‘Barbie’ Movie Review: A Giddy, Sublimely Silly Party With Big Ideas
Photo from Warner Bros.
From Jeremy Kibler
Satire, slapstick, and…existentialism make up Greta Gerwig’s feminist Barbie. Wait, come back! It’s delightfully, sublimely silly as both a fish-out-of-water farce and a battle-of-the-sexes comedy. It’s a celebration of Ruth Handler’s Mattel doll as an aspirational model for little girls but also a critique and deconstruction of it. What writer-director Gerwig and co-writing husband Noah Baumbach come up with is so witty, ambitious, and much more thoughtful than many will be expecting, too. It’s like hiding a piece of kale in the middle of someone’s giant dish of pink champagne sherbet; either way, it’s hard to resist going down.
As Helen Mirren’s droll, meta narration explains in a 2001: A Space Odyssey-inspired prologue, Barbie allowed little girls in the Real World to play as astronauts, presidents, or whatever they wanted to be to feel powerful. Over in Barbieland, Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) “lives” the same perfect day every day. Every woman is a Barbie, except for the pregnant Midge (she was discontinued), and every man is a hunky Ken, except for Allan (a perfectly awkward Michael Cera). The Barbies run the world and live in a pink Dream House, including Issa Rae’s Madam President Barbie, and the Kens just like to “beach.” Ken (Ryan Gosling) isn’t much without Barbie, but Barbie doesn’t need Ken. Then once Barbie starts questioning her existence and she gets flat feet, she seeks help from Weird Barbie (a hysterically funny and appropriately weird Kate McKinnon). Barbie must journey to the Real World and find the human girl who’s been playing with her, while Ken tags along, only to discover that California men rule the world. Both of their trips to the Real World will change their thinking.
Nobody puts Barbie in a box. Gerwig and Baumbach make that the metaphor for their celebration of womanhood in this consistently amusing, sometimes really sharp package that’s bursting with colors, ideas, pop culture references, sight gags, and clever double entendres, to the point that it might feel a little unwieldy. From the word go, however, Barbie is a dazzling miracle on a technical level, from the pastel-infused costume design to the vibrant, lovingly detailed production design in the grandly artificial Barbieland. The level of exuberant energy from the bright performances is so infectious, and it all starts with Margot Robbie.
Effervescent and stunning, Robbie is perfection as Barbie. She plays the part with charming sincerity and a knowing playfulness, and Robbie embodying agency, compassion, and so much feeling makes Barbie’s journey of self-discovery a joy to watch. Clearly having a blast, Ryan Gosling is also just right for Ken. He’s a daffy hoot playing a himbo, and the former Mouseketeer definitely has the moves for a few synchronized musical numbers and a lovelorn power ballad. In the giant ensemble, every supporting actor as a Barbie, a Ken, or otherwise is game (and the filmmakers deserve kudos for casting Emma Mackey, Robbie’s doppelgänger, as another Barbie). Will Ferrell shockingly gets fewer laughs as the patriarchal CEO of Mattel than his group of yes-men, but the real standouts at Mattel are America Ferrera as an employee with a free-thinking teen daughter (Ariana Greenblatt) and a gentle, touching Rhea Perlman in the most pivotal role of all.
The conversational points Gerwig opens up to all generations of women—female autonomy and toxic masculinity—are vital, if perhaps presented too heavy-handedly as if preaching to the choir. Then again, these topics are pretty inherent to a doll you can undress everywhere. Why must the message of the contradictory standards placed on women be subtle or understated? A third-act monologue eloquently delivered by America Ferrara’s Gloria is the cathartic rallying cry any audience member could stand to hear.
Not since The LEGO Movie has a movie revolving around a popular product been so audacious and open to upending expectations. One of the more surprising, creatively inspired offerings this summer, Barbie is giddy, breezy entertainment with a point-of-view and big ideas in its pretty little head. Come on, Barbie, let’s go party, but then have a conversation afterwards about what it means to be a woman and a human being.
Barbie is currently in theaters.
Rating: 4/5
