So, I’m a little late to the party…..
Barbie roared into theaters in July this summer, dominating the box office and capturing the attention of millions. Enamored with the phenomenon of ‘Barbenhiemer’ people from all walks of life re-invigorated the cinemas for the first time since the pandemic. The summer block buster was back and nearly everyone got a to see Barbie on the big screen.
I was not one of those people.
Now admittedly, I’m not Barbie’s target demographic. The pastel colored world and bubbly Dua Lipa soundtrack doesn’t exactly entice me so I missed out on the phenomenon in theaters. I kind of dismissed Barbie as a film that would succeed off it’s branding and the endorsement of social media influencers who championed the movie as a feminist spectacle for the ages.
With all that being said Barbie is a decent movie. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling deliver great performances that bring another dimension to what Barbie and Ken are if they existed in a pocket universe off the coast of California. Margot Robbie gives a great performance, lending a genuine feeling of nativity and childlike wonder to her portrayal of Barbie. Ryan Gosling is absolutely hilarious and steals just about every scene he’s in. If anyone in this cast gave 110% it was Ryan Gosling. Ken has only one brain cell and it’s preoccupied with whatever exaggerated mannerism he’s trying to flaunt to get Barbie’s attention. As for the rest of the cast, everyone seems rather one dimensional in comparison to our main characters. The other Barbie’s are essentially all the same plus their occupation and the other Ken’s are just other Kens. Will Ferrel plays essentially his same generic character when he plays smaller roles, not lending much in the scenes he’s in.
Barbie’s story and message ring pretty loud throughout the entire movie. Barbie as an initial idea to inspire young girls that they ‘could be anything they could dream of’ sounds great on paper, however the real world has muddled that idea to the point of Barbie being more recognized for unrealistic beauty standards than an icon meant to inspire people. Barbie does a good job of taking this idea back and updating it for 2023 in a much more positive light. Barbie can inspire young people to be anything they can dream of because of who they are, and not what they look like, and there’s something about watching Barbie learn that for herself that really drives home that ideal home to the audience,
While Ryan Gosling and the other Kens provide a ton of laughs, the one glaring issue with Barbie is the portrayal of just about every male character in the movie. The men in the world of Barbie, and outside of it in the real world, are all incredibly dumb or bad guys. There is one token male character who impacts the film’s story positively, that being Michael Cera’s Alan, everyone else is either dumb or negative. That aspect kind of took me out of the movie as the initial message of achieving your dreams being a possibility for everyone, the Kens got the short end of the stick by the end of the movie, ultimately having to accept just being Ken is “Kenough” when ultimately being Ken doesn’t mean anything in the world of Barbie.
Overall Barbie is fun fair that will undoubtably span a franchise. With the amount of fun Robbie and Goslings seemed to have working on this movie I think the idea of them returning for a sequel is very high.
Barbie – 7/10
