If you’ve been following my reviews here on BSO, you wouldn’t be surprised to hear that I unlocked the Barbenheimer achievement this past Tuesday and I’m now here to bring you the reviews for both films. Since I’m writing and submitting them at the exact same time, I do not have a link for you, but I generally liked Oppenheimer but Barbie was definitely the better film for a number of reasons. Let’s talk about those reasons and why you should add Barbie to your must-see list of summer blockbusters.
When Universal. announced they were making a film based on Mattel’s Barbie, most people were wondering why they would do that. Other folks were wondering how they were going to do that, but the folks at Sony Pictures and eventually Warner Bros. were determined to make the film. If you’re wondering why none of those names lined up, it’s because the rights to the film kept transferring like a game of Hot Potato. When Warner Bros. landed the rights, they immediately got to work and cast Margot Robbie and eventually landed on Greta Gerwig and her husband Noah Baumbach as director/writer and co-writer, respectively. They definitely picked the right team.
Gerwig and Baumbach put together an extremely witty and socially conscious film while paying tribute to not just the history of the character, but also what was important to her creator, Ruth Handler, cleverly played by Rhea Perlman. Robbie stars as Barbie with Ryan Gosling opposite her as the famous Ken. Adding to the glorious cast was Helen Mirren as the film’s narrator and Will Ferrell as the CEO of Mattel. In terms of name value, it was a close second to Oppenheimer.
The premise of Barbie features Robbie’s character suddenly becoming entwined with her real-life counterpart while hosting a party at her house and then being forced to fix the situation or end up with cellulite and become an outcast. This sets Stereotypical Barbie, as she’s known in the film, leaving the very matriarchal Barbieland and traveling to the real world to try and find out what’s causing these problems, except Beach Ken decides to travel along.
The various different actors and characters in the film provide repeated hilarious moments, while Gerwig and Baumbach’s tremendous writing forces the audience to address some uncomfortable truths, unfortunately leading people to dub the film “woke,” whatever the hell that means these days. If you can handle women telling you things from their perspective like a normal human being, there’s absolutely nothing within Barbie that should be causing controversy. It’s also pretty damn hilarious that a bunch of men are getting worked up about a doll they never (?) played with their entire life.
The main message of Barbie is finding comfort in who you are, regardless of who that may be. It certainly gave me a boost of confidence because I didn’t go into the film wanting to hate it because it features powerful women doing great things. Robbie does a tremendous job of playing a genuinely good human being and the film uses that to make the audience feel better. This is something you rarely see in movies and Gerwig nailed it out right out of the gate.
Gosling’s Ken is confronted with a world in which men run everything and he takes that mindset back to Barbieland, bringing with him an unexplored idea of patriarchy. I won’t spoil what happens when he fully explores it, but I feel like Gerwig is trying to say that way too many people run with ideas they’ve never fully explored but insist are fact. When they reach the inevitable truth, they discover what they’ve been espousing is wildly different than what they believe to be fact.
There are many great supporting characters, including Kate McKinnon, Alexandra Shipp, Simu Liu, and Michael Cera, who continues to find ways to play amazing characters. My favorite was Cera and it was great to see him back on screen in a prominent role. He kills the character of Allan and I hope it leads to the return of Allan and beyond.
The music for the film is absolutely incredible, with songs written exclusively for the film. My favorite diddy was “I’m Just Ken,” featured toward the end of the film. Between the songwriting and the dance choreography, the men outdanced the women vis-a-vis exclusive dance numbers with outlandish choreography. “Dance the Night,” written by Dua Lipa, was the number used for the Barbie dance. The entire soundtrack slaps and thankfully the Nazi-supporting band Aqua and their song Barbie World were not featured in the film outside of a sample by another song. That band doesn’t need additional fame, they need to read more history books.
At the end of the day, Barbie dominated her war with Oppenheimer because it was the better film in a number of ways. The film used its actors better. The music was creative and original. The film’s message wasn’t lost in a sea of flashbacks. But most importantly, Gerwig found a way to take some really important social issues and package them in a short, easy-to-digest film that makes you laugh the entire time. That’s why it succeeded and will continue to dominate at the box office.
BSO Rating: 8.75 out of 10