“Barbie” Review
Margot Robbie stars in Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” a film so wild and marvelous that it can parody the opening of “2001: A Space Odyssey” and somehow it manages to pull it off.
NOTE: When I refer to the characters of Barbie and Ken in this review, I am strictly talking about the characters Magrot Robbie and Ryan Gosling play (also called Stereotypical Barbie and Beach Ken). While there are many other characters in this film called Barbie and Ken, I will be more specific when I address them. For example, Emma Mackey’s Barbie is a Nobel-Prize winning physicist so I will call her Physicist Barbie. You get the rest.
I just want to get one thing out of the way. I have no nostalgic connection to Barbie whatsoever. I never played with Barbies. The biggest connection I have to the dolls are the direct-to-video animated films that would be playing in the background whenever I visited my cousins. So, despite not having a connection to the toy this film is based on and clearly not being a member of this film’s target demographic, I had a great time watching Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and I found it to be one of this summer’s most imaginative and meaningful blockbusters.
In the world of Barbieland, all the Barbies rule this world with various Barbies doing many cool things while the Kens chill and relax at the beach. Some Barbies are doctors, others are artists, there’s a mermaid and everything seems to be grand. However, one of the Barbies (Margot Robbie) begins to have strange things happen to her. Thoughts about dying begin to creep in her head, her daily life is tilted off its axis and (gasp) her heels are now touching the ground. After receiving advice from Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) to go to the real world and figure out what’s going on, Barbie and Ken (Ryan Gosling) make their way to Los Angeles where they each discover new ideas that throw Barbieland completely out of whack. Along with Gloria (America Ferrera), a Mattel employee who loves Barbie, and her daughter Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), who despises Barbie, Barbie must go on an existential journey to find her place in the world and restore order to the ensuing chaos.
With three very good films (“Nights and Weekends,” “Lady Bird” and “Little Women”) under her belt, Greta Gerwig shows no signs of slowing down with this incredible ride. I feel that “Barbie” is going to draw a lot of comparisons to “The Lego Movie” in that both films could have easily been the biggest cash grabs but instead proved to be meaningful and heartwarming. But while “The Lego Movie” is most definitely a family film, “Barbie” is much more adult. Not in an explicit manner, but the themes and ideas “Barbie” presents its audience are certainly more mature.
As the central Barbie of the film, Margot Robbie is remarkable as she completely throws herself into the role. What I love about her character is what I love about Reese Witherspoon’s Elle Woods in “Legally Blonde.” Both of these characters are naive but they’re not ditzy. They care about what’s going on around them, want to help others and learn over the course of the film. Despite being a doll from a brand we all know very well, Barbie has a massive emotional range that feels incredibly relatable as, for the first time, she’s dealing with issues that affect people in the real world.
Ryan Gosling’s performance as Ken was comically brilliant as he knows one important thing about playing this character. The more serious you play it, the bigger the laughs will be. His lines were the comedic highlight of the film and his journey is just as interesting as Barbie’s. In the world Barbie and Ken inhabit, Barbies rule everything while the Kens don’t have much of a purpose. When they visit the real world, Ken finds that men are the ones with power and decides to use this back in Barbieland. While it would be easy to make Ken just a villain at that point, Gosling brings a sensitivity to this role and you really feel for Ken while he’s trying to find out who he really is.
Along with an amazing ensemble cast, “Barbie” is full of personalities and entertaining egos to marvel at. Many incredible people took part in this film including Emma Mackey, Hari Nef, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Michael Cera, Issa Rae, Alexandra Shipp, Kate McKinnon and Simu Liu who are giving it their all. Liu and Gosling’s rivalry was especially fun to watch and it was creatively entertaining to see what all of the Barbies did in their world including Hari Nef as Doctor Barbie and Issa Rae as President Barbie.
Ryan Gosling (Left) and Margot Robbie’s journeys as Ken and Barbie were very engaging and give “Barbie” a strong sense of heart.
With Gerwig behind the camera, her and her team of creatives are committed to giving the audience a massive spectacle wrapped in a big pink bow. There’s a lot to enjoy in “Barbie” including a massive battle between Kens, a disco party that feels like a blend of late-70s musicals like “Grease,” “Saturday Night Fever” and “All That Jazz,” Barbie (deservedly) punching a man who smacked her ass and a collection of songs by grand artists like Billie Eilish, Lizzo and Haim that is sure to make the soundtrack one of this year’s most popular albums. Best of all, there’s a musical sequence where Ryan Gosling sings about his feelings in a song called “I’m Just Ken.” As someone who loves “La La Land” and considers it one of my most important movies, I was so giddy when I heard the musical cue start and I realized that Gosling was going to sing.
Like “The Wizard of Oz,” “Singin’ in the Rain,” many Wes Anderson films or “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” the world of “Barbie” is delightfully artificial. Just because you know it’s a fantasy doesn’t mean that you don’t want to explore this marvelous place. You admire the intricacies of the Barbieland set and the fact that making this film caused a worldwide shortage of pink paint, a fact that cracks me up every time I think about it. With breathtaking costumes, production design and cinematography, who would have thought a film could be this beautiful?
While Barbie and Ken do have to leave their world for ours, even then it’s creative because, despite looking like our everyday world, it’s clearly exaggerated enough to be interesting and you don’t wish that they could have just stayed in Barbieland. For instance, what kind of toy company like Mattel would have their offices look like an Orwellian bureaucracy? I don’t know, I just enjoy it.
The film’s script by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach is certainly full of strong messages related to feminism, patriarchy and existentialism and “Barbie” pushes those messages hard. This may turn off some people from the film who may have wanted a more subtle approach but it’s a Barbie movie. This is a world where people dress in bright pink, neatly arranged outfits and live in dream houses where walls aren’t a thing. This isn’t a subtle film. I mean, we do open with an amazing parody of “2001: A Space Odyssey” that had me in stitches since I had just seen the film a week prior in 70mm at my local arthouse theater.
Not only are the messages really strong but “Barbie” conveys them in a way that services the story. It’s not like a character gets up on a soapbox and grinds the film to a complete halt. Whenever a character like Barbie or Gloria makes a big speech about what it’s like being a woman, it’s there to inspire other characters or to have people learn from each other.
The film asks a lot from you and wants you to listen to what it has to say. What balances out these messages is the film’s fierce sense of humor with brilliantly written jokes and double entendres. While kids can see this film and enjoy it, there’s plenty of humor that is going to appeal to adults and will go over the heads of their younger counterparts.
The film is also exceptional at celebrating everything Barbie has represented as well as discussing the brand’s shortcomings and mocking them for it, including some of Mattel’s less than desirable products. Like a Hugh Hefner-esque Ken with a cat named Sugar. Who the hell asked for that? And then there’s Allen (Micheal Cera). He’s just Allen and I love this character for that. I think if you’re a long time Barbie fan or if you were a fan when you were a kid and now have children who play with the dolls, you will be stunned at how much homework Gerwig and Baumbach did in exploring Barbie’s history.
While “Barbie” can be loud and ridiculous, my favorite parts of the film are when it slows down and the characters have a chance to think about what’s going on inside of them. One scene I truly adored was when Barbie just sits down on a bench in the real world and just looks at the people around her. She sees happiness, she sees sadness and she just lets it all sink in with no dialogue. There’s also a few scenes where Margot Robbie gets to act opposite Rhea Perlman that just suck you into the struggles of Barbie. While I was enjoying the film for the most part, it’s in the last twenty minutes that “Barbie” goes from being good to being great in the last twenty minutes when things get very existential and go to a place that I didn’t think a big film like this could go.
I have a feeling that this film is going to be studied for years to come for its themes and ideas, how much of a success it was critically and financially and just how much fun it was to watch. I can’t wait to rewatch this film and keep picking it apart, eager to see what it presents. Despite clearly not being the target demographic for “Barbie,” I highly enjoyed this film and was quite taken with its charm, spectacle and just how hard Greta Gerwig tried and succeeded in making something that is going to keep our brains pink for a long time.
