For Mattel’s Barbie, “You can be anything.” In Writer and Director Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Margot Robbie who plays Barbie touchingly cries. “I’m not good enough to be anything…” At times, Greta’s Barbie is literally all over the place, whether in Barbie Land or in the Real World. In the vibrant pastel musical sleepovers or the Mattel Board Room drama with CEO, played by Will Farrell. Still, Greta Gerwig’s big heart is always in the right place. Margot Robbie is her North Star. As the iconic Barbie, Margot is stunningly beautiful, authentic, whimsical, and bravely vulnerable. Like Greta, she’s all heart, too. Their Barbie is imperfectly perfect. Just saying.
In Writers Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s narrative, Barbie exists in Barbie Land and in the Real World. According to Weird Barbie, played by hysterical iconoclast Kate McKinnon, the nexus between the two worlds is the little girls, who played with Barbie. “And the twain shall never meet.” At least sort of. Weird Barbie embodies the worn hand-me-down Barbies in the Real World.
Diverse Barbies run Barbie Land. Barbie is the African American President, played by the strong, beautiful Issa Rae. She’s a Nobel Prize Winner and a plus-sized woman. Brilliantly bold and chiseled Ryan Gosling plays Barbie’s boyfriend Ken. Barbie and Ken are dolls. They have no genitals and, thus, no sex. In Barbie Land, there is no Ken without Barbie. Ken is merely an accessory to Barbie, much like a pair of high heels. Handsome, charming Simu Liu plays rival Ken for Barbie’s good graces. Although Ryan’s Ken is madly in love with Margot’s Barbie, she is not in love with Ken. Their tragic design.
Ironically, all Barbies are sublimely imperfect, but all Kens are perfect looking: tall and handsome rocking their six-pack abs. Maybe that wasn’t intentional on Greta’s behalf, yet that’s transparently purposeful. Just saying.
In the middle of her disco ball-choreographed dance number, Barbie asks, “Do you guys ever think about dying?” Suddenly, jaw-dropping silence. Barbie instantly dismisses it as ‘never mind’. Barbie undergoes her own transformation. Her feet are flat, no longer with the arc for her high heels. OMG, she’s got cellulite, too.
Barbie consults with Weird Barbie, Barbie Land’s resident oracle of sorts. Weird Barbie says that her transformation is the effect of the rift from her doll owner in the Real World. She’s Sasha, played by smart, spirited Ariana Greenblatt. Strong compassionate America Ferrera plays Sasha’s mother Gloria, who’s a toy designer at Mattel. Barbie reluctantly agrees to resolve her relationship with Sasha (really her connection to Gloria) in the Real World. The trip to the Real World is arduous by car, by snowmobile, by boat all the way to Los Angeles. Predictably, Ken stows away in Barbie’s pink convertible.
In her true heart, Barbie believed that she was created to empower young girls so that they can be anything they want to be. Sasha harshly enlightens Barbie that she only causes suffering. Barbie with her statuesque figure and long legs only perpetuates an unattainable standard of beauty. Barbie may have set back women’s equality in the workplace by decades.
Margot’s Barbie cries for the first time. She just didn’t know. The Real World is not Barbie Land. Ken tells Barbie, “Everything is reversed.” While rollerblading in coordinated neon outfits in Venice Beach, some dude physically disrespects Barbie. She knocks him on his ass. For the first time in her life, Barbie suffers from being a sex object. Now, Barbie lives in the sexist patriarchy of the Real World. Not surprisingly, Ken sees merit in that for him and all of the Kens. He establishes patriarchy in Barbie Land for the greater good, his good.
In the moving narrative arc, America Ferrera is eloquent and heartfelt in Gloria’s speech on the challenging contradiction that women reconcile in society. One downside of Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s screenplay is Will Ferrell’s Mattel CEO trying to get Barbie back into the box for the corporate bottom line. That’s just ridiculous. Still, Will is at his exasperated deadpan best.
In the bigger picture, Barbie isn’t about man-hating. I believe that Greta Gerwig’s narrative poignantly asks: Are you an accessory in someone’s life? Being an accessory can be more devaluing than being objectified. Just saying. You have to value yourself first. You have to love yourself, too
In the tearful narrative arc, Barbie meets her creator Ruth, played by kind, wise Rhea Perlman. In her mind, Barbie envisions the mothers, the daughters, the women, and the girls in her sphere of influence. She sincerely says, “I just want to make meaning…” That lands sublimely. Billie Eilish sings in her beautiful song, “What was I made for?” That’s what Barbie was made for. We all want to make meaning. Having meaningful lives. That’s what we’re made for. Just saying. Barbie is one of the best movies of the year. One of my favorite movies of the year, too.
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Watch the official trailer here:
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Photo credit: Shutterstock, modified