This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Greta Gerwig. In another director’s hands, I would have rolled my eyes at a movie about the famous Mattel doll, ready for a Space Jam: A New Legacy level of shameless empty product placement. Gerwig extracts probably the most she can out of Barbie’s innate silly concept, using all the tools great directors have at their disposal. And in Pink, always in Pink.
After Barbie’s 2001 A Space Odyssey Intro, we get brought into Barbieland, a fictional place where the world is filled with two types of people: Barbie’s and Ken’s. Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) takes us through her day to day life in Barbieland, a matriarchal society where the Barbie’s run everything and Ken’s (Ryan Gosling, Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and Ncuti Gatwa among others) vie for the attention of these amazing women, like President Barbie (Issa Rae), Physicist Barbie (Emma Mackey) or Mermaid Barbie (Dua Lipa). After another perfect day ending with a dance party in her Barbie dreamhouse, Stereotypical Barbie has a thought: does anyone else think about dying? This little thought throws off Barbieland’s paradise, sending our Barbie to weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) and eventually onto the real world to figure out what’s going on, obviously with Ken by her side.
Greta Gerwig has made two of the best films of the last 10 years. As a reward, she gets this big budget and bigger story to dive into. Gerwig pulls out all the stops, surrounding Barbie with with some of the most delightful, inspired world building I’ve seen. Barbieland is a beautiful dream onscreen: a feminine fantasy upending the real world’s gender roles through a pink lavish toyland come to life. The costumes are colorful and gorgeous, even the Ken’s with their minxes and California surf bro energy. Lizzo’s Pink sets the perfect tone for the start of Barbie’s day, and Dua Lipa’s Dance the Night ends each day in the party Gerwig was hoping Barbieland would make every woman (and many men) feel. Gerwig (and her partner/writing partner Noah Baumbach) have fun with the history of Barbie product lines, pointing out some of the weird ones like Allen (Michael Cera) or Midge, a pregnant doll that clearly was discontinued because of the innate creepiness of a plastic pregnant doll. There’s also great glee at the gender role inversion, as the men like Ryan Gosling’s Ken only are happy if they get the attention of the Barbie they like, and are crushed when Barbie doesn’t reciprocate.
As for the rest of the story, Gerwig and Baumbach get about 2/3 of the way there. The premise is intriguing for sure: a gauzy paradise where a fantasy Barbie has an existential crisis, and goes to the real world. Barbieland is great as I said above, as is the first 20ish minutes or so of Barbie in the “real” world, where she learns her ra ra girl power and sunny disposition are not exactly celebrated in a society built for the opposite. Ken, on the other hand, starts to learn some “ideas” that threaten Barbieland’s feminine paradise, letting Ryan Gosling cook (in a movie filled with Barbies it’s Ken who’s the highlight). But when the movie has to start resolving itself, the house of cards teeters a bit, as Gerwig has all sorts of subplots and plates spinning, a couple falling by the wayside. The talented director does stick the landing, thanks to a great America Ferrera speech and a welcome wonderful cameo at the end, but I mostly left Barbie with a feeling of “huh…” instead of “yeah!.” I will say though, Greta, your final line is perfect, no notes.
The cynics will certainly have a lot of things to get mad at Barbie for. I appreciated that Greta Gerwig took a big swing, and mostly delivered something interesting and different. In the even more cynical Hollywood studio sequeling, a wholly original story is most welcome, even it comes from a toy company. So Greta, keep doing your thing, and keep expanding your acting talent pool until all the actors want to be in your movie. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be in a movie where Issa Rae plays the president? And you’re already recruiting the best cast on TV: the Sex Education cast, smart.