Image Credit: Warner Bros.
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Greta Gerwig toys with a classic to impressive effect. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite and Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite
Barbie has been on screen before –– she and Ken were both amusingly animated by Pixar for the Toy Story movies, and there is a raft of straight-to-video titles of varying quality.
But thanks to Greta Gerwig, the filmmaker behind the likes of Lady Bird and Little Women, we now have a new high-water mark for the use of a classic property. Barbie is a film of endless invention, charm, smarts and humour.
We’re introduced to the main Barbie, “Stereotypical Barbie”, played by Margot Robbie in her Barbie world doing her Barbie thing. In Barbie’s world, women can be anything, and they are –– Supreme Court judges, pilots, doctors, and more. They’re all unique, but their world is also the fake plastic existence of toys: Barbie’s shower doesn’t have water (though she acts like it does) and everything is pink.
The Kens, meanwhile (most notably embodied by Ryan Gosling’s blond beach bum version) are just afterthoughts, existing because of their connection to the Barbies. But when Robbie’s Barbie starts to have worrying thoughts of death, she’s launched on a quest to discover what is really going on, one that will challenge her notions of existence and see her visit the Real World.
A movie like this might more commonly be pumped out as a believe-in-yourself adventure for kids, one where there are goofy gags and endearing sidekicks. Gerwig and co-writer/partner Noah Baumbach have much more on their minds, offering up a meditation on the patriarchy, life, culture and how women have to contort themselves to fit the world’s ever-evolving expectations.
Which is not to say this is a lecture. The film is also fantastically entertaining, with Robbie at the height of self-aware charm and Gosling fully committed to his goofy, vulnerable character. And the rest of the cast is right there with them –– from Simu Liu and Kingsley Ben-Adir as other Kens, Michael Cera as Allan, “Ken’s friend”, (of whom there is only one) to Issa Rae as President Barbie. In the real world, America Ferrera as stressed single mother Gloria and Ariana Greenblatt as sulky teen Sasha, who drive the story there, are more than just their character descriptions would suggest.
The only minor issue? A less-than-compelling subplot about the Mattel corporation (led by a wacky CEO played by Will Ferrell, who comes across as a version of his character in The LEGO Movie), which could largely have been excised without affecting the rest of the movie.
Barbie is a remarkable achievement, and at times hilarious too. Gerwig had already established herself as a filmmaker of skill and nuance, and with this, she makes the leap to another level. Go Barbie, go party.
Barbie is in UK and US cinemas now.