Barbie
**This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.
The advantage of reviewing Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” after its release, and after its astounding opening weekend, is that it allows me to consider if any movie with the Barbie name attached would have hit like Gerwig’s did, or if it was just the magical touch the “Lady Bird” and “Little Women” filmmaker brings to the equation, along with stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, that got it to connect with audiences like it did. Of course, as we all know, box-office success is not an indicator of quality filmmaking, but there’s been something about Gerwig’s film from the first production photos and teaser trailer that made us think this could be special, and from the opening moments, this film delivers on that potential.
“Barbie” begins with the “2001” parody that made up that opening teaser, with the great Helen Mirren narrating how the Barbie doll broke the mold of what girl’s dolls were, and while yes, the parody is funny, the message behind it is profound- what Barbie represented wasn’t just a new take on a doll for kids; a girl now had a play thing that didn’t just pigeonhole her into a specific role- that of a future mother- but she could imagine what type of life she could live as an adult, whether that was a businesswoman or a politician or an astronaut or a teacher or a mother or, if they wanted to, someone with a boyfriend or husband if they wanted to get a Ken, as well. The girl’s imagination was the limit.
Robbie’s Barbie- one of the actresses best performances ever- begins by having a day like every other day in Barbieland. She gets up, gets dressed, spends the day seeing all the other Barbies, and the Kens, and Midge (her pregnant best friend, played by Emerald Fennell), and Allan (played by Michael Cera). Our first look at Barbieland is a marvel, with the production design by Sarah Greenwood and costume design by Jacqueline Durran are given a sheen of both artificiality and hyper-realism through cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto’s lens. It’s a fully-realized world in the vein of “The Truman Show’s” Seahaven Island- deceptively idyllic, and filled with comedic potential as we meet everyone who populates it. We meet the Barbies and Kens, and start to see different relationship dynamics emerge. At the blowout party at her house, Barbie says, “Do you ever think about dying?” The music stops. Clearly not, the party continues. The next day starts, but something isn’t quite right with Barbie. The feelings of anxiety she had the night before have gotten more uneasy. She goes to visit Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon, never not hilarious). A rift in the space-time continuum between Barbieland and the Real World has been created, and Barbie has to go to the Real World and fix it. What her and Gosling’s Ken find leaves them more than a little disillusioned.
Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s screenplay doesn’t just see Barbie in the middle of an existential crisis; Ken is very much in the same boat, but in a very different way. Gosling’s Ken is filled with insecurity about his place in Barbie’s life. He wants to be her boyfriend, but he’s just part of her world. He has a rivalry with another Ken (Simu Liu), who seems to be everything he is not. Gosling’s Ken gets jealous if Barbie’s attentions are elsewhere. Gosling’s character is basically most boys, and men, when we have feelings for someone that go unrequited. And it’s not a healthy place for us to be; I should know, as I have had many times in my life where my own anxieties, and insecurities, about life- and women- have had me where Gosling’s Ken is. (Just minus Gosling’s ridiculous good looks.) It would have been very easy for Gerwig, Baumbach and Gosling to have just made Ken a himbo adjunct to Barbie, and let the comedic silliness commence, but he is an empathetic representation of the ways in which society places burdens on males to be a certain way that makes them susceptible to the Andrew Tates of the world and their ideas of hyper masculinity and the importance of the patriarchal hierarchy of society. It makes all the sense that this Ken takes the direction he does in the film, and how it takes Barbie to make him realize that the way the real world sees men is not the way men should view themselves. No one wins in that scenario, and Ken is not let off the hook in this film. Gosling is fantastic playing the absurdity of Ken, as well as the unease. People have jokingly made reference to this being the second time he’s been opposite a doll in a movie (the first time being “Lars and the Real Girl”), but having seen “Barbie,” the two represent similar arcs for Gosling’s character; they just take different directions to get his character where they want him to go.
This is Barbie’s story, though, and where Gerwig is in absolute control of her craft as a storyteller. Barbie has been under the impression that she has made the world a better place for women, but when she goes into the Real World, she’s hit with every awful reality women deal with every day. (At least, in a PG-13 way.) Her and Ken land in jail, multiple times, and they are laughed at, she is cat-called, and the lack of kindness she’s faced leads her deeper into her depression. When she meets the girl she thinks the rift is with (Sasha, played with Ariana Greenblatt), she gets a rude awakening in how the current generation views Barbie, and it’s not what she expected. When she meets Sasha’s mother, Gloria (America Ferrera)- a secretary at Mattel- there’s more of a connection. There are beautiful little moments for Robbie’s Barbie- like one on the bus stop bench with an old woman, and one with a woman at Mattel (Ruth, the wonderful Rhea Perlman)- and the film is great at showing her evolution to realizing the truth about how difficult the world is for woman, and the complexities of navigating that world. Yes, Mattel is a part of the film, and they are not shocked when they are confronted with the idea of a real-life Barbie and Ken walking the streets of LA. Will Farrell plays the CEO of Mattel as a buffoon and it is a delight; there’s not much to this part beyond simply saying men in power don’t really know what they’re talking about (which, honestly, fair), but it puts Barbie in Gloria’s orbit. Ferrera is great as a mother who sees the potential for Barbie to represent women authentically, and there is a monologue that brings it all home in a way that may have a thudding literalism to it, but sadly, sometimes women are forced to just lay it all out there plainly for us to understand the Hell society puts them through. It also puts things in perspective for Barbie- all of them- as well as brings mother and daughter closer together. It’s an inspired way to build to an unexpected third act.
There’s so much to unpack in this film that repeat viewings will make clearer to put in words. Some things I love, though. The soundtrack; yes, Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken” is the toxic masculinity show-stopper getting the attention, but I also love “Pink,” “Dance the Night” and Billie Ellish’s “What Was I Made For?”. I love the detail of the animated dust clouds when people hit the ground on the road away from Barbieland. I love the showdown between Gosling and Liu that seems to prove Britta’s theory about male fighting from Season One of “Community” right. And I love the way a curse word is masked both by a bleep, but also the Mattel logo over the mouth. Gerwig is a born filmmaker, and she was born for this film. “Barbie” had me head over heels in love with her talent.
