The Barbie Movie Review

 

The Barbie movie is one of the strangest films I've seen recently. The movie, a fantasy comedy of pink girls toys going to the real world, released the same say as Oppenheimer, a film about the man who created the nuclear bomb that hit Japan during World War II. This would influence the "Barbenheimer" memes since those two movies have completely different tones and colors. Seeing these memes influenced me to watch the Barbie movie as well as seeing the really weird early trailers that didn't really tell you what it was about. 

I can say after watching the movie that it's one of the best films I've seen this year. Everything about it was great from the humor, the themes, and the surprising amount of dread and depression Barbie goes through. I never thought I'd love a movie about a girl's toy line, but I was wrong.

The movie plot's so strange too. The beginning of the film starts off with Stereotypical Barbie having the most pretty pink perfect day being loved and respected by her fellow Barbies and Kens. Allan's there too. They have fun by going to the beach and having parties every night. During the party, Barbie suddenly has thoughts of death. These thoughts would soon affect her as she no longer has her magical abilities, becomes flat footed, and has cellulite. She visits Weird Barbie who then tells her she has to go to the real world and find the miserable person who owns her doll. With this information, she decides to go to the real world in order find the source of the problem and go back to normal while Ken tags along and starts a patriarchy.

What really surprised me the most about the film were the topics of patriarchy/matriarchy, feminism, and depression as well as criticizing the Barbie brand. The patriarchy/matriarchy themes are the most apparent in this movie as Ken and Barbie are victims of both and cause each other's problems. 

Ken and his fellow Kens are basically companion objects to the Barbies in a matriarchal world and can't even work at higher positions like the Barbies do, similar to how women were treated centuries ago. When he goes to the human world with Barbie, he sees and likes that the men are in charge of everything and feels respected by other people, so he goes back to Barbie land and run his own version patriarchy (with horses). 

Barbie's experience in the human world is the opposite of Ken's as she's been cat called by perverted men and is even smacked in the ass by one. Once she goes back to Barbieland, she sees that Ken has taken over the place with his version of patriarchy and has the other Barbies dressed in maid costumes and basically ruined everything. 

Both characters would later apologize to each other for their actions near the end of the film, with Ken moaning that he has no purpose without her and Barbie encouraging him to find his own identity. I like how the film shows how patriarchy can end up not only harming women but men too as we learn later on that Ken was going through a self destructive path and didn't really like patriarchy at all and only did it because he just wanted to ride horses. 

The criticism of the Barbie brand was interesting as I thought they wouldn't acknowledge it at all. I know Mattel was heavily involved with this movie so I thought they wouldn't mention it since they don't want to make the company and brand look bad. Barbie gets roasted by a teenage girl for being shallow and lame and Mattel in the movie are basically feds. They were really funny though.

The film's tonal clash was weird too. The film will go from a really silly scene to having a really quiet scene. One example I can think of is Barbie in the human world sensing the unhappy person she's looking for and then later in the film the Kens will have a Bollywood-style dance off with Ryan Gosling singing. Barbie goes through depression and wonders what her purpose is. I remember reading a Chinese article that compares her adventure to Buddha's with both suffering and reaching enlightenment at the end of their journey, which I can definitely see.

The Barbie is a movie I would recommend but I feel like it depends on your beliefs. I remember seeing some complaints how the movie is anti-men and super feminist. I don't agree with this at all since the movie never villainizes men or pushes an agenda. If anything, it tackles those themes in a satirical way and wants men to find masculinity in their own way. Maybe those guys watched the movie with their ears plugged? Anyway, I enjoyed the movie and you recommend should give it a watch.