"Barbie" - Film Review
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, Barbie wouldn't exist.
Life in plastic isn’t so fantastic in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. Gerwig and her writing partner, Noah Baumbach, introduce the audience to the dreamy, perfectly pink world of Barbieland. Everything is flawless, the Barbies and Kens happily coexist, and every night is girls’ night. At the center of Barbieland is, unsurprisingly, Barbie (Margot Robbie), the most stereotypical version of the iconic doll possible. Of course she’s not the only Barbie. There’s Midge (Emerald Fennell), the pregnant Barbie, President Barbie (Issa Rae), Physicist Barbie (Emma Mackey), Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), and hundreds more. There’s also Ken (Ryan Gosling). His happiness depends completely on whether or not Stereotypical Barbie looks his way.
Happiness is something taken for granted in Barbieland. It’s simply the status quo. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow are all the best days ever. At least that’s the way things are until, in the middle of an epic dance party, Barbie experiences her first existential crisis. This sets her off on a journey to The Real World with Ken to try to understand her sadness. It’s there that she meets a mother and daughter duo (America Ferrera & Ariana Greenblatt) who teach her just how different The Real World is from Barbieland. While Barbie learns that things in The Real World aren’t perfect, Ken stumbles onto a notion that doesn’t exist in Barbieland: the patriarchy.
warner bros.
The heart of Barbie is obviously Robbie. While most critics are already engraving Gosling’s name onto the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, it’s Robbie who deserves to be at the top of all the early award lists. Physically, she is Barbie, but Robbie’s ability to take this plastic doll and create a performance full of heart is breathtaking. Barbie is Barbie’s coming-of-consciousness story. Robbie’s delivery of “Do you guys ever think about dying?” while in the middle of an all-out dance party, wearing a sparkly dress with big ’80s hair perfectly exemplifies the duality of this film. Barbie’s loss of perfection is terrifying to her. She doesn’t want to know the truth about humans, she doesn’t want to learn about sadness, anxiety, depression, loneliness, or harassment. When given a choice, most people would prefer to stay in their Dream House, but at the heart of Barbie is an attempt to understand and make things better. Achieving perfection is impossible, but Barbie is trying to change things.
warner bros.
Gerwig, and Baumbach to a much lesser extent, has built her career on the stories of women. In her time as a director, she’s adapted Little Women, one of the most famous novels of all time, and created Lady Bird, loosely inspired by her own childhood. In that regard, Barbie is the perfect film for Gerwig to tackle. She takes a plastic doll and injects it with life, everything that’s good and bad about it. Both Little Women and Lady Bird feel earnest and truthful about the experiences of women. Barbie does too, but it doesn’t have the same gut punch as her previous work. There are moments that break through and deliver that signature Gerwig style. One scene in particular comes early in Barbie’s time in The Real World. She sits at a park bench next to an older woman (two-time Oscar-winning Ann Roth) and the two exchange some words. It’s a scene that the movie could exist without in terms of plot, but it’s essential to the film’s message. It’s also a scene Gerwig had to fight tooth and nail to keep in the movie.
warner bros.
If that scene, innocuous as it is, nearly made it to the cutting room floor, what was actually left behind? Barbie is partially funded by Mattel, the toy company that created the Barbie doll decades ago, and it’s a Warner Bros. picture. Gerwig and Baumbach likely didn’t have the same creative freedom they did when they wrote their original films that weren’t tied to existing intellectual property. However, Gerwig also didn’t have anywhere near the size of Barbie’s budget. Little Women cost $40 million and Lady Bird was $10 million. Miniscule in comparison to Barbie’s $150 million. This budget allowed her to create a truly stunning Barbieland with old-Hollywood, forced-perspective dioramas, an eccentric Ken-centric dream ballet a la Singin’ in the Rain, and costumes that should sweep the awards this season. Gerwig also managed to create an accessible film about the effects of the patriarchy on women, gender equality, and freedom of expression, while being funny the entire time. It’s a feat that shouldn’t be overlooked. Given the involvement of a massive studio and an iconic toy company, Gerwig got away with far more than most IP films have. Barbie’s existence is a miracle at this time in movie history.
“That felt achey, but good,” Barbie says when a tear escapes her eye for the first time in her life. That’s life as a human. The impossibility of perfection gives way to an ache in the soul about the beauty of existence and its doomed fleetingness. Mary Shelley wrote in Frankenstein, “Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.” That is the essence of Barbie and the essence of life itself.
Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Letterboxd, and YouTube.