Movie Review: Barbie

The Barbie movie was a lot more than I expected.  The basic synopsis is;  Barbie and Ken (all of the Barbies and Kens, actually) live in a simplistic and toy-like alternate universe where they are destined to live out their assigned roles.  Things start to go awry for our “stereotypical Barbie”, and she has to travel to our world – the “real” world – to make things right again.  And of course, chaos ensues.  

The producers of this movie could have played it safe.  They could have made a run-of-the-mill comic book movie, written a typical kiddie-movie plot, and called it a day.  I’m sure they still would have made millions taking the easy way out, and we should be glad they didn’t.

Instead, What Mattel and director Greta Gerwig gave us is a surprisingly deep movie.  It was enough to make me have to hold back ugly crying during several scenes.  So is the Barbie movie a tear-jerker?  Not exactly, but it’s sure to stir up emotions in men and women alike.  It does this by reminding the viewer what it’s like to have a shitty childhood AND what it’s like to have a shitty adulthood.  It will remind you what it’s like to be a lonely kid, or to be bullied at school.  We also see how growing up isn’t necessarily the answer to your problems, and how more responsibility often brings more headaches.  I should mention that it tackles these subjects in a poignant way, and often self-deprecating way.  Although it’s really not that heavy of a movie, it does a great job of contrasting the sometimes harsh real-world with the psychedelic fun-land of Barbie’s world.  

Having said that, I should also note that this movie is indeed a psychedelic experience.  It crosses over into absurdist territory without apologizing, and would in all honesty be a great movie to watch while on a heroic dose of mushrooms.  The bright colors, costumes, props, and locations will dazzle you.  The set-pieces alone are quite amazing.  Visually, this is a very masterfully crafted work of art, and there probably isn’t another film like it in that regard.  I would say the visuals alone are all the reasons you need to give it a viewing. 

This film is also definitely an unapologetic comedy.  The key is to remember that, and not take the film as a whole too seriously.  There are multiple musical numbers (which are done to great comedic effect), as well as subtle jokes, obvious jokes, and things that probably aren’t even supposed to be funny but are.   In this regard the casting is also excellent.  Everytime Ryan Gosling is on the screen, you will laugh your ass off.  Similarly, Will Ferrel gives a great comedic performance.  

Politically, I don’t see much of an issue with this movie, even being more of a conservative and right-leaning viewer.  I also feel that this movie is sophisticated enough that different viewers of different political beliefs will have different takeaways from this movie.  A liberal viewer might see it as a feminist man-bash, while a more conservative viewer might just find it to be comical.  Conversely, viewers who want to find a reason to not like it will probably have more than enough to misunderstand and/or get mad at.  I guess you can’t please everyone, even if this movie does a great job of trying. 

While you can definitely say there was a feminist message here, I didn’t feel it was out of line or too heavy-handed.  The truth is, Barbie has always been about girls, telling little girls that they can be whatever they want to be, and letting them dream.  Barbie has always been about feminism (albeit first-wave feminism) and female-empowerment, which is fine.  Barbie has always been about Barbie, and Ken has always been somewhat of an accessory.  You really can’t fault the movie for sticking to that.  It’s on-brand for Barbie.

While they do complain about “the patriarchy” quite a bit… it’s an integral part of the plot, and to be honest… seems to have been done “tongue in cheek”, to say the least.  As I said, it’s a self-deprecating movie that shows us the silly side of life, and “the patriarchy” as portrayed in the movie is honestly hilarious.  As a “dude’s dude” and self-appointed macho man, I can honestly say I’m a little bit “Ken”, and proud of it.  We’re all Kens, and we’re all “kEnough” at the end of the day.

As I’ve already mentioned, they could have easily done less with this movie and still had a hit.  Instead, I feel like Greta Gerwig did us a solid and took the extra steps to make something worth watching.  Highly recommended for either family movie night or a date movie.  4 out of 5 stars.