BARBIE

Disclaimer: There is a joke in Barbie about men mansplaining cinema to women and, sat here writing this review, I just wanted to make clear that I am VERY aware of it!

This is a mans opinion of the film, but I will also be linking to some reviews from female critics.

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After Ladybird and Little Women, Barbie - on the face of it - seemed like a strange next project for director Greta Gerwig.

In hindsight though it makes perfect sense. Barbie is not what I expected it to be when it was first announced. It is, instead, an consistently funny, searing commentary on feminism, and of Incel culture.

We start in Barbieland, where the Barbies have great days every day, but Kens only have a great day when Barbies notice them.

It is though, a seemingly idyllic existence for the Barbies. Idyllic, that is, until Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) starts to feel… off. Thoughts of death start to creep into her mind. She develops flat feet and Cellulite. And instead of floating from her dream house in the morning, she falls.

Seeking help from Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) Barbie realises she needs to travel to the real world to fix the problem.

The first thing to say about Barbie is that it is not a children’s film. Sure, kids can probably go and get something out of the colours and design, but thematically much of it will go over their heads. Greta Gerwig has, instead, taken something that is ostensibly childish and turned it into one of the years most important films for adult audiences.

And it is one which has clearly struck a cord with said audiences. My screening was sold out - one of the few times I’ve seen this happen post-COVID - and it was easily the most diverse audience I’ve seen. There were a few children in there, but I was mainly surrounded by adults. Adults of all ages and gender. Adults of different backgrounds and cultures.

It was a wonderful, respectful (code compliant for any Wittertainees reading) thing to be a part of.

On screen, Margot Robbie’s performance is outstanding. Physically she manages to perfectly imitate how a living Barbie might move, but her emotional range, though, is where her performance really shines. As Barbie learns to feel for the first time, each moment of it is plastered over Robbies face. As she cries for the first time, the sense of release, of confusion, of happiness and sadness all rolled into one, is evident.

Robbie is perfectly cast in the role, to the point that is is difficult to see how anyone else could have possibly been considered for it. She is is able to give a character made of plastic, a real beating heart.

It is a performance that should win awards. Lots of them.

As a producer on the film she will also have had a large amount of influence over it’s tone, and it’s style. Someone who saw what the Barbie film should be before almost anyone else, and hired a creative team, led brilliantly by Greta Gerwig to deliver on it.

Barbie is joined on her adventure by Ken (Ryan Gosling), who on arriving in the real world becomes immediately, and intensely. obsessed with the patriarchy. A concept of which he knows frighteningly little, and understand even less.

Goslings performance here is brilliant. 2016’s The Nice Guys was the first time I had seen him in an overtly comic role, but Barbie will prove to any doubters that he can 100% pull it off.

He plays his Ken with the unique stupidity of someone who doesn’t realise that they’re stupid. Of someone who has been told only good things about themselves, and who believes only good things about themselves, and then kicks out at the world when it doesn’t give them exactly what they want.

He would be, in some respects, something of a pantomime villain, if not for the very real comparisons with similar men in the real world.

Enter Will Ferrell’s Mattel CEO.

Granted, his character is over-the-top, but the message is clear. He is, like Ken, stupid. A man child. Yet whereas Ken plays second fiddle in Barbieland, The CEO has been elevated to a position of power. A position he will fully believe he has earned.

This comparison between the two adds real, and concerning, weight to the journey Ken goes on throughout the film

Kens embracing of the patriarchy is something that we see on an almost daily basis, and the way he portrays this genuine, real life, concern, while still being intensely funny throughout, is an incredibly difficult thing to do.

Where Margot Robbie will be undoubtedly up for some best leading actor awards, Gosling will surely have is share of supporting actor nods.

The design of Barbieland, in the set (Sarah Greenwood & Katie Specer), the costumes (Jacqueline Durran), and how the characters interact with each other, is also wonderful. It is childlike imagination come to life, and is a huge triumph of practical effects over CGI.

The Dream Houses were actually built, the beach actually existed, the transitions as they move between worlds fully built and manually operated, and the level of detail and research that went into this is mind-blowing.

The Barbies and Kens (and Allan) are all real toys that Mattel released. The corvette that Stereotypical Barbie drives was built for Margot Robbie, so that it’s proportions - just that little bit too small - matched the proportions of the real car and doll. The way that the Barbies float from the upstairs of their houses because, in real life, no one makes they’re doll take the stairs.

This level of detail almost demands a second viewing from it’s audience as there are undoubtedly things that I have missed.

More awards here please!

I also appreciated how little effort the filmmakers put into explaining the science of Barbieland and the real world coexisting alongside each other.

In less assured hands it would have become bogged down in in-depth explanations, but by only treating the issue with the bare minimum explanation they allow the movie to zip along.

Nobody cares how the science of it and I respect Greta Gerwig and the rest of creative team for recognising that.

The one area of the film that left me feeling a little conflicted, however, was the involvement of Mattel. In contrast to Gerwigs honest, sincere direction, their presence couldn’t help but feel cynical.

It felt like a mea culpa with all the earnestness of Jacob Rees Mogg; the living embodiment of eating your cake and having it too. It allows them to hold their hands up to the past, but still distance themselves from it, due to their wacky, over-the-top portrayal.

Overall though, this is one minor quibble, of an otherwise great movie.

I have seen criticisms that the message here is too obvious. That the film beats the audience around the head with it. And yes, Barbies politics are not subtle, but why should they be? The patriarchy is not subtle. The oppression of women is not subtle. It is incredibly overt, so why shouldn’t commentary on it reflect that?

Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie and everyone else behind this film should be lauded for shouting it from their dream house rooftops.

The fact that it did this, at the same time as being consistently laugh out loud funny, at times heart wrenchingly sad, and incredibly clever, is a testament to their talents.

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Clarisse Loughrey - https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/barbie-film-movie-review-b2380412.html

Beth Webb - https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/barbie/

Lovia Gyarkye - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/barbie-review-greta-gerwig-margot-robbie-ryan-gosling-1235538253/

Rebecca Liu - https://www.anothergaze.com/rebecca-liu-barbie/

Harriet Fletcher - https://theconversation.com/greta-gerwigs-barbie-movie-is-a-feminist-bimbo-classic-and-no-thats-not-an-oxymoron-210069