![]() ![]() Perhaps the Barbie movie's most incredible achievement is that it's a feminist battle cry about a doll that has been criticized for promoting unrealistic beauty standards and considered diametrically opposed to the cause. It also pokes fun at the patriarchy and is a " master’s thesis on feminism." This journey of self-discovery in the real world allows the Barbie movie to be philosophical, providing an insightful exploration of the human condition and the meaning of life. It's an existential film at its core, as revealed by the trailer when Barbie's giant blowout party is interrupted by her contemplating death, which leads her to leave Barbie Land in search of truth. However, it's far from a cash grab, as it actually has something to say. Related: Every Noah Baumbach & Greta Gerwig Movie, Ranked Worst To Bestīarbie is Gerwig and Baumbach's first venture into blockbuster filmmaking. But for the most part, she achieves a pleasing balance between the silly and the serious. The zaniness of Barbie, combined with Gerwig’s interest in skewering the patriarchy, sometimes makes the movie a baggy, tonally dissonant viewing experience. In this existential exegesis on what it means to be a woman, and a human, Gerwig reflects our world back to us through the lens of Barbie, and in doing so, delivers a barbed statement wrapped in a visually sumptuous & sublimely silly cinematic confection. It is maybe down to Gerwig’s confidence and generosity as a feminist film-maker that she gives all the best lines to Ryan Gosling, who is allowed to steal the whole film.ĭumps a lot of tones and ideas out of its toybox but manages to connect the disparate parts, resulting in an all-too-rare thoughtful blockbuster. ![]() This is a truly original work - one of the smartest, funniest, sweetest, most insightful and just plain flat-out entertaining movies of the year. Life after Barbie will simply never be the same again. Greta Gerwig delivers a new kind of ambitious and giddily entertaining blockbuster that boasts two definitive performances from actors already in their stride. ![]() ![]() The Mattel brand looms large here, but Gerwig, whose directorial command is so fluent she seems born to filmmaking, is announcing that she’s in control.īarbie is a lovingly crafted blockbuster with a lot on its mind, the kind of feature that will surely benefit from repeat viewings (there is so much to see, so many jokes to catch) and is still purely entertaining even in a single watch. Gerwig and her creative collaborators not only give the formerly inanimate figure a sparkling personality and a pastel-shellacked pop-art playground, they also deliver genuinely meaningful sentiments surrounding the complexities of gender politics. Robbie takes an archetype long dismissed as an airheaded caricature and, moment by deeply felt moment, teases and fleshes her out. It's Gerwig's care and attention to detail that gives Barbie an actual point of view, elevating it beyond every other cynical, IP-driven cash grab.īarbie is one of the most inventive, immaculately crafted and surprising mainstream films in recent memory - a testament to what can be achieved within even the deepest bowels of capitalism. It’s a visual feast that succeeds as both a gleeful escape and a battle cry. That’s an admirable achievement.īarbie, director and co-writer Greta Gerwig’s summer splash, is a dazzling achievement, both technically and in tone. Gerwig has made the kind of family film she surely wishes had been available to her when she was a girl, sneaking a message (several of them, really) inside Barbie’s hollow hourglass figure. Everything about Barbie is crafted with both mass appeal and personal insight, much like the doll, resulting in a movie that knows how to please. ![]()
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