| My rating | IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Critics | Audience | Critics | Audience | |
| 8/10 | 81/100 | 7.7/10 | 90% | 89% |
After months of waiting for “Barbenheimer,” the internet phenomenon mocking the fact that Barbie and Oppenheimer were opening on the same day, it’s finally time to actually see them!
Created in 1959, Barbie, the doll, revolutionized the toy industry. Now Barbie, the movie, is having a similar effect in theaters, with showings sold out and people dressed in pink with large group of friends. The projected box office numbers are huge – around US$ 100 million in the U.S. alone for opening weekend! So, is it worth the hype?
In a way, yes, it is. Not only does it talk about how the Barbie changed how girls played with dolls, but it also discusses the wider impact it had (or didn’t have) on society until now. It gives us Barbieland, a place where all Barbies are whatever they want to be, then it brutally reminds me of how different it is from the real world.
The prologue, narrated by Helen Mirren and a parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey, shows us how all dolls were just baby dolls before Barbie came along. Initially blonde, Barbie evolved over the decades and there’s now a Barbie for virtually every ethnicity and profession. And that’s what we see in Barbieland, where we meet Stereotypical Barbie, played perfectly by Margot Robbie. We follow her as she greets all other Barbies, who are doctors, lawyers, members of the Supreme Court, Nobel Prize winners, and even president! Oh, and Kens are also there! But the main Ken (a scene-stealing Ryan Gosling) only has a perfect day if Barbie notices him.
The idea of Ken being Barbie’s supporting character is not new. The toy, after all, only exists because of Barbie. Even the Toy Story movies play with that notion. But it’s even funnier when it’s Ryan Gosling the one being cast aside.
One day, however, Barbie wakes up feeling different: she’s thinking about death! Her feet are flat! She has cellulite! So, in order to go back to her old, perfect self, she’s told by Weird Barbie (the always funny Kate McKinnon) that she needs to go to the real world and find whoever is playing with her.
And it’s when Barbie and Ken go to the real world that things get messy and the movie starts to have some pacing issues. While it’s interesting to witness them finding out about how the our world is the complete opposite of Barbieland, some scenes drag a little bit, but the movie picks up again in the third act.
America Ferrera, who plays a pivotal role, is great as Gloria, an assistant to the chief executive of Mattel (Will Ferrell) and whose life is not as happy as she’d hoped it would be.
The production design by Sarah Greenwood and the costumes by Jacqueline Durran are truly eye candy and deserve to be recognized by the Academy next year! Equally deserving of nominations are Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, both responsible for the screenplay. Greta Gerwig also directed it and it’s her best work yet (her previous films are Lady Bird and Little Women). Barbie has a very strong feminist take on our society, just like Greta’s other movies, but it is nice to know that a man was also part of the writing team.
Barbie, however, would not be the movie it is without Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. Both actors are at the top of their game and masterfully play comedic and dramatic scenes with passion and truth. Even though comedies tend to be ignored by the Academy in the acting categories, I really hope their work is not overlooked! Ryan Gosling also performs a very funny song called “I’m Just Ken” that could potentially be nominated as well.
Once the “Barbenheimer” fever dies down, I hope Barbie is remembered as a funny, smart, surprisingly sad, bold, daring movie, that was not afraid of backlash and that dared to make jokes that will probably bother some groups of people who are not used to (or willing to) hear criticism. In the meantime, “come on, Barbie, let’s go party!”
