truthfully, I do too, as the objective is to make women of all ages see that they aren’t alone in dealing with these issues. The point of having to “be extraordinary, but somehow, we’re always doing it wrong” is a powerful one, and though this is directed towards females, males and parents can still resonate with a lot of what Gloria says, especially with the “Everything is your fault” line. It’s a good way to inspire Barbie, as Gloria tells her that it kills her that Barbie doesn’t think she’s good enough because any young girls who are coming-of-age watching this movie, that are still finding their own place in society, can feel the inspirational delivery of her words. It’s just that it could have been done in a less preachy way. Though it may not be scientifically proven, passing everything Gloria says off in this scene as an indisputable and unequivocal fact will lead to eye rolls from a sizeable portion of the audiences. For those on the fence of Barbie in general, it can be looked at as the scene that pushed them over.

There’s this and arguably the scene where a Ken asks to be a Supreme Court Justice, and President Barbie refuses but gives him a “lower circuit court judgeship” instead on account of “The kens will one day have as much power and influence in Barbieland as women do in the real world”. Nevertheless, as annoying as this joke was, it was a good enough dig to make you crack a smile and concede a “Point taken” type of response. Going along with the “point taken” section, the same can be said of Gloria expertly explaining the ego problem of men in regard to their interactions with women saying, “You have to find a way to reject men’s advances without damaging their egos. Because if you say, ‘Yes’ to them, you’re a tramp, but if you say ‘No’ to them, you’re a prude”.

Ouch…Again, point taken.

It’s at this instant, you can’t help but look in the mirror when she talks about how, “It’s not just about how they see us. It’s about how they see themselves” in a way to influence men to get them to agree with you. Ego can be a dangerous thing, can’t it? Man, the self-reflection is real.

Usually, I would be bothered by the lack of explanation as to why or how Barbieland exists, but the characters walking around the details purposely or shutting down questions about it like Sasha’s genuine question about if a giant hand plays with them and Barbie saying how that’s crazy was a great decision to keep the focus on the story rather than the mythology behind what they created. All they have to do is simply say “Yes” or “No” without going into detail, and you just start to accept it and appreciate it for what it is. When Barbie and Ken go through all of the set pieces to get to Venice Beach in the most cartoonish way possible, it becomes endearing. Don’t think about it. It’s not a Marvel movie. Just accept that this is how things exist in the world of Barbie. When you find this release, it’s much easier to get past this and to the incredible story in the forefront. Even so, everything in the background regarding the production design and what was used to create and bring the world of Barbie to life through the perspective of Greta Gerwig was magnificently done. The Dreamhouse, the charming, toy-like aura of Barbieland, the built sets that encompass the landscape, and all the colors used honor Barbie in the way the iconic brand should be honored. It’s as if an artist took exactly what was in the imagination of a young girl playing with her dolls, extracted every detail of it, and built a life-size reconstruction of it on a grand scale. It’s a literal playset brought to life. Along with this, there are a litany of other creative inclusions that separate Barbie from the normal structure of a film that add to the production immensely such as the remix of Barbie’s wake-up song when she starts to think about irrepressible thoughts of death (“P-Panic, I- I’m scared, N-Nauseous, K- Death”), all the dance sequences, the Depression Barbie commercial, or Helen Mirren as the narrator cutting in during Barbie’s meltdown when she talks about how she’s not “Stereotypical Barbie pretty” and Mirren stating, “Margot Robbie is the wrong person to cast if you want to make this point”.

Side note, I loved the subtle gag of Ken exclaiming how stupid he looks with his fur coat/bandana look and all the girls agreeing but all the guys noticeably disagreeing and saying he looks cool. If that doesn’t showcase exactly the difference between men and women without all the political arguments than I don’t know what does. Also, the Mojo Dojo Casa House would be a great seller on the toy market. They are 100% correct on that.

Both a celebration of the famous doll’s championing of feminism, as well as how it has cost generations of women to feel like they will never reach the beauty standards set by what is considered to be perfection amongst females, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is a generational film that shines the light on the struggles of everyday women while inspiring millions to persevere and to push further and become whoever they may want to be. It’s a well-researched, thoughtful, hilarious, extremely well-rounded, and highly intelligent screenplay masked as a dumb comedy about a toy. Though the goofy humor is still a big part of the movie’s success, it does enough to earn its moniker of a movie that gets better with each rewatch, as more nuanced details are found with each viewing in regard to the production, certain lines and plot points, and the topics touched on. On the surface, it’s a movie for women of all ages. When you look within however, you will see an intricate story that can be appreciated by all, as well as be studied for years to come. From the day it opened, Barbie earned the label of being timeless. Accomplishing a feat like this should tell you all you need to know about the impact of Greta Gerwig’s crown jewel.

Despite the reservations you may have, I urge you to not judge this movie by its cover.

Fun Fact: As I stated before, Amy Schumer was in negotiations to play Barbie with a different version of the screenplay that she rewrote with her sister. Ultimately, she left due to creative differences with the producers. After this, Anne Hathaway was considered, but she exited the project when the film rights were transferred to Warner Bros. Gal Gadot had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Patty Jenkins was also briefly considered for director. Ben Affleck was supposed to be in it and actually be the guy who fought the construction workers instead of Michael Cera’s Allan, but he had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with Air. Greta Gerwig sought out Timothée Chalamet, Saoirse Ronan, and Gadot for cameos, but they couldn’t due to scheduling conflicts as well. Bowen Yang, Dan Levy, and Ben Platt were considered for Ken roles.