Barbie suffers a crisis that leads her to question her world and her existence. -Synopsis
She’s everything. He’s just Ken. -Tagline
Summer has (traditionally) been the season for family-friendly/crowd-pleasing movies. As you may know, both Barbie and Oppenheimer were released on the same day (July 21) of this yr. I went to see Barbie w/ a big group of (mostly) women during its 2nd wknd at AMC (Ballston Quarter). One of my friends was esp. excited; she purchased 10 tickets (limit per person) several wks. ahead of our screening. I was somewhat curious, b/c I really liked the work of director/co-writer Greta Gerwig (who turned 40 y.o. last wk) and Noah Baumbach (co-writer); they’re also partners IRL and have a baby together. Gerwig and Baumbach are also close friends/collaborators w/ Adam Driver. Some skeptical critics wondered: “Who is the audience for this movie?” As I expected, my theater was full w/ (mostly) women in their 20s-40s; many were wearing pink (in various shades).
The production design is V cool; you feel immersed in the material/colorful world of Mattell toys where “Stereotypical Barbie” (Robbie), her love interest, Ken (Gosling), and all their friends live. As we saw in the trailers/ads, there are Barbies and Kens of diverse backgrounds (Issa Rae, Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Kate McKinnon. etc.) Alan (Michael Cera), Midge, and a few other (NOT so well-known) dolls are also there. Women are the ones who hold ALL the important jobs in this (make-believe) world! Of course, there are several human characters (played by America Ferrera, Ariana Greenblatt, Will Ferrell, etc. ) A much younger Greenblatt (now 15 y.o.) was Driver’s co-star in the action movie 65 (2023). The eclectic music suits the story well; I was NOT familiar w/ all the songs. Yes, this movie has a feminist take (as I’m sure many are aware). It also includes singing and dancing (which reminded me of technicolor musicals). There are many LOL moments, yet there are emotional/touching ones also. I hadn’t seen much of Gosling’s acting; I was surprised by how funny he could be! I do think this movie was a BIT too long; this is a common problem today. There are also a few speeches; they are NOT all effective IMO. I think a wide audience (IF they keep an open mind) can enjoy this movie; it already passed the $1B mark worldwide – wow! Two of my (mid-20s; male and female) co-workers really liked the movie; they went on opening wknd.
Knightleyemma 
I do NOT get the hype. I was bored for roughly 40 minutes, then confused for 10, then annoyed for another 10, then left (early). I have a lot of complex feelings about Barbie dolls but whatever dimension of Barbie I interfaced with, it had nothing to do with this film. I think I’m now 0 for 3 with Gerwig; I won’t go to another of her films.
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Hmmm- I recall seeing “Lady Bird” w/ my mom & she really liked it; I thought it was good also. One of my friends had special screening where she talked re: how much the book “Little Women” meant to her as a teen girl; it was a nice event & think we saw movie a few days before its wide release. I still prefer the previous adaptations a BIT more than Gerwig’s though.
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I thought the last scenes in Lady Bird were pretty good, but the film was hard to watch and I could not find any moment of sympathy with the main character. Little Women was a zero for me when I finally saw it (although I practically have the book memorized, so admittedly I am a hard person to please, and there Ronan, Chalamet, and Streep are all negatives for me at this point). I think after seeing Barbie that I just view the world in a fundamentally different way than Gerwig does. Although that is normally interesting to me and a reason to dig further into an artist’s work, her worldview seems so arrogant that it raises my hackles. I am a fundamentally curious person but watching her films makes feel incurious.
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