Barbie Puts Bite Into The Beautiful Doll Story
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist. Please consider donating to the Entertainment Community Fund here.
I was excited and nervous about Barbie. This hasn’t been a great year for movies for me and I was worried that Barbie was going to be another abysmal corporate tie-in thing. Barbie reminds me of a pink rum punch, described as girly but packs a real wallop. This review is spoiler-free, assuming you’ve watched the trailers or seen the commercials.
Barbie is about womanhood, the power of ideas and seamlessly integrates Mattel’s new slogan “you can be anything.” Barbieland is a pink and Malibu-Barbie blue dreamland run entirely by women. Barbie can be anything, and so can you. Helen Mirren provides a storybook-style narration over this section that was very cheeky. Ryan Gosling immediately steals each scene he is in as Barbie’s friend Ken. The narration says something to the effect of “Ken doesn’t have a good day unless Barbie looks at him” and Gosling embodies this to a T. All is not well in Barbieland, though. The perfectly cast Margot Robbie’s Barbie is finding that her stereotypical facade is slipping and not everything is dreamy in the dreamhouse.
Barbie visits “Weird Barbie” (a very earnest Kate McKinnon) and eventually has to go on a long, very well art-directed journey to the real world, to help whoever is playing with her. Ken stows away in the back of the Barbie car and of course joins her. The real world touches them both in different ways and this slowly starts to bleed into Barbieland. (All while they are being chased by Will Ferrell, as the CEO of Mattel, also excellent.)
This movie in many ways is about the balancing act of womanhood, a very similar subject in director Greta Gerwig’s last directorial effort, Little Women (a movie with a wildly different tone, for sure). Some characters blame Barbie, other people appreciate her contributions (Barbie was on the moon before women could have their own credit cards) but there’s no easy answer about Barbie’s role. Ken, additionally, has to learn who he is outside of just being Barbie’s friend. (In a mink, with a leather fringe jacket, which I think I will have to buy for myself.)
At the end of the day there is no perfect answer to “what is the role of Barbie anymore?” but the film doesn’t shy away from exploring it. There is no right way to be Barbie. A punchy political satire. Go see it.
Between Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and Barbie it may be a mixed year for movies but it’s a great year for games and toys. I give Barbie (Warner Bros.; PG-13; 1 hr 54 mins) a 4 out of 5.
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