I’m not going to keep you in suspense… I loved the Barbie movie!
I’m a big fan of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling and watched countless press interviews before finally going to the cinema for the first time in a year to see it. With my sister. Dressed in hot pink. Obviously.
My last trip was to see Thor: Love and Thunder, in case you were wondering.
She wasn’t quite as enthusiastic as I was to see it, but ended up loving it too.
Why? Because it’s hilarious and empowering, and everyone plays their parts brilliantly. It also looks amazing. From the Barbie Dreamhouses and the Mojo Dojo Casa House to the outfits and the accessories, it’s a feast for the eyes. And the ears.
Director and co-writer Greta Gerwig used diverse influences to create the shots, from An American in Paris (1951), Singin’ in the Rain (1952) and The Wizard of Oz (1939) to The Red Shoes (1948), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), and 2001: A Space Odyssey(1968). The cast was invited to Sunday cinema sessions to watch these movies while filming, helping to create the bonds you see on screen.
I wanted to see Barbie on the big screen due to the incredible set design and huge Gene-Kelly-esque dance sequences. I wasn’t disappointed!
But back to the main point. I knew what to expect and I think some of the negative reactions to the film were due to thinking it was a kid’s film, probably where Barbie and Ken get married and live happily ever after.
Spoiler alert! That was never going to happen.
The film’s underlying message is that it’s okay not to fit an ideal, and we all need to work out who we are as individuals before we can hope for a meaningful relationship. That being a human being is messy and painful, but can be beautiful and joyous too. And we are all ‘Kenough!’
Barbie telling Ken she’s sorry for the way she treated him and that he needs to work out ‘who Ken is without being part of Barbie & Ken’ has somehow been construed as anti-men.
Some men (and women) are also upset that the Kens are portrayed as ‘dumb’ and as extensions of the Barbies. Which was, of course, the only reason Ken was invented.
The irony that women have been portraying characters with zero substance as extensions of male protagonists for decades is utterly lost on them.
Ryan Gosling playing Ken has confused and irrationally angered quite a lot of men. Men have a complex relationship with Gosling. He helped them get laid in the mid-00s when ‘Notebooking’ became a verb. And he’s ‘Cool as F**K’ in Drive. He’s also happily married to ‘uber babe’ Eva Mendes. But he’s a self-confessed feminist, a girl dad who sings and dances and dedicates awards to the women in his life. And now he’s ‘Just Ken’.
The idea that he not only accepted the role but has embraced his Ken persona across the huge press tour baffles and angers them.
They lack Gosling’s confidence and security in his masculinity. Which, by the way, is a large part of why he’s so attractive to women, despite not being as conventionally handsome as many of his peers.
When casting was announced, I did think Ryan Gosling was miscast. Partly due to his age (42 at the time of writing), but mostly because Hollywood and certainly TV-land is full of guys that look more like a Ken doll.
But this movie needed Ryan Gosling. Only an actor (and singer) of his calibre could deliver lines like ‘…live and die a life of blonde fragility’ with not only a straight face but an extraordinary amount of emotion.
It’s very telling that I’ve barely mentioned any of the Barbies or women in this review until now.
Margot Robbie is a joy to watch, imbuing her ‘stereotypical Barbie’ with creeping insecurities and a gradual awareness. The scene with the old lady on the bench is beautiful.
Kate McKinnon’s ‘Weird Barbie’ is another highlight. The diversity of the Barbies and Kens is pleasing to see and America Ferrera’s real-world mother and Mattel designer, Gloria, feels like a friend. Helen Mirren is the perfect wry narrator and Rhea Perlman plays Barbie creator Ruth Handler warts and all.
Michael Cera also puts in a standout performance as the discontinued (and desperate to escape) Allan.
But Gosling steals every scene he’s in because he commits 100% to the role. And yes, the movie pokes fun at the Kens for their take on what it means to be a man but, frankly, the scene with the guitars on the beach hit home with a lot of women.
Women have apparently been leaving their partners because of Barbie The Movie. I find that hard to believe. I’d suggest women have been leaving their partners due to realising that being ‘alone’ is better than staying with someone they no longer want to be with. A comment made about the movie may have been the last straw, but it’s unlikely to have been the reason.
The ‘betrayal’ of Gosling playing Ken is compounded by wrestler John Cena and Marvel stars Simu Liu and Kingsley Ben-Adir playing Kens and Will Ferrel playing the Mattel CEO.
These guys didn’t take these roles because of a lack of options. They wanted to be part of something they knew was going to be huge. And they were secure enough to ham it up in ridiculous costumes, led by Gosling.
But that is unacceptable to a certain kind of man.
When I wrote that I hated Batman vs. Superman, men on the Internet rushed to tell me I didn’t understand its genius. *Eye roll. I understood it perfectly, the plot was moronic and poorly executed on every level. But that’s just my opinion.
So I’m not going to say anyone who disliked the Barbie movie didn’t understand it. Different strokes for different folks. It’s a specific kind of humour and, yes, there is a lot of pink.
But If you came out of Barbie thinking it’s ‘misandrist 4th-wave feminism propaganda’, well, you have issues!
Some of the comments I’ve read are downright unhinged.
The point is that the patriarchy is harmful to men too. As soon as they come to power, the Kens turn on each other and war is declared in Barbieland. An unbalanced matriarchy is shown not to work either. There’s a tongue-in-cheek comment that the Kens will eventually have the same amount of power and respect in Barbieland as women do in the real world.
If you don’t believe we still live in a patriarchy (sorry to burst your bubble, but we do) then this comment appears to confirm the imagined misandry of the movie.
As adult women who live in the real world with all of its joys and problems, my sister and I both chuckled.
You don’t have to like Barbie The Movie. You can even trash it without having seen it – weird, but you do you, boo. But you can’t deny that this billion-dollar movie is speaking to a lot of people, and most seem to like what it has to say.
I’m off to listen to the Barbie soundtrack, again, bye Barbies!
Five Stars
BruntonElle Blog 
I went to watch it for barbie nostalgia as I was a 80’s/90’s child and love a bit of pink! However I was pleasantly suprised with it’s message and I left feeling motivated that I’m a successful single female with my own business!
Well said Elle 👏 xx