Barbie – Spoiler Free Review
Yes, I did the Barbenheimer thing and I watched Barbie first. Barbie is a super fun movie with a lot of dark elements to it. I do recommend seeing both movies, but I am not sure that seeing them both together is a great idea. If you do decide to go for both I suggests watching Barbie first. Also, as you probably understand by now, the trailer for this movie is very misleading, yes it is a fun movie, but very heavy on the message. A 5 kilo hammer of feminism, decorated in pink, fluffy and funny. It is so good and satisfying.
Barbie is produced by Margot Robbie and her production company "LuckyChap Entertainment". Greta Gerwig is the director of the movie and she co-wrote the script with her partner Noah Baumbach. Together they all created a movie about a doll that hasn't seemed like she is relevant in years, by showing just how relevant she is. In a metaphorical sense. But also, this movie is a feminist manifesto that calls for gender equality in the real world. It is super heavy on the message and not subtle at all. So unless your kids know what the meaning of the word patriarchy is, I wouldn't recommend taking them to see this movie. Unless you want to have that conversation with them. Despite being so heavy on the message the movie also managed to be fun, a mission that is hard to accomplish, but it succeeded.
First of all this movie is a marketing machine. It has so many different Barbies in it that you can buy, Barbies that don't exists anymore but probably will return. I have a feeling soon we will see Barbies based on this movie. "Metal" has no problem being made fun of, as long as they are making the money. The corporation that created Barbie is literally one of the villains of this movie. Because this movie is all about the marketing it has a few self-references to that as well. But come on, it is a movie about Barbie, how can it not sell toys. Or talk about selling toys in the movie.
As for the plot of this movie, it is not conventional. Barbie is a perfect doll who lives in a perfect world in Barbieland. One day she develops a crisis, she can no long operate like a regular Barbie. Weird Barbie has only one solution, go into the real world. Surprisingly, Ken joins her on her journey. They both learn very different lessons from the real world which causes the main conflict of this movie. I don't want to say a lot more about the plot, because it was really annoying to me when I read half of the plot of the movie beforehand on the internet. Yes, there is a lot of message in everything, but this movie is so well made that it is hard to be mad at the movie.
I want to talk about the design of the movie. The sets in this movie are a work of art and yes I can totally believe that they caused global shortage of pink paint. Everything looks amazing, it looks both real and functioning, like functioning cheap plastic. It is an amazing combination and someone should get an Oscar for these set designs. The clothes are also phenomenal. I am usually not a pink person, but every outfit that Barbie wears is spot on and was looks fabulous. The other Barbies have amazing outfits as well, which is nicely contrasted with what regular people wear in the real world. The choices are brilliant.
Also, the music is brilliant. Both the songs written for the movie and the songs that were chosen for the movie are just so spot on. I have two songs from this movie super stuck in my head, but I don't want to spoiler anything. Just know that this movie has a lot more music than you probably anticipated and it is great.
Now let's talking about the acting. Margot Robbie was born to be Barbie. She looks stunning. She looks perfect as Barbie and beautifully disheveled when she needs to be. Her acting is brilliant. Barbie goes on a growing road and Robbie encompasses her wide range of feelings perfectly. Ryan Gosling is a perfect Ken. He totally has that Kennergy. He is a scene stealer. Perhaps because the role of Ken is much more complicated than the trailer lead on, he just has so much more to do and more to room to grow and Gosling just does such a great job with it all. Next up is America Ferrera, deserves an Oscar for her role, the speech that she has in this movie is the heart of it all and will probably be immortalized by pop culture and the feminist movement. Kate McKinnon kills it as weird Barbie, she just owns it and the screen. I usually hate Michael Cera, but he is really good in this movie as Allen, not actually Ken's best friend, but a weird creature all on his own. Mattel did not hesitate laughing at themselves and Will Ferrell as their fake CEO is absolutely brilliant. And hilarious. I laughed in every scene that he is in. All of the other actors also did a great job, but most other Barbies and Kens have a really small role in this movie.
I guess that at the end of the day I just loved the movie. Not only because of the feminist aspects of this movie like the fun reverse world building. But I liked the end message behind the movie. Everyone is enough, great and perfect just the way they are, whether you are a men or a women, you don't need to change, just discover who you are as a person. I watched it twice at the cinema so far and left both times smiling with tearful eyes. I cannot recommend this movie enough.
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