In recent weeks, the internet has been taken storm by a deliciously ironic parallel (a dichotomy writer Cristian Fulas astutely called “a stupid copy of reality”) with the hand-in-hand releases of Barbie and Oppenheimer, known as “Barbenheimer”, creating a nearly unprecedented marketing campaign which also led to more people visiting the cinema recently than the norm has been in recent years in a fatigued Hollywood.
If Oppenheimer is (at least at first glance), a film made for men by men, then Barbie is decidedly a film made for women by women. The unspoken agreement to not only wear pink to the movie but also to reclaim your femininity for the entirety of the summer of 2023 – “Barbie Summer” – just might lead to a collective embrace of the joy of getting dressed up in cheery colours and get-ups, after a long and utilitarian interlude of tote bags and sneakers. This is strikingly similar to the surge in appreciation for “cottage core” during the pandemic, even more this time around suggesting a collective infantilisation of adults (willing participants). In fact, many have pointed out that beyond younger adults’ lasting love for games and colouring, they tend to dress and even often look like older teens – likely correlated to the bizarre link between luxurious commodification of entertainment and increased stress levels in recent years.
The highlight of the film (arguably, of course) is Ken reneging the feminine utopia of fantastic life in plastic, becoming an Andrew Tate of sorts, and indeed Ryan Gosling is both spot-on as Ken and also takes him to a next level, likely to create a lasting impression for the Ken of the future in our collective consciousness while also provoking belly laughs, just as Margot Robbie gracefully toes the line between a classic Barbie and a Barbie with a beating heart. Michael Cera aș Allan hit you with a whiff of nostalgia for the ridiculous comedies of the mid 2000s – hammering home the fact that nostalgia is the Achilles’ Heel on which the entire structure of Barbie pivots.
Structurally, however, Barbie’s plot is quite weak and reductive. I squirmed in my seat a bit bored (which did not happen in the 3-hour Oppenheimer). Certain jokes are hysterical while others, in their attempt to be very smart, fall a bit short. Out of Gerwig’s films, this is decidedly the least profound one (compare to the 2017 Lady Bird, with its human and real depiction of a mother-daughter relationship), representing – as many have pointed out – an obvious shift from independent cinema to Hollywood blockbusters.
What’s more, the film misses out on an opportunity to create a real satire for contemporary society. There would have been so many opportunities to cleverly explore more facets of gender dynamics, but Barbie and Ken spend far too little time in the real world, and far too much time in their own world.
The film tends to fall into its own trap by becoming what it ridicules, and only half knows it. Barbie isn’t encouraged to dream big but is rather hopelessly lost – but if this was indeed Gerwig’s ultimate subtle irony, it makes the movie all the better. We may have been blinded by the bubble gum pink and not picked up on this at first glance. And of course we wonder: Barbie really be a feminist icon? One might argue that she contributed rather to a hyper-sexualization of women (something that mothers have always complained about), simply shifting the binary mechanism of the Madonna-whore Complex and proving that it remains an inescapable conundrum. What is troubling but also reflective of contemporary problems is that Barbie’s character development doesn’t seem like it has an clear object: she is less vapid, yes, but as Barbie becomes increasingly anti-exceptionalist, she also becomes “neither here nor there” – and so President Barbie and Physician Barbie will forever remain more interesting than Stereotypical Barbie, who is only interesting when she no longer knows what she wants.
Is she the more aspirational for becoming average? Never mind: Barbie’s always evolving to fit the times. Maybe you got us, Greta.
