{"id":9948,"date":"2023-08-17T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=9948"},"modified":"2024-02-25T00:11:40","modified_gmt":"2024-02-25T05:11:40","slug":"barbie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2023\/08\/17\/barbie\/","title":{"rendered":"Barbie."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Barbie <\/em>had already crossed the billion-dollar mark before I got to see it on Saturday, on top of weeks of positive reviews, hype, and discourse, which combined to both set a very high bar in terms of expectations while also likely predisposing me towards the movie a little bit because everyone<\/em> seemed to like it \u2013 especially film critics and fans I know and respect. So bear all of that in mind when I tell you I pretty much loved this movie from start to superb-last-line finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach\u2019s script takes existing IP but does something wildly ambitious with it, turning a kids\u2019 doll with very little lore or mythology other than the series of toys in the line\u2019s history into a wide-ranging social commentary and satire on patriarchy, feminism, toxic masculinity, and consumerism, among other things. It\u2019s also a visual feast, at least when the movie is in Barbie\u2019s world, and packed with allusions, references, and entendres that appear to be double. (I was most partial to the Zack Snyder reference, although the Proust and Stephen Malkmus ones were close.) Aside from a slight slowing near the end of the film as the script grapples with how best to get the main characters to the finish line, it maintained its pace with quick wit and snappy dialogue that never talked down to the adults in the audience and provided plenty to keep the kids interested as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barbie <\/em>starts out with its titular character (Margot Robbie) in Barbieland, driving her tiny car, saying hi to all of the other Barbies, while an obnoxiously catchy song (\u201cPink\u201d) by Lizzo plays. We also meet several Kens, including Beach Ken (Ryan Gosling), and discover that in Barbieland, girls run everything, and the guys are just various flavors of eye candy, competing for the Barbies\u2019 attention. Beach Ken is obviously in love with Robbie\u2019s Barbie, who we find out later is Stereotypical Barbie, but she doesn\u2019t really need him \u2013 he needs her far more. Everything is perfect, every day, in every way, until Barbie is plagued by a sudden existential dread and things suddenly aren\u2019t so perfect any more, which leads to the actual plot of the story, where she ends up going to the Real World to find the kid who\u2019s playing with her and putting all of these thoughts and problems into Barbieland. This leads to a rather rude awakening for Barbie; a massive epiphany for Ken, who sneaks into her car as she\u2019s leaving Barbieland and then discovers the glories of patriarchy; and a problem for the executives at Mattel, who would really rather not have a repeat of the time Skipper showed up in Key West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I cannot praise this script enough; other than the set design, it\u2019s the strongest part of a very strong movie. Gerwig and Baumbach had to satisfy so many stakeholders and, I presume, mandates: make it funny, make it smart, make it appeal to kids and adults, make it look great, make it authentic to the limited source material, don\u2019t denigrate the doll or the line or its history, and so on. It is often laugh-out-loud funny, with Gosling actually delivering many of the better lines, and when it\u2019s not, it\u2019s mining humor from satire, or just from wry observations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pace is also superb, as we\u2019re barely into the movie, with about ten minutes of worldbuilding in Barbieland, before Barbie utters the out-of-character line that kicks the plot in motion. So many movies, whether prestige films or films built off outside IP, are 150 minutes or more; Barbie <\/em>didn\u2019t need to be, and it isn\u2019t, coming in at about 114 including the credits. The result is a movie that\u2019s packed without feeling dense, and that only slackens a little towards the end as the movie has to focus entirely on resolving the main storyline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gosling does kind of steal Robbie\u2019s thunder, though, which is a little ironic for a movie that\u2019s not just about her character but about feminism and the absurdity of patriarchy. He\u2019s just so good as Himbo Ken \u2013 well, it seems like all of the Kens are himbos, but he\u2019s especially dim \u2013 and the script provides him with more chances to flex. Barbie is dismayed and annoyed in the real world, but Ken thinks it\u2019s the best thing he\u2019s ever seen, and his reactions to little things like someone asking him for the time are priceless. The remainder of the cast is probably more impressive on paper than in the movie because there\u2019s barely enough for anyone else to do. About half of the cast of the Netflix series Sex Education<\/em> is in this movie, including Emma Mackey (Physicist Barbie), who is the best actor on that series and seems destined for superstardom, and Ncuti Gatwa (Artist Ken), who\u2019s taking over as the Doctor in the next season of Doctor Who<\/em>. Both stand out when they\u2019re on screen here, but neither gets much definition. Simu Liu is very, very funny as Tourist Ken, Beach Ken\u2019s main rival, playing an obnoxious dudebro version of the character, although it\u2019s also a pretty two-dimensional role. Michael Cera might have the best supporting performance here as Allan, Ken\u2019s best friend, whom Cera plays as every character Michael Cera has ever played on TV or in film \u2013 and it\u2019s hilarious. If it\u2019s not him, it\u2019s Rhea Perlman, who is also quite wonderful but in a character that gives the film its most saccharine moments. Bonus points if you spot Lucy Boynton\u2019s cameo; I missed it until the credits, and jumped when I saw the Sing Street<\/em> actress\u2019s name \u2013 and that of her character, which completes a great joke from within the movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the critical acclaim and commercial performance, Barbie<\/em> seems likely to earn a slew of awards nominations this cycle \u2026 and win very few of them. It might be the best lock for any set or production design awards, followed by costume design, but this could be the sort of movie that has to be happy with the honor of being nominated. The dark horse category here would be the screenplay, where Gerwig \u2013 who I really, really hope gets a director nomination now after she was snubbed for Lady Bird<\/em> and especially for Little Women<\/em> \u2013 and Baumbach get points both for technical merit and artistic integrity. They chose a high level of difficulty and still succeeded, while also slipping in plenty of inside-Hollywood jokes to please that crowd. I\u2019ll go on a limb and predict it gets eight Oscar nods: Picture, Director, Song, Original Screenplay, Production Design, Film Editing, Makeup\/Hairstyling, and Costume Design. That\u2019s not what I\u2019m saying it will deserve \u2013 I haven\u2019t seen any other contenders yet, with most of them still unreleased to the public \u2013 but a wild guess on what it will end up getting. I wouldn\u2019t be the least bit upset to see Robbie or Gosling get a nod, although my gut says that enough voters will decide that the movie isn\u2019t serious enough, the same way actors in genre films have had a hard time breaking through for nominations. Barbie <\/em>totally captured me once the 2001 <\/em>homage ended, and I\u2019ll be surprised if this doesn\u2019t end up among my ten favorite movies of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barbie had already crossed the billion-dollar mark before I got to see it on Saturday, on top of weeks of positive reviews, hype, and discourse, which combined to both set a very high bar in terms of expectations while also likely predisposing me towards the movie a little bit because everyone seemed to like it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1357,1380,1376,1379,1384,161,215],"class_list":["post-9948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2023-movies","tag-2024-best-adapted-screenplay-nominees","tag-2024-best-picture-nominees","tag-2024-best-supporting-actor-nominees","tag-2024-best-supporting-actress-nominees","tag-highly-recommended","tag-movies","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9949,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9948\/revisions\/9949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}