This is a spoiler review for Warner Bros. Pictures’ Barbie movie – directed by Greta Gerwig.
It is a visually stunning movie, and surprisingly such a deeper thought-provoking story than I expected it to be; than just characters acting like dolls that are only goofing off around a pink set.
Barbie is a self-aware, feminist and somewhat melancholy film covered in pink and dazzled with impressive musical segments.
The film explores a lot of socio-political issues, with the messages being very literal, as well as making it unequivocally apparent, that the ‘real world’ is a parallel to Barbie Land, filled heavily with the influences of capitalism, creeps, and misery mixed in with some joy.
Margot Robbie’s performance is fantastic as Barbie; she has some character development in the story, when she’s forced to go through psychological and physical changes in Barbie Land that’s no longer perfect. This sets her on a path of self-discovery, and film does a decent job with having her being confronted by the real world.
It looks like the film has made all of the men either desperate, creepy or completely foolish through most of it. They didn’t appear to have hardly any redeeming qualities… even during the police scenes. The women being brainwashed and manipulated by the Kens was odd as well. Could this actually be an intentional message in the film; to teach boys how not to be?
Upon looking at the character Ken (Ryan Gosling), he is just struggling as much as Barbie; he gets his self-reflection, an empowering musical number and confronting a parallel scene with Barbie.
I did also enjoy the ‘Kenergy’ that Gosling brought to the role, he did a wonderful job in his performance alongside Ncuti Gatwa and Simu Liu.
There are insecurities explored from both sides of the Barbies and Kens, as well as the human characters played by America Ferrera and Arianna Greenblatt.
They built these two human characters fairly well. The daughter is dealing with teen-angst and is unhappy with the history of Barbie dolls, that had an influence on her mother growing up.
A need to bring these two closer together again is a part that’s driving the plot forward for the most part.
Not all of the logic behind Barbie Land made too much sense, as it’s sort of it’s own reality that you need a portal to get to, and then there’s also the doll counterpart in the real world that they are somehow connected to.
However, the film makes multiple attempts to explain that it’s due to human imagination bringing all of Barbie Land and the ‘dolls’ in it to life.
Although, there was a lot going on, when they kept adding more layers to the film, especially with the spiritual/magical aspect and things changing that affects the real world and vice-versa.
The movie also has very dated humour, sexism and some raunchy innuendos for the adults watching. Michael Cera was funny as Allan.
Visuals
The Barbie Land sets look fantastic; made to look like plastic toy houses on a life-size scale. From props to fashion, there’s incredible research, that has been put into bringing this world to life. The colourful pantone cinematography looks beautiful!
A scene transition that’s a nice touch; was an edit of overlaying the disco ball during a dance sequence, and then the disco ball changes into the moon.
In addition to the spectacular set changes between travelling from Barbie Land to the real world.
Music
Music in the film has been utilized extremely well, especially the song Pink by Lizzo in the beginning, that describes Barbie’s actions and predicament. Also created in a way that sounds like a toy advert jingle.
The ‘I’m just Ken‘ song is so catchy, and Ryan Gosling’s voice is incredible, combined with such stylized choreography! Multiple tempo and beat changes in the song just works so well.
Tame Impala’s Neverending Story style song titled ‘Journey to the Real World‘, was short but sweet.
Along with Billie Eillish’ melancholy song What Was I Made For?
Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt’s motion picture soundtracks for the movie sound wonderful, especially: Bus Stop Billie and Meeting Ruth.
Helen Mirren’s narrations were great in the beginning, and then became distracting when she literally mentioned the name Margot Robbie over a scene, where Barbie is discussing her own looks. No idea why they chose to somewhat break the 4th wall like that.
Final Thoughts
The dance choreography and music was really entertaining to watch, and there’s no doubt that Greta Gerwig brought on the best cast for this film. The plot was filled with a lot of mixed messages.
A tonal shift in the final act, kind of took me out of the film, with that eerie spiritual Pinocchio storyline. It’s presented with beautiful music from Billi Eillish, and is emotionally moving but it was also quite strange compared to the rest of the film, apart from another scene during an escape.
Barbie’s intentions and choices are all over the place until the very end.
Will Ferrell’s character at Mattel, also felt quite wasted in the film at the end, there was really no point with them being in Barbie Land.
Are there any post credit scenes in Barbie?
There are no credit scenes at all yet. However, there will be post-credit footage for the new IMAX re-release on September 22, 2023.
Check out the Official trailer here:
Barbie stars a large ensemble cast; Margot Robbie, Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Mackey, Hari Nef, Sharon Rooney, Ryan Gosling, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Kingsley Ben-Adir America Ferrera, Ariana Greenblatt, Michael Cera, Rhea Perlman, Helen Mirren, Will Ferrel and more.
