Movie Review: Barbie

I love a bit of blockbuster spectacle as much as anybody else, but in recent years a large degree of homogeneity has settled in across the nation’s multiplexes. The bigger a movie’s budget became, the more likely it was to feel visually and tonally similar to all the rest of the year’s tentpole releases, chiefly due to the success of the “Marvel formula” and every other studio’s relentless pursuit of the profits it had been bringing in. What a pleasant surprise it is then to see that the biggest hit movie of 2023 so far (and the biggest hit ever for studio Warner Bros.) is one that was allowed to be aggressively different in nearly every way possible.

In Barbie, Greta Gerwig (Little Women, Lady Bird) and her co-writer Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story, Frances Ha), have been allowed to craft a pleasantly weird and surprisingly moving story that uses the iconic doll of the title to present us with one of the most clever and clear representations of the ways that the world has been stacked against women ever put to screen. The always fantastic Margot Robbie stars as the popular, “stereotypical” Barbie in a bright pink world known as Barbieland, where (almost) all the women are also named Barbie and (almost) all the men are named Ken. She awakes every morning to a bespoke Lizzo song and cheerily begins her day, in which everything goes perfectly. Once dressed and ready, she heads to the beach, where her Ken (the also always fantastic Ryan Gosling) is waiting for her. For you see, as narrator Helen Mirren explains, while everything is always going great for the Barbies, for the Kens their whole world revolves around receiving even the barest of acknowledgements from a Barbie. Without it they feel worthless and despondent, a sad truth that the females are blissfully oblivious to.

That night during a choreographed dance party, our main Barbie suddenly finds herself pondering the idea of death aloud, much to the dismay of everyone around her. She quickly plays it off, but the next morning finds her perfect life suddenly not going so perfectly, leading up to her feet suddenly dropping into a flat position. One of her friends advises her to seek out the advice of “weird” Barbie (Kate McKinnon, perfectly cast), who in turn explains to her that she will need to head to the real world to find the girl who is playing with her doll and try to help her through whatever she is dealing with if she is to have any hope of returning to the way things were.

So, she heads off on her journey, only to find her Ken has tagged along, and we get a sequence of amusing but pointed fish-out-of-water moments as the pair discover that things in our world aren’t nearly as rosy as they are in theirs. As Barbie realizes that the power dynamic between men and women is the reverse of what she’s used to, Ken also begins to figure it out and grows enamored of the idea. Still, she came with a purpose and so tracks down Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), only to discover that she was actually looking for her mother Gloria (America Ferrera). She happens to work for Mattel, which is of course run entirely by men, including the CEO (Will Ferrell, game as always), who want desperately to get her back to Barbieland before the public learns of her escape, all while Ken decides to return on his own and educate the other Kens about the wonders of “the patriarchy”.

The metaphor is basically just laid out right on the surface, but that doesn’t make it any less effective, thanks in large part to the clever and satisfying script. From the opening spoof of 2001, to the many references to decades of Barbie dolls and accessories, this is easily one of the wittier big studio comedies to come along in years. In her first mega-budget project in the director’s chair, Gerwig defines herself as someone with a striking and unique vision, ably aided by Sarah Greenwood’s (Darkest Hour, Anna Karenina) Oscar-worthy production design. The entire supporting cast are clearly having a blast playing in this world, with Issa Rae as “President” Barbie, Simu Liu as a rival Ken, and Michael Cera as Ken’s friend Allan (who can fit in Ken’s clothes) especially standing out.

In a world of increasing blandness, it’s genuinely refreshing to see something this joyously odd and even more refreshing to see it actually connect with audiences. The strongly feminist message rings loudly throughout, but Ken’s plotline also demonstrates the ways that society’s expectations can be damaging to men. More than anything the final message is one of learning to embrace what makes you unique while still treating those around you with dignity (and maybe also trying to wear more pink). They may not be the most original sentiments, but they feel more necessary than ever. ★★★★★