[Film Review] Barbie (2023)

As the world is caught up in “Barbie mania”, here in Italy, Yours Truly watched it in a sell-out screening with original version (don’t let me start on the ubiquitous movie-dubbing business here), a veritable rarity to bear out that cinema is not going anywhere when creative ingenuity can prevail over capitalistic avarice.

First things first, Gerwig’s manufactured “Barbie Land” harks back to Golden-Age Hollywood’s plasticity of the first order, bright-colored, infectiously adorable and exquisitely pristine, the whole set is a manifestation to the allure and intricacy of the mechanical craftsmanship coaxing with props, mattes and lightings, an antidote to the flimsy artificiality of the prevalent CGI technology, which is often under-lit, sleek without substance, and sometimes flagrantly feels false and hollow. In contradistinction to that, the plasticity in BARBIE is advisedly overdrawn to fabricate a pink matriarchal utopia, immortal, prime-time girls running the world while muscular guy candies just “beach”.

However, some glitches in her perfect specimen (“Barbie feet goes flat”! “cellulite”! “the thought of mortality”!) oblige Barbie (Robbie), more specifically, “Stereotypical Barbie”, to enter the real world, with her boyfriend Ken (Gosling), more specifically, “Beach Ken”, tagging along. It is an eye-opening adventure where their preconceptions are going to be shattered, arrests implemented more than once, and the top-tier members of Mattel, Inc. (the manufacturer of Barbie and Ken fashion toys) are alerted (spearheaded by its CEO, played by a goofy, totally non-threatening Will Farrell), in the event, a cat-and-mouse chase will bring humans and more merry-making into Barbie Land. While Barbie empathizes with the scourge that tramples upon women in the real world, Ken delights in the discovery of real horse and in a lesser extent, patriarchy. He manages to bring it (the patriarchy, not the horse) into Barbie Land, and plans a coup with other neglected Kens to overthrow the gynarchy, and successfully relegate most of the Barbies into submissive roles, a switcheroo to mirror the real world.

Audience can rest assured that no major battle of sex is down the line since Kens can not hold a candle to Barbies when it comes to mind games, the way to deprogram brainwashed Barbies is some well-intentioned ribbings of typical male behavior. After all, Kens are simple-minded, lost in their customarily objectified parameters and only need some wake up call to seek their self-worth instead of being “just Ken”, an adjunct to their Barbies. Using the gender switch, Gerwig and Baumbach’s script has its own way to be effectively heuristic instead of didactic, and its boffolas never fail to hit home.

Finally, on account of a beatific cameo by Rhea Perlman (whom, in a perfect world, a Margaret Atwood biopic should cast in a jiffy), Barbie has a choice between the two worlds, and Gerwig assures that the final scene amusingly knocks itself out of park, Barbie is, before anything else, a woman. BARBIE is an instant feministic classic, yet without being even remotely misandrist, the members of the sterner sex can also be eased into its candy-striped fun, hilarity and profound humanity, let mythopoetic flow run through them like a teasing caress.

Robbie is an incomparable class act who interprets Barbie’s simplicity and cocooned ingenuousness in earnest, and her comedic chops never miss a beat, which is, in part, due to an equally phenomenal sparring partner. Gosling is a godsend to play Ken, a superficial, inane character whom any less charismatic actor can reduce to a thoroughgoing ridicule or a bore, but not Gosling, whose untapped facility of mugging, reacting, dancing and singing greatly enlivens the supposed weak link and secures Ken an equal footing in the story. Among the supporting cast, America Ferrara’s full-hearted delivery about how difficult to be a woman is immeasurably quotable and reverberating; Simu Liu is a gas as a rivaling Ken whose smirk is here to stay; Kate McKinnon’s weird Barbie is a droll invention and last but not the least, Michael Cera’s Allan, a scene-stealing foil who is hurt for more screen time.

From its opening homage to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968), right until the cosmic space where Barbie having a heart-to-heart with the spirit of her creator, Gerwig’s BARBIE is ambitious in its message, fetching in its design and totally accessible in its humor, a combo that very possibly, is the best offering Hollywood could ever concoct to take the derogative whiff out of a “chick flick”, now they can laugh all the way to the bank, could any of the lucre be put into good use in mending the fences with the striking writers and actors, that is anybody’s guess?

referential entries: Greta Gerwig’s LITTLE WOMEN (2019, 8.3/10); Damien Chazelle’s BABYLON (2022, 7.8/10).

Title: Barbie

Year: 2023

Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy

Country: USA, UK

Language: English, Spanish

Director: Greta Gerwig

Screenwriters: Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach

Music: Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt

Cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto

Editor: Nick Houy

Cast:

Margot Robbie

Ryan Gosling

America Ferrara

Ariana Greenblatt

Kate McKinnon

Simu Liu

Michael Cera

Issa Rae

Will Ferrell

Kingsley Ben-Adir

Alexandra Shipp

Scott Evans

Emma Mackey

Ncuti Gatwa

Hari Nef

Sharon Rooney

Rhea Perlman

Connor Swindells

Jamie Demetriou

Emerald Fennell

Dua Lipa

John Cena

Helen Mirren

Ritu Arya

Nicola Coughlan

Ana Cruz Kayne

Ann Roth

Rob Brydon

Tom Stourton

Lucy Boynton

Annie Mumolo

Ryan Piers Williams

Rating: 8.2/10