Preamble

I know. I know. Even by my standards, this is an embarrassing instance of turning up very late to the party. It’s genuinely been quite something to see the rousing success of Barbie in the weeks since its release. And now it’s time for me to briefly engage with side b of the Barbenheimer phenomenon. At this point, it feels more natural to ask, how many times have you seen Barbie? However, for the sake of continuity, have you seen Barbie? Let me know in the comments below.

Brief Consideration

Barbie should not work. It’s at once a sincere and plucky throwback to the grand Hollywood musicals of the 50s. It also has a sardonic post-modern voice that runs the gamut from 2001: A Space Odyssey to the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. And yet, it somehow manages to navigate the tightrope walk of cheery and biting satire with effortless ease. The 2023 film is about Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) having to travel to the real world to find the girl, who plays with her, so she can alleviate some recent stark feelings and physical symptoms. She’s joined by Beach Ken (Ryan Gosling), who wishes to impress Barbie and find affirmation.

Barbie is ablaze with ideas. Aside from using the central Barbieland as a jumping of point for a perception of the Mattel brand having a positive effect on women in the real world, it’s also concerned with the negative effects of humanity (via the creation of the patriarchy) and a dialogue between creator and creation. Part of the reason why the satire worked for me is how it uses the sunny trappings of the brand to show the genuine horror and melancholy that can come from being a Barbie and Ken respectively. Both of the central incarnations of those characters have to contend with their place outside their programmed roles. And the epiphanies and dialogue about one’s place in society kept me engaged.

Greta Gerwig’s direction is also impressive, with wide angle and long shots depicting the colourful imagination of the almost toyetic Barbieland. These instances are punctuated with a mixture of seemingly stop motion photography to make the cartoony nature of Barbie and Ken feel credible and Wes Anderson-esque. Whilst Robbie and Gosling will get the acting plaudits (with the former portraying subtle emotion with ease and the latter creating an amusing and fragile comic foil), the supporting players around the margins of the narrative impressed me the most. Kate McKinnon delivers a proper Lynchian-inspired performance that, in her various odd comedic notes, points to a self-assurance that juxtaposes with the rest of the characters that populate the idealised alternative reality of Barbieland.

And Rhea Perlman subverts her usual salty New York persona (borne out of the characters she’s played in Cheers and Matilda) to deliver a warm performance. Her character (Ruth Handler aka the inventor of the Barbie doll and co-creator of Mattel) is akin to a fading smile that still manages to move and educate. Her handful of scenes, along with near-silent moments where Barbie sees the beauty in growing old, turn the film from a corporate satire into an effort that has the weighty poignancy that defined the Toy Story and Lego movies.