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“You know I’m artificial. Don’t put the blame on me. I was reared with
appliances in a consumer society,”
These great lines which were in a song by the punk band, X Ray Spex explore the
same exact themes as the Barbie film and it raises some of the same questions
about the construction of female identity in our society and capitalism. Like
the subject/narrator of the song, Barbie is initially shallow, but she realizes
the fact, and she eventually she shows a capacity for growth and reinvention.
But the movie is contradictory because it criticizes the commoditization of
female beauty at the same time it exploits the doll with a perfect body image.
If traditional Barbie with her perfect appearance is so bad for female
self-esteem, then should we really be seeing a movie that celebrates her? The
traditionally attractive Margo Robbie’s face and body are still being used to
sell the film.
Barbie is a phenomenally successful fantasy film based on a Mattel toy doll
which unexpectedly shattered many box office records. The film has generated
over 1.4 billion dollars in revenue, and it has gone on to be the
biggest grossing film of the year. I also would not be surprised if it got
some Oscar nominations especially in the technical categories, but as much as I
like it, I don’t think it has enough depth to deserve a Best Picture nomination.
The film was directed by Greta Gerwig who is a fine Indy film actress (see
Greenberg and Frances Ha). She is also a talented film maker who directed the
delightful Lady Bird (2012) and the sophisticated Little Women (2019) both of
which received Oscar nominations and places on many critics’ top ten lists (I
don’t think Barbie ever rises to that level). And the script was co-written by
her and her husband-fellow Indy great, Noam Baumbach, who is known for doing The
Squid and the Whale (2016), and
Marriage Story
(2019).
Barbie is a fine vehicle for the comedic talents of Margot Robbie who makes a
perfect Barbie (to distinguish her from the other dolls in the film I will call
her stereotypical Barbie), although the script makes her jump back and forth
from being an idiot to a near genius. Robbie starred as Harley Quinn in three
films (two Suicide Squad films and
Harley
Quinn: Birds of Prey), but her best work was in I Tonya (2006), Bombshell (2022)
and the underrated Babylon (2022). She also was surprisingly memorable in small
roles in the male centered
Wolf of Wall Street (2013) and
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). She has been in a few mediocre films, but she has never, to my
knowledge, been bad in a film and her mere presence was enough to elevate some
blah films (like the first
Suicide Squad).
Barbie succeeds in creating a totally believable fictional fantasy universe and
it has top notch set design, cinematography, and costumes. Much of the credit
must go with the brilliant Mexican born, Robert Prieto who is best known for his
great work in Alejandro Gonzales’s Amores Perros (2000) and 21 Grams (2003). It
is largely because of his efforts that Barbie is a runner up for the title
(along with
Asteroid City) of best-looking film of the year. In its own way Barbi’s fictional house is impressive as the home in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and
the factory in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. But although Barbie has
great visuals, the script is not quite as impressive, and it has a muddled
political message and unsatisfying ending.
The film attempts to make us question traditional notions of beauty, look-ism
and body image (one-character calls stereotypical Barbie a bimbo and a menace to
feminism), but it doesn’t really do much to challenge them. We’re supposed to
see the body image ideal of Robbie’s Barbie as unrealistic and unhealthy, yet
all the ethnic characters (like the one played by America Ferrera and Ariana
Greenblatt) and the weird, quirky girl (played by SNL graduate Kate McKinnon
which don’t fulfill the traditional requirements of female beauty are still
regulated to the sidelines as sidekicks. Also, should a film get points just for
addressing a problem in representation at the same time it does nothing to
change it?
One of the film’s early shots depicts a rather heavy-handed and obvious parody
of 2001; A Space Odyssey which instead of depicting the first murder with a bone
as a weapon shows a bunch of girls destroying their baby dolls and in doing so
rebelling against the notion of motherhood or at least the limited options
available for women of the time. Well, that’s my take anyway. In a Helen Mirren
voice over, we are told that the development of Barbie allowed for more options
in terms of role models (such as Barbie President and Barbie Astronaut.)
The film is a meta movie (like Pleasantville or The Truman Show although not as
brilliant) which comments on and satirizes aspects of fictional tropes
(especially the worlds girls construct in their imaginations for Barbie) as well
as gender stereotypes, The film begins in a meta-fictional town of Barbie land
which satirizes the artificial perfect world of the fictional Barbie. In this
world females are the center of everything (as stereotypical Barbie says the
Kens are superfluous) and it shows the limitations of this kind of existence.
Like real Barbie's they drink from cups with no liquid, and they lack certain
real female body parts like vaginas.
Things are not as perfect as they seem and it becomes apparent that
Stereotypical Barbie and her owner have a symbiotic relationship when the
negative feeling of her unknown owner begins to bleed into the doll, and the
stereotypical Barbie suddenly gains a fear of death. She runs off with Ken as a
stowaway and goes on a journey of self-discovery to see what lies behind her
limited world view.
She consults with a weird Barbie (played well by Kate McKinnon who allegedly
based her character on David Bowie) with a punky short haircut and face tattoos
(She is sour and damaged because she was played with too hard.) She is the one
who sends stereotypical Barbie on a quest to find her owners and if she helps
them overcome their negative feelings, she might help herself.
Stereotypical Barbie soon meets two minority doll owners (a mom and daughter
played by America Ferrara and Ariana Greenblatt) who both have self-esteem
problems which may have been exasperated by the too perfect Barbie doll ideal of
physical beauty. The mom (ironically) is a Mattel salesman who is neglected and
discriminated against by her fake feminist employer, the CEO of the company
(played by Will Ferrell.).
In Dostoevsky’s Dreams of a Ridiculous Man there is an apparently perfect world
which is ruined because a real flawed person from our world enters it and
corrupts it. Something similar happens here after Ken gets out into the
real-world, Gosling’s Ken discovers the idea of patriarchy, and it sounds pretty
good to him, so he brings it back to Barbie-land. With the help of the other
Ken's (who are all "himbo's") he sets up a male dominated society before Barbie
gets back. In this male utopia (which is a dystopia for females) men lounge
around in white clothes while beautiful women serve them at all hours.
The big conflict occurs when Barbie must race back to the Barbie-verse and then
decide whether to do back to her feminist mock utopia or find some halfway
measure that will please both genders. But in order for her plan to work every
male Ken has to be extremely ignorant (Or are they just satirizing males as they
are seen in the doll world?) And the only male who is not a complete moron is
the effeminate and presumably queer Michael Sera, In the end, the film is far
better at raising questions about gender or challenging patriarchy than actually
offering solutions.
Hollywood has been learning the wrong lessons from the film since it's premiere
this summer. The film did
really well at the box office not just because of marketing but also because the film feels fresh in its approach to
a female subject. That and and there is a huge amount of inventiveness involved in it.
But instead of offering us more fresh films that are a bit different or female
centered films, Hollywood execs have decided that what we need more are many
more films that exploit toy brands. They have already green-lit Hot Wheels
(produced by J. J. Abrams), American Girl, Rock Em, Sock Em Robots, and ten or so
other toy-based films. Looking ahead it may turn out that video game-based films
may no longer be the worst genre.
You would think with married male and female screenplay writers you would end up
with a film in which men and women can actually get along in harmony and
equality, but this really doesn’t happen. Like many modern films the film seems
to imply that the peaceful and equal coexistence of males and females is
difficult or nearly impossible. Although the film is quite dazzling to the eye
it is more style than substance. This is a good movie worth checking out but not
a deep groundbreaking masterpiece.
I know the film struck a huge chord and hit part of a zeitgeist, pleasing
a huge young female demographic. Also, it was astonishing how
good the film was considering it was based on a toy. But I found it more
successful as a piece of entertainment and eye candy (and it does look
marvelous) than as a social commentary or political treatise.
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