Movie Number 29 of 2028
The Movie: Barbie
The Cinema: Hoyts Victoria Garden
Stars: 4
From the sublime (Oppenheimer) to the seemingly ridiculous. I completed the Barbenheimer set and was reasonably happy with the outcome.
Thinking about it, I would have liked to have seen Barbie first up, leaving the excellence of Oppenheimer to stand by itself, but them's the breaks. They're both good films, but to compare them is like putting the Sistine Chapel next to Tracey Emin and saying that they're of similar value. They're different beasts, both good, both art, both entertaining - but in very different ways.
And there's SO MUCH FUCKING PINK in Barbie. I don't like pink - the colour, not the performer. The performer is grouse. (Will Ferrell is in this as well. I don't like him much, but I'll let it slide).
Yet, this is a fun, and surprisingly good film.
I won't go into the plot other than to say this is a quest movie. Barbie (Margot Robbie) goes to the Real World in search of the answers to her existential crisis, while Barbie Land falls to pieces.
That's the plot.
But there is SOOOOOOOOO much more to this film. Like many other films that span the children and adult divide, this does this seamlessly. A lot of the jokes will go over kids heads and strait to the keeper. Adults will love the pithy, quirky humour, a lot of which comes out of the mouth of Helen Mirren, the film's narrator.
For adults of a certain age, you may remember playing with Barbie and Ken and some of their stable. Who remembers Ken's friend, Alan (Michael Cera) and his pregnant wife Midge (Emerald Fennell)? Yeah, me neither. Oh, and Skipper (Erica Ford), who, by moving her arms, her breasts got bigger? Hmm, problematic...
And of course, Barbie and Ken come in all sorts of colours and sizes, like Barbies do now, and this is a great thing. If you have a look over at the Mattel site you'll see that they have everything from Barbie with Down Syndrome to Jane Goodall Barbie, Day of the Dead Barbie, Wheelchair Barbie, complete with accessibility ramp... Barbies have come a long way since the seventies. Barbie still lives in her Dream House. My sister had one of them.
But back to the movie. Margot Robbie is perfect as stereotypical Barbie. What's more, Ryan Gosling nearly steals the show as Ken, who spends most of the movie wanting to get Barbie's attention and failing miserably. He begs Barbie to take him to the Real World with her, much to her chagrin.
The other standout performance for me was Kate McKinnon, who plays Weird Barbie. She's having FAR too much fun here.
Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach wrote the punchy script, full of sly one liners, fun in jokes and a lot of nostalgia for simpler times, whilst keeping the sense of irony throughout. Who said Americans had an irony deficiency. It also addresses some university level feminist theory, which somehow dovetails seamlessly into the film. Also, Gerwig's direction is spot on, helping the laugh-out-loud humour to come out.
You could also take your girl children along to this without and issue. Other than some mild swearing, it's very kid friendly. Little girls will also love all the pink.
Barbie is a lot cleverer than it pretends to be.
The only people who will really dislike this are the non-woke wowsers / No to the Voice voters and those who see no value in inclusivity or change. Barbie lives in a utopia of her own making. Good on her.
This isn't Oppenheimer. But it's fun, and shiny and funny and surprisingly smart. It's worth a look for this alone.
Well, that and Ryan Gosling's abs.
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