There are a lot of things that I admired about the Barbie movie. For starters, I adored the actual ‘Barbie’ world, both in its presentation and the way in which the physics of playing with toys manifests into the functionality of the setting. It’s bright, colorful, exciting, and displays nothing short of extravagant production design.
I also thought most of the performances were fantastic. Margot Robbie, of course, delivers both a stunning and heartfelt performance — perhaps more than I was expecting. But the standout, in my mind, was absolutely Ryan Gosling. He’s demonstrated his comedic talent before, but this is easily the most hysterical l’ve ever seen him, and I loved everything he had to offer.
However, my problem with the film starts when they exit the Barbie world and enter the “real” world. After the first act, I found that the writing took a massive nosedive in quality and began to favor literal preaching to the audience instead of fostering clever allegories.
Additionally, I didn’t understand the point of Will Ferrell’s character at all. While I thought he was funny and did a good job of playing his role, he ultimately amounted to almost zero consequential impact, despite being built up as an immense antagonistic threat.
There are a lot of things I enjoyed about the Barbie movie, but I likewise felt that a lot of the time the writing left much to be desired. I’m glad this movie is smashing the box office, and I want more studios to fund big director-driven blockbusters such as this. But simultaneously, I thought this could have been a lot better.
I also really like the “I am Kenough” message that formed near the end — that men don’t have to constantly seek validation to feel worthy of themselves, and that they can be “just Ken”, comfortable in their independence. I would say that’s as empowering a statement as everything else in this film.
The one aspect I loved above all, though, was the glimpses or humanity throughout.
Starting when Barbie exchanged looks with that old lady in the real world, and then extending to her conversations with the creator of Barbie and that beautiful, beautiful, beautiful montage at the end. The existential question of how to be human, asked by a perfect plastic stereotypical doll, is such an interesting thing. If there was one thing I’d change or add to this movie, it’d be a further exploration of this tangent. How do you embrace imperfection and diversity to be human?
What about emotional depth?
How do you look at all these imbalances in power and gender and find meaning in life But I understand that this movie is geared towards all age groups and going so deep wouldn’t be the smartest thing to do. I can only wish…