Exactement! As the French would say.
I just watched this today and I liked it. Was it the ideal feminist movie? No, probably not. For example, emotionally manipulating men into fighting each other is probably not the best way for women to solve problems in a perfect world. But as the movie suggests, being the perfect anything is impossible.
I laughed at most the jokes (like every 15 minutes or so) but felt that overall it was a mess. As did my 3 companions. Too bad; I’ve liked GG’s other movies and have a soft spot for America Ferrera (and enjoyed all the performances). But I’m delighted that others love it, whatever the mangled message was.
But women in the 50s weren’t one-dimensional morons, like the Kens are here. I get that it’s a satire, but satire has to have a kernel of truth at its core and (speaking specifically about the Kens) I couldn’t find one.
OTOH, the satire around Barbie IRL was a rich vein the movie barely tapped at all. I still can’t fathom why so much of it had to focus on Ken.
Because Mattel was paying the bills. The film touches on the unrealistic beauty expectations that Barbie created for an entire generation and then quickly runs away from that topic, because this is, at it’s core, an advertisement for toys. The stuff Gerwig was able to get away with is admirable but at the end of the day, she had corporate overseers.
The ridiculousness of Ken as a toy is a very safe direction as far as Mattel was probably concerned.
This really pissed me off, but your explanation makes sense.
What truly baffles me is why so many critics are gaga over this movie.
I think it was intentionally trying to provoke discomfort on that point. It’s a provocative film for a lot of reasons. It’s not altogether coherent in that no single allegory makes sense for the entire movie, but it’s full of ideas intended to provoke further consideration of how men and women relate to each other.
Well, it’s a fun movie, in the same way that The Lego Movie was fun. It’s also self-aware and not oblivious to social issues.
I think a lot of people came away thinking it was saying more than it was trying to say, IMHO. Hence my comments above about how the whole Ken storyline makes a lot more sense when you think about it from the perspective of a bright child playing with the toys while having some questions about how things work in the Barbie world.
Exactly. What do little girls playing Barbie actually think boyfriends and girlfriends do? I sure hope they don’t start simulating sex acts between Barbie and Ken (and Skipper!). Or alter their dolls to be anatomically correct.
IMO The Lego Movie covered a lot of the same ground much more effectively.
I just watched it this last weekend and LOVED it. It was so clearly made by someone who had grown up with Barbie and loved it, but not uncritically 
– so many details about Barbieland were just so spot on and so fun. The Barbie Dream House complete with slide! The fake milk and fake kisses! The way Ken was all about Barbie and had no other real function except “to beach”! (yep, totally the case when we would play with Barbies!) Weird Barbie! We had a Weird Barbie too! although ours was a Weird Skipper.
Was it a deep and profound movie? No, not really. Was it trying to do a lot of things, and actually did many of them really well? Yes! Was I absolutely the target audience for this movie? Yes! (I imagine it hits quite differently for someone who wasn’t a girl playing with Barbies in the 80’s.)
(Waste of Will Ferrell, I will say – I found him hilarious, but the plotline didn’t go anywhere.)
I liked the “commentary” of the character. He truly valued Barbies as a tool of empowerment, that he liked women, it wasn’t just posturing…but his board was all identically dressed men!
I also thought he was Buddy Elf grown up, so that bit he should have changed.
Yes absolutely, I totally agree! I adored the moment where we see the all-men board for the first time, and he got some great lines! (And the sycophantic board got some great lines too.) I just felt like his storyline fizzled out. But one can’t have everything!
I wonder about the physics of their world when Barbieland exists, and he knows how to get there, but no one else does. And no one accidentally discovers it. And yet, everyone runs with it. (Sasha: “how did we get these clothes?”)
And “Her ghost keeps an office on the 14th floor”. Like, OK, that sounds normal…
I recommend the Barbie review video by YouTube cosplayer/costumer/bird nerd/um, just general bizarreness rep and longtime fanatical Barbie stan Micarah Tewers.
<Surprising I didn’t see any Barbie thread, considering the film is almost finished at theatres>
I really wanted to play along with this. I wore pink, I already liked several songs from the soundtrack, my girlfriend had shared her fond memories of making clothing for her Barbie.
It could have worked as a music-video style film with lots of laughs and a feminist subtext.
But, firstly the laughs are too thin. America Ferrera has virtually zero comic lines, Ferrell mostly falls flat, it all falls to Ryan Gosling. He tries really hard, and lands a couple of jokes, but far too much of the humor is just crazy outfits and making faces.
The feminist stuff is too much, too overt. Subtext it is not. It hits you over the head again and again throughout the film, almost all of the dialogue…characters facing the camera and just directly drilling out a message.
If it were one of the first female empowerment films, then that would be great, but it’s not the first or fifty-first, and I think other movies have done it better.
Before anyone flames me, if you enjoyed the film, if your 9-year old daughter enjoyed it, great. Most of the critics apparently agree with her / you. I’m just giving my opinion.
Actually, we’ve already got a thread.
Huh, I saw that thread but thought it hadn’t been updated since last year.
Sorry.
Can someone merge this please 
It was last posted to 4 days ago.
I thought it was a fun, quirky, worthwhile flick myself. But not as good as Oppenheimer.
I think Barbie was pretty successful. To the tune of $1.3 billion worldwide successful. To the tune of highest grossing movie for Warner Bros. successful. To the tune of wiping the floor with Mission: Impossible and Indiana Jones couldn’t get any traction successful. A lot of people like it and not just females. Despite all the naysayers, it’s succeeded anyway. And it’s not really like any other movie that’s ever been made. That’s what I call success. It could beach you off anytime.