Directed by: Greta Gerwig
Starring: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Emma Mackey, Simu Liu, Will Ferrell, America Ferrara, Hari Nef, Michael Cera, Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, Alexandra Shipp, Helen Mirren (narrator)
Barbie is an ambitious movie with gender politics played out against the pink background of "Barbieland" and "The Real World", aka Los Angeles. The results are uneven and occasionally boring. Children and teens attending the movie expecting a party will be disappointed. Adults viewing it may wonder why everything got so deep all of a sudden. Like many forms of entertainment, Barbie has become the latest volleyball in the conservative vs. liberal debate. This time, toxic masculinity and female empowerment take center stage. It doesn't matter what side of these "issues" you're on, the vessel in which they're carried is a mostly simple story unlikely to change anyone's mind and any attempts at satire are missed because...how dare they make fun of toxic masculinity?
Barbie starts off with a perfect day in the life of "Stereotypical Barbie" (Robbie), who awakens to a world of pink, sunshine, and positivity. She has "breakfast", although when she drinks juice there is nothing in the cup, when she eats she is not actually eating anything, and when she showers there is no water coming from the showerhead. Barbie jumps in her car and drives around Barbieland as clearly the most popular and beautiful of all the Barbies. Everyone adores her, especially Ken (Gosling), whose day in complete when Barbie says hello to him. Just like there are other Barbies, there are other Kens, including one played by Simu Liu who is Gosling's Ken's frenemy. The Barbies live in harmony, the Kens are forever positioning themselves to be the object of Barbie's affection. Life is one big party for Barbie, until one evening she starts thinking about death and becomes a party pooper. The next morning, her feet go flat and thinks just seem out of whack.
One could ask questions such as: Do the cars run on gasoline? and How do the Barbies and the Kens know about words and concepts dolls shouldn't know? But we forgive these lapses for the sake of the story. The concerned Barbie (we'll just refer to Robbie's Barbie for the sake of sanity) seeks out "Weird Barbie" (McKinnon) to find out why her world is falling apart. Weird Barbie tells her she must travel to the Real World and seek out her owner, who is likely putting these thoughts in her head when she plays with her as a doll. Barbie lights out for the Real World, and Ken invites himself along to accompany her.
The fish-out-of-water aspects of Barbie occur predictably in the Real World, where Barbie and Ken are introduced to new concepts such as laws, different clothes, and the introduction to the corporate world of Mattel, run by a clueless CEO (Ferrell) who doesn't care about politics, just the bottom line. Ken's impressionable mind is especially warped when he encounters masculinity and patriarchy and takes it back to Barbieland to brainwash the men into become jerks and the women into being submissive to men. When Barbie returns to Barbieland with her owner (Ferrara) and her daughter (Shipp) in tow, she must win back Barbieland from its now toxic atmosphere run by Ken, who does all this because he loves Barbie and feels rejected.
Why a conservative would feel threatened by an ultimately innocuous movie is beyond my comprehension. The movie has a point of view and empowerment is by no means a radical or even new concept. As Roger Ebert used to write: It isn't about what the movie is about, but how it is about it. Barbie is a slight film which maintains slight interest, but never propels into anything fun. There is a heaviness to the movie, as if J. Robert Oppenheimer were about to drop an atomic bomb on Barbieland.
No comments:
Post a Comment