Barbie Review

Barbie follows Barbie, Margot Robbie, as she begins to malfunction and has to journey from Barbieland to the Real World to find the person playing with her, and find out why they are sad and making her malfunction. Directed by Greta Gerwig, the film has a decent plot that follows the classic “Hero on a Journey” and Wizard of Oz archetypes, filled with beautiful set designs and costumes, and stunning performances from Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, as Ken. I myself am not a Greta Gerwig fan, and I went into this film hoping I would finally find a film of hers that I liked. Lady Bird is more of an art house film that I found boring, and decided was just not made for me, but had great performances. Little Women had a couple of actors that I do not care for, nor think are wildly talented, and the 1990s version has a special place in my heart. I hoped Barbie would finally be “The One”. I grew up on the classic animated Barbie films (and adored them), and thought it was nearly impossible to mess this film up. I specifically only watched TV Spots and did not look up what the plot was, because I wanted to go in fresh and have a good time. And it was a mixed bag. What the film does well, it does award winning well, but what it does wrong, it does criminally wrong. 

*****SPOILER WARNING: READ AT YOUR OWN SPOILER RISK*****

Pros: The set design and costumes for Barbieland are absolutely stunning. Most people say that period dramas are the pinnacle of costume and set design, but Barbie proves that is not so. The film is able to recreate classic Barbie outfits, dream houses, and accessories to the point you feel like you stepped back into your childhood. Everything from the furniture, to the water, to the accessories scream “fake” in a way that can only work for this film. The actors use the way they move to further sell the “doll” reality. They pick up objects in a way that looks like how a Barbie doll would pick up an object. Their hands are perfectly straight because a doll can’t bend their hands, and they all have perfect posture. Ken, Ryan Gosling, is at one point hit by a plastic wave, and somersaults similarly to how a child would make a doll flip. This mix of design and purposeful acting sells the Barbieland illusion and immediately sucks you in. 

The diversity of Barbies is inspired. Gerwig embraced the variety of Barbies over the years to make a wonderfully diverse cast where nothing feels forced. Everyone is known for their job plus Barbie, such as “Doctor Barbie”, “President Barbie”, and even “Stereotypical Barbie”, played by Margot Robbie. In a time of forced diversity, this embracing of all the Barbies over the years, puts the audience at ease as they are able to see themselves on screen, but not feel pandered to. They even add in discontinued Barbies and Kens. At several points I found myself going “oh I remember that!” 

The relationship dynamics in the film are also perfectly realistic. Our Real World characters are a mother and daughter duo of Gloria, America Ferrera, and Sasha, Ariana Greenblatt. Gloria is a mid thirties woman working in a dead end secretarial job at Mattel dreaming and designing dresses for her old Barbie. As someone who has been in a dead end secretarial job, I felt this in my soul. Sasha is a middle schooler who is clearly in her “edgy” phase that all teens go through and is constantly at odds with her mother. They start out with the complicated mother/daughter relationship every teen goes through. By the end you can still see they have their differences, but have grown closer together and embraced their differences. 

Margot Robbie as Barbie & Cast in Barbie (2023)

The film takes a page out of the Wizard of Oz playbook and flips it. In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy starts in the black and white real world, and goes to the colorful land of Oz. In Barbie, we start in the colorful, magical land and move to the drab Real World. When Ken and Barbie first enter the Real World, they are dressed in colorful 80s skate gear and everyone else’s clothes are noticeably drab in comparison. When Barbie goes to see Sasha at her middle school, she is in a bright pink cowgirl outfit that contrasts with the teenagers’ clothes of blacks, grays, and muted green. This visual storytelling perfectly shows the audience how different the Real World is from Barbieland in a very subtle way. 

The comedy is both hysterical and satirical. In this idyllic reality, when someone asks if you have plans tonight, of course the answer is “Oh nothing much. Just a blow out party with all of the Barbies and a choreographed dance number”. While a ridiculous line, the comedic effect is immediate and wonderful. In Barbieland, they are under the impression that they have “fixed the world” and people in the Real World will be thrilled to see Barbie, seeing the culture shock is very entertaining. When Barbie confronts the Mattel board, because of course they are here, she asks where all the women are, as she has only seen men since arriving at Mattel headquarters. The Chairmen President, Will Ferrell, quickly explains that there have been previous women on the board, and they had a female CEO “back in the 90s'”. The satirical joke lands perfectly and keeps the audience laughing. Much of Barbie follows this comedic timing and satire. The first forty five minutes or so is everything I wanted in a Barbie film. It’s beautiful, hilarious, and feels like your childhood came back to give you a hug. The first section of the film is set up to be a wonderful comedy about wonderfully innocent Barbies going on an adventure.

Cons: But a near perfect comedy is nearly ruined by the great killer of art of the 2020s, radical, in your face feminism. For the first section of the film, the audience is treated to the magical world of Barbieland. It is bright, fun, and has an innocence that feels like a child is creating the story. Barbie is then given the task of finding who is causing her to malfunction, and to do this, she must go to the Real World. And that is where this incredibly fun movie takes a turn. The first indication of this turn is when Ken and Barbie make it to the Real World. Within 3 minutes, she is catcalled, obviously objectified by onlookers, and gets her butt slapped by a random stranger. Now this could have just been used as a “culture shock” for Barbie, but they instead double down on how hard women have it in the Real World when Barbie goes to the local Middle School to find Sasha who she thinks is her human. Sasha proceeds to tear Barbie down. Calling her just about every negative thing critics have thrown at the doll, and then capping off her tear down by calling Barbie a fascist. While tearing someone down is not outside the realm of reason for a middle schooler, doing it with such fervor and hate, infused with the Feminist Rage handbook, is surprising. Now. They could have left it there, instead, our Real World female characters go on another rant later in the film courtesy of Gloria as she explains to Barbie the hardships and conflicting dualities of being a woman. Now, most of this speech I agree with as I have seen it displayed. However, that speech is horribly placed in this film. As someone who grew up with strong female characters in film and tv, who have overcome obstacles, embraced both their strength of character and femininity in real and inspiring ways that stick with me to this day, seeing a literal hissy fit rant displayed on what could be a great film about female strength and embracing both changing times and being who you are, is wildly disappointing. The end of the film does try to pivot to the “embrace who you are'' lesson, but it is overshadowed by all the whining and complaining of the Real World women. By the end of the film, Barbie decided to become human and go to the Real World, which I honestly cannot understand why. After hearing Sasha and Gloria talk, why would anyone want to leave paradise to go somewhere where they are objectified and torn down. Not even the montage of “life is beautiful” fixed this issue. Which was a gorgeous scene and did elicit genuine tender moments, but still. Why would she leave? 

Oh. And there is a whole story about how Ken brought “The Patriarchy” to Barbieland and he and the other Kens managed to brainwash the Barbies into being essentially 1950s housewives who only exist to please men. That storyline at least had Ryan Gosling at the forefront, and his charm and charisma was able to make the storyline entertaining. Even when he has a whole musical number called “Blonde Fragility” it manages to be wildly entertaining until you realize it’s supposed to be a song about “Male Fragility”. You will still have that song in your head for days and be grooving to it the whole time. But that storyline makes no sense. Ken was back for less than a day and was able to disrupt the entire Barbie Society. Which begs the question, how stable is this society when any new ideas fundamentally change society overnight? I am willing to excuse this as a runtime issue, but I still have questions. 

Simu Liu as Ken & Cast in Barbie (2023)

Overall, the aggressive feminism makes up only about 35-45% of the film, but it is so aggressive, it overshadows everything else. The Patricary storyline ends with Ken admitting that once he realized horses are not involved in the patriarchy, he actually lost interest, but at that point was in too deep and just rolled with it. That is actually hilarious. If the film just had “Ken accidentally brings patriarchy to Barbieland cause he thought it revolved around horses”' storyline that would have been hysterical. But having these rants in the film, and having the Barbies use underhanded tactics to make the Kens fight each other, takes away from that and only reinforces negative stereotypes about toxic women. 

Best Performance:  He may be “Just Ken” but Ryan Gosling as Ken steals the show. While the Barbies are given titles and jobs such as “President Barbie” or “Doctor Barbie” the Kens hold no such title or job. In fact, the closest thing the Kens have is “Beach”. While some actors may struggle with such a limited character, Gosling uses “beach” as a launching point for one of the funniest characters this year. Gosling shows how sad his life is as he doesn’t have a purpose unless Barbie is there all while wrapped in a charming performance. Every line is earnestly funny, and has this air of innocence that you can’t help but love. 

Gosling and Robbie have possibly one of the best chemistry dynamics this year. While Gosling is constantly trying to be with Barbie, Barbie is constantly trying to get rid of him. This push and pull relationship is sold by Robbie’s endearing naivete and Gosling’s earnest “let me love you” energy. Even through the story’s most awkward moments, Gosling’s makes these moments charming and hilarious. 

In a story filled with high feminine energy, and possibly the world’s supply of pink, there are maybe two actors in the world who could play this role honestly and with charm, Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans. Although I don’t think Evans can pull off a musical number that could make Fred Astaire sit up in his grave and applaud. Many are saying that this role may finally win Gosling an Oscar, specifically in the “Best Supporting Actor” category and while this will go down as one of his most memorable performances, I would not say it is Oscar worthy. I do believe he will win many other awards this awards season, but for the coveted Oscar, I think not. Also Robert Downey Jr. is about to walk away with “Best Supporting Actor” for Oppenheimer. 

Ryan Gosling as Ken & Margot Robbie as Barbie in Barbie (2023)

So. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is a bit of a mixed bag. The “Pros” of the film instantly makes me want to add the film to my list of “favorites” but the “Cons” are a bit glaring. The film starts as an earnest satirical comedy film that could have a great message, but it is overshadowed by the forced feminism and multiple rants by our “strong female characters”. If these rants were taken out of the film, I could easily say that this is one of the best films of 2023 and should sweep the awards season. By adding in feminism, they end up dividing viewers in a way that Barbie shouldn’t have. It is possible to have a funny story that has great messages and is universally loved by audiences. Ted Lasso is a great example, 3 seasons in and I have yet to find anyone who dislikes the show. Even when they deal with heavy topics, they handle those topics in a way that is tactful and emotional. Before Mattel greenlights any more films, I think they should listen to the criticism surrounding the film and make adjustments for future films. Because Barbie is so much fun, and I laughed most of the time, and I would recommend seeing the film. But by adding in woke topics and not handling them tactfully, they will invite controversy in the future.