Towards the beginning of the movie, Barbie realises that an essential part of the human experience is pain and nostalgia. She begins to learn that there is more to being a human woman than cellulite and flat feet- there is the ‘dark, crazy and weird’ part, the beautifully intense part, the terrifying part. If Oppenheimer is trying to reveal something fundamental about humanity, it is Barbie that pulls it off effortlessly.
In the five minutes before the film started as I sipped my Diet Coke (the ultimate Girl Drink, in my opinion), I was experiencing an abnormal level of anxiety. News about Gerwig’s new film was inescapable in the online and physical world. And with each new, tiny detail we were fed (how the film inadvertently caused an international shortage of pink paint, and literally every time Ryan Gosling opened his mouth), we became even hungrier for more. Sometimes it is a tragedy for a film, especially one with such a star-studded cast, to receive so much attention. I worried Barbie would be all glitter and no sparkle. But right from the beginning, the film satirises the greatest Boy Movie of all time, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, there was something feral and liberating in watching young girls murder baby dolls, and set the weird and camp tone of the rest of the film. At the end of the day, Gerwig is far too smart to make an unfunny, unintelligent movie. Its hard not to appreciate the amazing casting, the ingenious set design (thank you, Sarah Greenwood) and star studded soundtrack, but even that is not the real treat of the movie, which is how fucking deep it is, I was not expecting to cry as much as I did, and the mix of laughing, snotting in the theatre I watched the film made me think I wasn’t alone in being genuinely touched by what I was watching.
“If Oppenheimer is trying to reveal something fundamental about humanity, it is Barbie that pulls it off effortlessly”.
The film gracefully balances hilarity, feminism and femininity. The film is weird and wonderful in the best way. But of course, the same can be said for all of Gerwig’s creations. From ‘Frances Ha’ to ‘White Noise’, and now ‘Barbie’, she’s the only person of our time that’s making good art about capitalism that doesn’t make me want to kill myself. The movie so cleverly points out the ridiculousness of the post-modern world we live in. From Mattel’s board of male directors telling us that the company is ‘built on woman’ (making me wonder how many women they had to bury to get a seat at the top table…) to Ken thinking the patriarchy is about horses and trucks. It was very satisfying for me to watch just how pathetic the men in the movie are, and based on the reactions of the men in the audience whom I watched the film with, they also found humour in the ridiculous toxic masculinity of it all. We all know and love men who judge us for not having seen the Godfather, or who think a four hour serenade of acoustic guitar is what women want. I think its cathartic for both men and women to see ‘patriarchy’ played out at 50x speed from beginning to end in Barbie world, and even better, once it ends, the men are happier than when they were in charge of everything.
“The movie so cleverly points out the ridiculousness of the post-modern world we live in.”
In terms of critique, I am genuinely disappointed that this movie didn’t have more queer representation. It’s amazing that Hari Neff (a trans actor) played Doctor Barbie, but Doctor Barbie was not trans in the film, and none of the Barbies or Kens seemed to be gay (except maybe Adam, but that’s for history to decide…). The film also didn’t completely deal with the unrealistic body standards that Barbie created and even made getting cellulite seem like the worst thing in the world. For me, the film didn’t fully deconstruct the standards it was creating. However, many would disagree with my opinion, Fox News and Christianity Today have both published articles about the film, claiming it ‘forgets core audience’ and has a ‘left leaning cast’, which is strange way to describe Ryan Gosling, Margot Robbie and Alexandra Shipp, all of whom’s network is well over a million dollars and are essentially living the capitalist’s dream, as well as the fact that the movie does not mention transgender or queer people or even feminism even once…but fair enough.
Overall, the film made me feel so grateful to be a woman. Which is an important thing during these dark days of criminalised abortion and ozemspic fuelled body shaming. We can’t afford to be ironic anymore. We are living through the dark metaphors others before us have written about. Our only option now is to be genuine, earnest, hopeful, despite everything, because of everything.
WORDS: Libby Marchant
