MARIAH's THOUGHTS on Barbie (2023)

Genre:

Comedy/Adventure

Rating:

PG-13

Release Date:

July 21, 2023

Run Time:

1 hr 54 mins

Directed by:

Greta Gerwig

Production Co.:

Warner Bros. Pictures, Mattel Films, Heyday Films, LuckyChap Entertainment,

Distribution Co.:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Social Media:

   

Cast:

Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Kate McKinnon, America Ferrer, Issa Rae, Alexandra Shipp, Simu Liu, Michael Cera, Will Farrell, Rhea Perlman, Helen Mirren

See Full Cast & Crew on IMDB

Plot Summary:

To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.

From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”) comes “Barbie,” starring Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie (“Bombshell,” “I, Tonya”) and Ryan Gosling (“La La Land,” “Half Nelson”) as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera (“End of Watch,” the “How to Train Your Dragon” films), Kate McKinnon (“Bombshell,” “Yesterday”), Michael Cera (“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “Juno”), Ariana Greenblatt (“Avengers: Infinity War,” “65”), Issa Rae (“The Photograph,” “Insecure”), Rhea Perlman (“I’ll See You in My Dreams,” “Matilda”), and Will Ferrell (the “Anchorman” films, “Talladega Nights”). The film also stars Ana Cruz Kayne (“Little Women”), Emma Mackey (“Emily,” “Sex Education”), Hari Nef (“Assassination Nation,” “Transparent”), Alexandra Shipp (the “X-Men” films), Kingsley Ben-Adir (“One Night in Miami,” “Peaky Blinders”), Simu Liu (“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”), Ncuti Gatwa (“Sex Education”), Scott Evans (“Grace and Frankie”), Jamie Demetriou (“Cruella”), Connor Swindells (“Sex Education,” “Emma.”), Sharon Rooney (“Dumbo,” “Jerk”), Nicola Coughlan (“Bridgerton,” “Derry Girls”), Ritu Arya (“The Umbrella Academy”), Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren (“The Queen”).

Gerwig directed “Barbie” from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story,” “The Squid and the Whale”), based on Barbie by Mattel. The film’s producers are Oscar nominee David Heyman (“Marriage Story,” “Gravity”), Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner, with Michael Sharp, Josey McNamara, Ynon Kreiz, Courtenay Valenti, Toby Emmerich and Cate Adams serving as executive producers.

Gerwig’s creative team behind the camera included Oscar-nominated director of photography Rodrigo Prieto (“The Irishman,” “Silence,” “Brokeback Mountain”), six-time Oscar-nominated production designer Sarah Greenwood (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Anna Karenina”), editor Nick Houy (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”), Oscar-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran (“Little Women,” “Anna Karenina”), visual effects supervisor Glen Pratt (“Paddington 2,” “Beauty and the Beast”), music supervisor George Drakoulias (“White Noise,” “Marriage Story”) and Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat (“The Shape of Water,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel”).

Warner Bros. Pictures Presents a Heyday Films Production, a LuckyChap Entertainment Production, a Mattel Production, “Barbie.” The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures and released in theaters only nationwide on July 21, 2023 and beginning internationally on July 19, 2023.

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*My Thoughts*

“This is the most over-the-top, whimsical, wacky piece of art that has touched what sliver of my soul I have left,” is the most accurate sentence I can come up with to describe Barbie (2023). The opening scene with narration and little girls playing with dolls in a desolate wasteland set the tone of the entire film. Little girls play with baby dolls in a dusty, desert scape until a giantess Barbie, played by Margot Robie, appears as a magnificent curiosity. For them, Barbie symbolizes freedom and imagination. They realize they don’t want to just play mother or housewife anymore. They want to be glamorous, confident, and career-driven women. As a babydoll is tossed into the air, the movie then transitions to Barbieland, where everything is perfect, pink, peaceful, and Barbie-centric. The different types of Barbies have their roles in society and it’s like a pretty utopia, and then there’s the Kens who coexist with the Barbie’s.

The conflict of Barbie (2023) rises when the main Barbie, stereotypical Barbie, starts manifesting thoughts outside of the norm for Barbieland, such as death and depression. Stereotypical Barbie’s world starts to spoil like milk and nothing goes right for her, like she’s in a constant state of bad luck. Fairly early in, I noticed the foreshadowing of how brilliant the movie would be from set the color scheme, environment, and the soundtrack. The bright pink and pastel outfits that Barbie normally wears start to change with her newfound conscientiousness, such as a blue business casual outfit to represent depression, muted colors, and greyscale to represent the journey to the real world where it seems colder and harsher. The soundtrack often transitions from upbeat pop music to melodious and melancholy. But let’s not forget the Kens.

The main Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, is clingy and desperate for stereotypical Barbie’s attention and approval because that’s how he started and that’s how he wanted to end. Ken follows Barbie into the real world and learns a different way of life. While he does bring more stereotypically masculine aspects back to Barbieland, monster trucks, beer, and faux fur coats, he also dismantles his homeland to become Ken’s mojo dojo casa. The major climax of Barbie: The Movie (2023) is an exaggerated fight scene and musical. To say the least, I was pleasantly confused but pleased. In the end, Barbieland incorporated the Barbies’ and Kens’ needs and desires.

Barbie (2023) plays heavily on gender stereotypes to lean into its comedy genre, and it works. After watching the movie, I understood why there was plenty of social media discourse. It hits many social issues and makes references to the history of Barbie. It is, indeed, a pink acid trip but it’s such an in-your-face masterful piece of art that you’d want to go back for more.

My rating: