My wife and I finally saw Barbie today, and I thought it was fantastic. When this movie was first announced, I dismissed it, thinking it would be cheesy, made for children, and a cheap advertisement for non-cheap toys. Then I saw the clever teaser trailer riffing on 2001: A Space Odyssey (which is the movie’s opening scene, as it happens), and I realized there was more to this than I’d expected. I thought “Hmmmm…. maybe this has value after all.” And boy, does it.
Barbie is a surprisingly intelligent and insightful film about how commercialism, sexism, objectification, corporate myopia, and unrealistic portrayals of feminine beauty have hurt women and damaged society. The commentary on patriarchies, feminism, toxic masculinity, incel culture, female empowerment, and existential crisis—as well as the importance of self-worth and going beyond societally imposed perceptions to find out who we really are—truly hit home.
With only one exception (Will Ferrell), I thought every character was well written and perfectly cast. Ryan Gosling (Ken), America Ferrara (Mattel employee Gloria), Kate McKinnon (Weird Barbie), Michael Cera (Ken’s Buddy Alan), Simiu Liu (Ken), Rhea Perlman (Ruth), and all the other Barbies and Kens were a whole lot of fun. But Margot Robbie owns this film as Stereotypical Barbie. If she doesn’t win a Best Actress award for her performance, then that will confirm my long-held belief that awards shows are meaningless.
As a film buff, I got a kick out of how the movie’s visuals, characters and themes recall numerous classic movies, including not only 2001 but also The Wizard of Oz, Grease, West Side Story, Pygmalion/My Fair Lady, and a bunch of others—most vividly, The Matrix (with the pill/shoe choice, the real/fake dual realities, and Rhea Perlman as the Oracle/Ruth). Plus, there are aspects of Clueless, another movie I consider far more intelligent than I’d expected it to be.
I would never have predicted all this would be in a movie about the plastic. absurdly proportioned dolls my sisters, wife, and daughter all played with as kids. The fact that it’s triggering so many misogynistic, fragile men (the types who call themselves alphas, hate the very idea of female superheroes, and need to boast of “body counts” they’ve entirely made up in order to compensate for their inadequacies and insecurities) tells you the movie has succeeded spectacularly.
If you haven’t seen the film because you’d written it off as a story for children (it isn’t), an advertisement for toys (maybe it is, but it also really isn’t), or cheesy (at times it is, but that is only to help it make an important point about how the world works), then I recommend setting aside your preconceived notions and checking it out, because it’s something truly unique and powerful. I can’t believe I just said that about a movie called Barbie, but it’s all true.