[Rating: Solid Rock Fist Up]
Only in Theatres.
It’s slightly crazy they’ve made something like 6 or 7 (who’s counting??) Transformers movies, at least 3 G.I. Joe movies, including that awful Snake Eyes spin-off a few years ago. I know — all of those movies are awful — also there is a Monster High movie. But Barbie, one of the most iconic and popular dolls/toys ever, for whatever reason, has never been able to get a live action movie, until now.
Think about this lunacy for a moment….nobody watched Transformers and said, “you know who likes movies and has money? Women. We should totally make a Barbie movie.” They tried, kinda. Diablo Cody was going to make it, like 10 years ago, and apparently Amy Schumer and Anne Hathaway have each at separate times been linked to playing the feminist icon. But for whatever reason, it always fizzled out. Mark Wahlberg was in 2 Transformers movies and fought Optimus Prime with a sword but nobody actually lit a fire on a Barbie movie until Margot Robbie threw her swag and clout around and finally got the job done.
The Barbie movie, starring Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) and directed by Greta Gerwig (Little Women) is a feminist existential nostalgic acid trip. The dedication to the source material and imagination is astonishing, echoing the glorious realization of the original and equally spectacular The Lego Movie. It’s wild, it’s hilarious. It’s nostalgic even if you didn’t play with Barbie as a kid but know someone who did. (Don’t like, you know you played with a Barbie at least once). But what makes Barbie a truly memorable piece of cinema, outside the dream team of Robbie and Gosling is it’s deep and emotional heart and it’s ability to balance absurdity with existential conflict.
As for plot, it’s simple: every day is the best day of stereotypical Barbie’s life, until one day she just doesn’t quite feel like herself and her existential crisis begins to shake the foundation of everything that Barbie Land stands for. These are words I never thought I’d type. Barbie learns she needs to go to the real world to find the kid who is playing with the doll version of her. Ken tags along, much to Barbie’s chagrin, and learns that men have a lot more power in the real world than they do in Barbie Land, much to his chagrin. But this isn’t a movie about how girlz rule and boyz drool. It’s an invitation for everyone to look deep and find out who we really are. We’re all sad, confused, frustrated meat puppets looking for purpose on this silly marble in space. We can all be a Barbie or even a Ken. Life is about finding that inner Barbie and/or Ken in all of us. Or something like that. And a lot of pink.
Sometimes, it’s a bit preachy. It’s never mean or spiteful but the message feels a little too on the nose. But then again, someone should have made this happen immediately the second Shia LaBeouf bought a robot that turned into a car and proved we’re all willing to watch movies about literally anything including mindless movies that are really just expensive commercials for toys. She’s waited a long time for this moment, so you will listen to every damn word she has to say. Then, there is a storyline involving Will Ferrell as a Mattel executive who leads a team of corporate suits in pursuit of Barbie and Ken to put them back where they belong before the universe comes undone. I feel like Gerwig may have forgotten about this storyline during the third act. It just kinda goes nowhere.
The casting is dead on perfect. Margot Robbie (Barbie), Simu Liu (Ken), Kate McKinnon (Weird Barbie), Kingsley Ben Adir (Ken) and Issa Rae (President Barbie), Ncuti Gatwa (Ken), Emma Mackey (Physicist Barbie), and Michael Cera (Allan) — plus some other fun cameos — are all fun to watch in the respective roles. But’s it’s America Ferrara, who kinda comes in and steals some spotlight. No one saw that coming unless you saw Super Store, where she showed off her comedy chops. Here she’s the emotional center of the film, which I’ll give you without spoiling why or how.
…But Ryan Gosling (Ken) steals as much of the show as he can. As Ken, Gosling may be in peak form in the abstract, bizarre comedy facade. He sings, he dances, he chews all the scenery he can just to try and give Ken a pulse and prove that he is “Kenough” for Barbie, even though she barely notices him. It’s kind of awesome.
Greta Gerwig, step into the spotlight. Writer and director Gerwig, coming off directing back to back Awards darling movies (Little Women and Lady Bird) proves she is more than capable steering a big budget studio tentpole movie. It’s almost a shame this movie will make a ton of cash and she’s going to probably get nominated for Best Director for a Best Picture nominee summer blockbuster that made bank at the box office and then all of a sudden she’s going to direct a Marvel movie. And that’s about the only time I’ll refer to a Marvel movie as a bad career move.
Barbie is a banger of a movie. It’s funny, it’s existential, it’s poignant, it made my daughter sob hysterically. It’s well written and insanely creative. They should also never, ever, ever make a sequel or a spinoff…like, ever — but they will. Of course, NOW Mattel and Warner Bros. are probably licking their chops over the endless possibilities of a potential Barbie Cinematic Universe.
Lover of movies and tacos. Ad man. Author. Member of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle and the Broadcast Film Critics Association. Founder of the Terror on the Plains Horror Festival. Creator and voice of the Reel Hooligans podcast.
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