Barbie is a 2023 comedy starring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken. The movie begins with a perfect day in “Barbieland”, but then turns into an existential crisis for the Stereotypical Barbie, played by Margot Robbie, who begins having thoughts about death and cellulite. Then, it’s discovered a portal has opened between Barbieland and the real world, and Stereotypical Barbie and Ken have to go and figure out how to fix the problem between the two worlds.
I liked Barbie, but at the same time, there’s plenty not to like about Barbie. I thought it was funny. It’s a good script. I was laughing a lot throughout the movie. When the lady asked Ryan Gosling what time it was in the real world, and he couldn’t tell her. So then, when he got back to Barbieland, he was wearing three watches. That’s pretty funny. Or, why does Weird Barbie move the way she does? She’s always doing splits, or flipping upside down for no reason. I guess that’s why she’s “Weird Barbie”…
Another thing I liked was the sets all over the place. The pool water was fake. The waves on the beach were cardboard. The lawns all over Barbieland were clearly fake with knee-high fences. It was like a drug trip if you were really into Barbie dolls and you took a bunch of acid right before you sat down and started playing with them.
One of my problems with the movie is how preachy it got. It went from this sort of existential problem that Barbie was having, to this whole feminist movement, really quickly. It seemed like the entire point of having Barbie get to the real world was to learn that men were bad. And then to have men take over Barbieland so that Barbie could save it from the men. I mean, I know Barbies are dolls for girls, but, this almost seems like extremism…
The ending just kind of petered out too, it seemed. There was this big battle on the beach, and this big, choreographed number and song. And then, it just kind of fell off, and everything dragged on for a long while. As far as endings go, this was far from a strong one. The better part of this movie is definitely the middle. Like an oreo cookie.
But don’t let that stop you from seeing it. It’s still worth watching, in my opinion. So, yeah. Go and see Barbie. There’s some good performances. A few good songs. Some pretty funny lines. And an impressive dance number that must have taken a really long time to practice, because there were a lot of people involved. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…
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