BARBIE

Directing: A-
Acting: A-
Writing: A-
Cinematography: B+
Editing: A-
Production Design: A+

One might not be blamed for ambivalence about the movie Barbie, which is the latest in a long line of “movie adaptations” that seem far from intuitive ideas, perhaps starting with the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie twenty years ago. The flip side of this notion is that Pirates of the Caribbean turned out far better than anyone could have expected a movie based on an amusement park ride to be; and Barbie proves that, with the right director, the right writers, and the right casting, really any movie concept can be great if it’s done right.

And, to be clear: the sole reason I had interest in Barbie from the start was that it was directed and co-written by Greta Gerwig, who previously gave us fantastic works like Lady Bird (2017) and Little Women (2019). Barbie is her third film as a solo director (fourth when counting a co-directing gig), and hardly anything anyone would guess based on her previous offerings. But, her name on the project gave it both specific and unparalleled pedigree that made it something that had to be seen.

It is co-written by her longtime partner, Noah Baumbach, also an unusual and fascinating choice. These are both voices of critical independent films of the past decade or so, and in both cases Barbie qualifies as their first bona fide blockbuster film. I’m not sure anyone expected Barbie to be this huge when it was first greenlit, but this movie based on Mattel’s most famous toy has been the beneficiary of a marketing push the likes of which we haven’t seen in ages, and it’s one that has worked. A year ago, I would have expected Barbie to be the modest success and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer to be the blockbuster. Instead, almost certainly to the surprise of the makers of both movies, who no doubt opened them on the same weekend regarding them as counter programming, “Barbenheimer” became a thing, and a stunning number of movie-goers have committed to seeing both movies on opening weekend, making this almost certainly the biggest box office weekend of the year. What’s more, Barbie is tracking to be the biggest earner of the two.

You might think that comparing these movies is like comparing apples and oranges, but they do have a surprising amount in common, each with a protagonist who deal with the paradigm-shifting consequences of their actions, forever altering the universes that they live in. And from that perspective, I would argue, actually, that Barbie is the better movie.

A different director could have made a film version of Barbie that was every bit as fun, and maybe even worth seeing, but only Greta Gerwig, with the help of her expertly curated ensemble cast, could so successfully pack the movie with subtext. Even better, viewers with no interest in the subtext can just as easily enjoy the movie on a surface level—this doesn’t have to be an intellectual pursuit, or something you have to analyze or deconstruct. Gerwig’s genius is in how she makes that possible without making it necessary.

Barbie does indeed owe a certain debt, in premise, to movies like Toy Story or The Lego Movie (which really just ripped off Toy Story), in which toy characters live in the world of imagination created by those who play with them. Barbie is simply more dense with both meaning and humor. The humor part should really be stressed, because this is a very funny, wildly entertaining movie. Barbie manages the rare feat of taking ideas that were successful before, and making them better.

With a standard three-act structure, Barbie takes place in Barbieland in both the first and third acts, and this is the preferable setting, the more fun place to be. Barbie and Ken’s journey to The Real World is crucial to the plot, however, and this is where the second act takes place—and where I still very much enjoyed myself. I was charmed and impressed by everything in, and everything about, this movie.

Margot Robbie could not possibly have been better cast in the lead role, as what we come to discover is “Stereotypical Barbie.” Few other actors could pull off the balance of wide-eyed innocence and undiscovered pathos. Ryan Gosling is brilliantly cast as Ken, the would-be boyfriend who follows Barbie into The Real World only to discover the patriarchy that exists there, and then bring it back to Barbieland. This theme of patriarchy becomes a huge part of the movie, which will likely rub a lot of men the wrong way—the very men Greta Gerwig clearly wants to rub the wrong way. And those of us all-in on this movie from the jump are here for it.

A diverse array of other women play other Barbies, the ones long known as associated with a specific profession or particular personality trait. Amusingly, no fewer than eleven women are credited with just the same character name “Barbie,” among them Issa Rae (who plays the President of Barbieland), Kate McKinnon (for a while referred to as “Weird Barbie”), Emma Mackey, Hari Nef, and Dua Lipa, among others. Emerald Fennell even appears as Midge, the short-lived pregnant doll that apparently came across as a little creepy. Similarly, several men are credited as “Ken,” including Simu Liu (who is Gosling’s primary rival), Chris Evans and even John Cena. Michael Cera plays Allan, the onetime doll introduced in the sixties as Ken’s buddy, now a bit of an oddball outsider.

As can be expected with a movie like this, Barbie is also cram packed with visual gags and references to “Barbie” characters, careers, outfits and dollhouses throughout the toy’s history, none of which was I particularly familiar with and thus most of which I was unable to catch. But the magic of Barbie the movie is how it pokes fun at all of this, while also acknowledging the nostalgia that still exists for it, as well as the critiques of what the doll has been perceived to represent for women in society. These ideas only get underscored by Barbie and Ken’s journey into The Real World, where the meet America Ferrera as a mother with fond memories of playing Barbies with her now-teenage daughter (Ariana Greenblatt), as well as Will Ferrell playing the Mattell CEO—alongside a cadre of doltish male board members—as a bumbling fool but whose intentions are in the right place.

Given the wide range of perspectives on this doll, not by any means all of them positive, it’s almost extraordinary that Mattel actually signed off on the film as is. There has been some coverage of certain scenes that Gerwig refused to cut as requested, and a bit of hand wringing about the movie’s undeniably corporatized nature regardless of how much it satirizes. I am here to tell you, though, that Barbie is a genuine cinematic achievement, something that transcends its myriad ways of becoming a pop culture phenomenon. It’s actually a great film, an incredibly fun couple of hours constructed and designed by great minds and delightful performers alike. I genuinely look forward to seeing it again so I can catch some of the fun details I missed the first time around.

Barbie discovers that self-doubt and thoughts of mortality will break the spell.

Overall: A-